Description
Instructions: For response 1-2, respond thoughtfully. Just saying “I agree” or “I disagree” does not constitute a thoughtful response. They need to be substantive to promote further discussion, new ideas, or questions and are approximately 150-200 words (1 paragraph) in length. Short comments, such as “Good point,” information not applicable to the historical context of the assigned topic, and non-topic personal interactions do not apply.
1.During the 1920s the rise of consumerism was the idea that Americans should still carry on to buy products and good in crazy numbers. Many people would buy products such as; cars, washing machines, vacuums, sewing machines and radios. With all these products many Americans were eager to purchase them. Since there were so many people purchasing products they had to turn to installment plans. To think back that so many product were being sold so fast should tell us as Americans what we are as people. We see something we must buy it now or save our money in time to buy it. So then people would have commercial of all these hot items in the market. People love to watch tv and most Americans would have at one television in a household. Americans responded to this growth would continue to still buy and buy products. But it wasn’t going to be good for long because people were spending a lot more money than they needs during this time. In time this later contributed in the start of the Great Depression. People during this time were in an amount of debt in America. During this time some people did share the new prosperity but then some didn’t. More than 60 percent of Americans lived below the poverty line. During this time it was not beneficial for farmers, black America’s and immigrants. But for the rich and the wealthy it didn’t affect them they shared and received. Once the Great Depression came about in 1929 the stock market was going to crash. So many America’s banks had failed and unemployment for over 15 million people. At the end of the Great Depression more than 12 million Americans were sent to the military. The war took care of 17 million people that were unemployed and traded debt for unemployment. Overall during this time many things happens to many Americans positively and negatively for all races. If we look back on during the 1920s these things happened for a reason. People went crazy buying all these products and then it back fired. It sounds like a cycle of life but individually. In conclusion everything happens for a reason and we as a nation have learned from 1920s.
2. After the great war movies, the sales of automobiles and retail rose up. Movies became a way for hard working American to “escape from their problems and lose themselves”(scott.2017). Compared to how much a movie ticket cost today, it is nothing compared to the price when the first motion picture was played. For twenty five cents an american was able to enjoy some of their time. Movies became so popular in the United States, millions of Americans started to attend these premieres. More American began to buy cars after Henry Ford made the Model T car more available, reducing his prices with the help of his moving assembly line. The assembly line helps increase production keeping up with the demands of the consumers. Radios became significantly beneficial to advertising, promoting stores and their products. Stores began offering store credit to the many american buying items like washer machine, refrigerator and keeping tools like vacuums. After the war many jobs were hiring and the expectation of a newer generation was set high. Overall money was flowing and so was society. Not many were american were excited and taking advantage of this new modern change like the people living in the rural areas. Their reaction was the use of “religious values” as a defense and rejecting “cultural diversity and equality”(scott.2017). With automobiles and people going out spending money, investing became popular. People began investing in the stock market and it brought what american to thought was “thriving times’ ‘. A Lot has been said about what really caused the stock market to crash, many of them being overconfident and the price being too high. Other arguments say that the government raised its interest rate from “5 percent to 6 percent” just before the huge crash (Marks, history.com). The panic caused by many american worsened the situation, rushing to their banks and retrieving money. Some could not get their money because banks had used them for investment and led to banks shutting down.(Marks, history.com)
