1950s economic boom

Capitalism (derogatory)

During the 50s, how did the economy develop overall?

Overall, the economy had grown by 37%

During the 50s the American housing industry boomed. Give examples of how and who benefitted and who didn’t.

Via the development of suburbs. Developments such as Levittown mass produced loads of homes (80,000 in LT’s case) and were very cheap ($8000 for one LT property). However, these new suburbs were often restricted covenants meaning black people could not own houses there.

By 1961 how many McDonald’s locations had Kroc opened?

228

how much of the US population still lived in poverty and how much of the poor lived in the south?

25%

50%

Why was the Indian relocation act of 1956 a failure?

It could not integrate native Americans into mainstream consumerism and give them adequate social security (and took loads of their land off them and forced them into cities).

What did Eisenhower do in 1952 that was one of Truman’s initial goals?

Eisenhower rose minimum wage from Truman’s 75 cents to $1

How had GDP and income risen during this time? (2)

GDP increased from $355 billion to $488 billion by 1960

per capita income rose from $1720 in 1940 to $2699 in 1960

How did families benefit from the boom?

by 1960 the typical American family had 30% more purchasing power