Eisenhower Domestic Policy

Dynamic Conservatism

Control defense expenditure, liberal socially

Southdale Center, Minnesota

Car-bound consumerism, climate controlled, opened 1956, first shopping mall

Levittown, New York

Development of 17k houses, first sold for around 8k with 5% down payment, flatpack houses, only sold to white people

Gum + Mouthwash 1952

Spent $225m on gum and $23m on mouthwash

Poverty Line

20% under the poverty line

Baby market value

Each baby worth $800 to companies, dynamic juvenile market

Suburb population

30% of white americans lived in the suburb - white flight

GNP 1945-60

Rose steadily to approx. $500 billion

Car increase

1950, 5.1 million on US roads. 7.9 million by 1955. 90% of suburban families had at least 1 car by 1960

Minorities

Large population growth for Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, less money on slum clearance, cuts to native reservations, discrimination

Teenagers

New market for businesses due to large spending ability, economic growth meant they were in education longer

Buisness Owners

Rise of pyramid schemes, ie: Tupperware

Credit Cards

1958, American Express began mailing out plastic cards. Sent the poor into debt, but allowed for the m/c to have increased spending power.

Unemployment

Averaged at 2%

Education

Lack of buildings and teachers, lack of funding, attempts to pass legislation to build more in poor areas but congress feared it would only help the segregated south

Minimum Wage

Raised from 75c to $1

Interstate Highway Programme 1956

41k mile road system in partnership w/Canada called St. Lawrence Segway, stimulated the economy, encouraged deterioration of central cities with people moving

Price Controls 1953

All price controls ended by Office of Price Stabilization

Statehoods

Alaska in 1958, Hawaii 1959