Your Task for the Day: Poetry Your Poem Must Include:

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Your Task for the Day PoetryYour Poem Must
Include

• What was good about the economy in the 1920s?
• How did consumers behave?
• Effects of the automobile.
• What are some red flags - areas of concern?

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A Booming Economy

• But Watch Out for the Hidden Issues!

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Gross National Product (GNP)

• Total value of all goods and services in a
  country

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GNP in the 1920s
100
75
GNP in Billions of
50
1930
1920
1925
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Technology Advances

• As electricity replaces steam, production costs
  drop
• Scientific Management - People began to study
  efficiency (Fords assembly line)
• Mass Production - made identical products in
  larger numbers
• Companies produce more and more, faster and faster

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Consumers Go Shopping

• By 1920, 60 of homes have electricity
• People buy electrical goods
• Durable goods - products expected to last a
  number of years (cars, refrigerators, stoves,
  vacuums)
• Advertising - pushes more products
• Economy doing well, so people buy, buy, buy!

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Buying on Credit

• Stores look for ways to sell more products
• Purchasing on Credit - buy an item and pay in
  installments with interest
• Consumers go into debt, but arent concerned -
  think the economy will always be good!
• Pretty soon, everyone has all the durable goods -
  who do companies sell to then?

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Automobile Age

• 4 million people work in auto industry or related
  fields
• Detroit is the auto capital of the world - Ford,
  Chevy are there
• 5 day - Ford sees assembly line burning up men,
  offers high rates of pay
• Autos effect economy - more cars -gt more roads
  -gtmore Travels -gtmore hotels -gt more restaurants
  -gt more furniture -gt etc.
• More demand for gas, oil, rubber, steel
• Suburbs - cars change where/how people live

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What About Me?

• Many groups are left behind in the 20s
• Farmers suffer from lack of demand after WWI
• RRs and coal miners lose business to cars
• Man-made materials replaces cotton/wool
• Laborers wages dont increase at the same rate
  as inflation
• By 1929, 75 of families have an income below
  2500 (31,500 in todays money - the accepted
  level for a comfortable life)

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Your Poem Must Include

• What was good about the economy in the 1920s?
• How did consumers behave?
• Effects of the automobile.
• What are some red flags - areas of concern?