SUMMARY SHEET 1.4
BETTER OFF IN 1960s Homes in 1960s Homeownership rose to 62%
Only 1.7% of houses had no heating at all.
INEQAUALITY
In 1949 the richest 1% controlled 20% of Amercia's wealth.
In 1956 this was 26%.
In 1978 a production worker was paid 12,000 and a CEO was paid 357,000 a year.
Living standards for non white Americans: it was harder for them to get hired and when they did they were paid less.
The average income for a white family was 5,800 and the average for a black family was 3,200.
In 1966 41% of non white Americans were living below the poverty line
When whites moved to suburbs non-whites moved to inner cities.
Inner-city housing was subdivided and rented. Landlords failed to repair housing and they even set fire to houses to claim insurance.
This caused many non-whites to turn to crime.
The housing commissioner Roger Starr adopted policies of planned shrinkage and closed down facilities in cities.
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION
KENNEDY
He proposed the New Frontier policies but he could not implement them before he was shot.
Johnson.
Johnson proposed the Great Society. He set up an independent agency of 130 staff and 960 million.
He suggested that poverty was the enemy and not poor people.
(Congress did reject some of what Johnson tried to pass).
The Great Society was more wider ranging than the new deal.
NIXON
Nixon shifted aid to non-working poor like children and those with disabilities.
He enlarged the food stamp and made federal government administer it.
He linked social benefit payments to inflation.
He offered family planning and advice to the poor.
Nixon emphasised workfare not welfare as he gave poor earned income tax credit.
He rationalised welfare benefits by combining them in the 1970s Family Assistance plan.
(CAPS) community action programmes.
They collected data on poverty and presented projects to solve it.
Carter. 1976
Carter wanted to help both the working and non-working poor without increasing the government deficit.
In 1978 he set up the national consumer co-operative bank to give low interest loans to co-operative consumers. (it lent out more to those in low income areas who would not have been able to start up a business.
The consumer cooperative bank. helped the working poor but not the very poorest because they could not afford to pay back.
Rural Development fund, this gave loans to rural communities to provide the which electrification.
In the last two years Carter introduced tax cuts to manipulate the money supply but they failed.
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Consumer cooperative banks
Rural development loan.
CHANGES IN LEISURE AND TRAVEL
1920s and 1930s lesiure.
In the 1920s and 1930s
Leisure was a luxury for the upper, middle and upper working classes.
Working hours were longer and the Great Depression meant people had less money to spend
LEISURE INDUSTRY 1917-1945
Movie theatres, Stadiums and illegal speakeasies sprang up in towns.
In the 1930s New York had 100s of movie cinemas that ranged from 50 seaters to Luxury Roxy cinemas that seated 5,000.
In North Carolina there were few cinemas.
There was segregation of movie theatres in town, if this was not possible black people had to sit on the balconies.
PARKS AND THEME PARKS
National parks gave people a safe back to nature experience.
Amusement parks competed to give people the biggest thrills, there were also 'kiddie' parks that gave a more gentle ride.
SPECTATOR SPORTS
American football rose ball stadium had been built for 57,000 in 1922 but was then enlarged to 76,000.
spectator sports varied from hockey, boxing, baseball and Westling.
Baseball was the most popular spectator sports.
It was split into minor and major leagues and people wanted to go to the stadium.
The NYC Yankees stadium was built for 53,000 people and it was the most popular team as it had babe ruth.
IMPACT OF THE CAR
Industrial effects- once demand was high for cars factories expanded and employed more workers.
This also opened up a market for spare parts.
The raw materials that were linked with cars also increased in production.
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Associated supplies: petrol was needed in 1929 there were 121,000 filling stations and 216,000 filling stations in 1967.
Mechanics were situated by a filling station
ROADS- In 1917 there was 2.9 million miles of public road and this was 3.6 million in 1980.
In the census in 1980 only 12% did not own a car.
MOBILITY- it allowed better geographical mobility of labour as salesmen could go door to door and reach new customers.
Diners and motels sprang up 56,000 motels in 1958.
Shopping- people could drive further to go to malls eg the Southdale Mall that opened up in 1956 was the first closed air conditioned mall.
Entertainment- drive in restaurants more convenient as families did not have to dress up.
Drive in cinemas.
Drive ins only thrived in warmer places like California.
A CAR A YEAR
In the 1950s the American dream was not only to own a car but to own a car a year.
New models were released with new accessories and performance.
PROBLEMS WITH CARS-
Those who could not afford cars suffered the most as the non-car infrastructure suffered the most as trains were expensive.
Buses such as the 'greyhound' buses were overcrowded.
In the 1970s driving was slow and pollution was high the fuel crisis also took a toll on the car.
IMPACT OF THE PLANE
In 1915 the first single passenger plane took people from st Petersburg to Tampa. 18 miles in 23 min.
Cabins were unpressurised so the max altitude was 10,000 feet.
As smoking was permitted this caused many accidents.
In 1925 the Kelly Act laid out mail routes which would also take passengers. This started to increase the confidence that people had in the planes.
In 1940 the Western Air express carried 1000 times more passengers than 1929
SWW IMPACT ON PLANE
Commercial air travel only took off after the SWW as radars were created that allowed pilots to fly blind and jet engines were created that let them travel at 550mph.
In addition, fuel tanker technology that was discovered in the war was used for the Boeing 707.
However, this increase in air travel was dangerous as in 1956 two planes collided over the Grand Canyon and this led to the set up of ATC.
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WHO BENEFITTED FROM AIR TRAVEL?
Now middle class could travel on planes as well.
Planes were used to commute and in 1970 people could be fed and sleep on planes.
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