American Economy 1940-1950 - Assignment Example

I chose this decade because of the World War II, and I can easily demonstrate how it changed the economy of the American people (Jay 23). This decade was significant in making the United States of America the super power country in the economy and makes the country stable politically, economically, socially, and also, the technology of the country was being developed at a unusually high rate. After the war, the American men, came from war they had seen several events in the outside world. They have seen the importance of education and how education had helped to develop other countries well.

The black people in the United States were then accepted to attend school and further their studies. They were allowed to go to college and acquire degrees and develop their knowledge about things in the continent. At the same time, ladies were also enjoying independence since they did not have to work at home all the time, they were allowed to go to school and acquire education that would then help them to get jobs. This greatly impacted the American economy since more people were learned and things were being done in a more civilized way (Jay 45).

The scrap drives for steel, paper, and rubber became a source of supporting the war in America. In the year, 1942, the automobile production was stopped due to war issues, and the food was rationed in the year1943. As the war continued, several economic trends emerged in the United States; the American troops were gaining experience of the war and they were defeating the enemy troops. Soon United States of America became the super power after the Japanese bombing in 1945. Although still, United States was being challenged and opposed by the USSR still they had the lead of the war, and they had the say about what was to happen.

This in turn, made American people become hard working so that they could afford to manage their status as a leading country in the world. The United States implemented a plan that was called the Marshall plan. The plans main objective was to help the countries that were more affected during the war to regain their economic status and rebuild their country. At the same time, the plan was to help in stabilizing the world economic levels. But, this could not take place since there were disputes that arose over the ideology to rebuild the war torn countries and enhance the status of the world economy.

This then led to the rise of the cold war and the communism (Jay 65). After the American heroes had returned home, they realized the power and prejudice that in turn helped them to civil rights reforms that was to take place in the next decades. The servicemen’s’ readjustment Act ensured that the war soldiers were taken to college, and that they were given quality of education. In the 1949, many degrees were conferred more than 1940. This in turn, meant that, the levels of educated people had risen and that there were more employment opportunities that were created in the country.

This increased the income revenues for the central government and made an impact in the economy of the United States. Television which had made its first break through in the 1939 war issue, but was interrupted by World War II made another come back in 1947. The commercial television had more than thirteen channels and was made public. People started to develop computers in the early forties. The first computer was digital it was called ENIAC and it weighed more than 29 tons