Did all Americans benefit from the boom in the 1920's

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Chavi Littlestone                                                                                                                     Mrs Marks

Did all Americans benefit from the boom in the 1920’s?

The USA had massive industries and had lots of natural recourses. The post First World War boom started for a number of different reasons particularly the rise of new industries and new methods of industrialisation. It led the world in new technologies. It developed technology such as automobiles, telephones, and electrical appliances. America sold to Europe as well as to a domestic market and therefore national wealth grew. Henry Ford’s car plants employed many workers to assemble the cars, and many more were employed in supply industries such as steel, leather, glass and rubber. In addition there were thousands of people working in road construction for the cars to run on. Because of general prosperity many people could now buy products on credit or borrow money from the banks easily. Many of the Americans believed that they had a right to prosper; they wanted to have a nice house, a job and lots of food. People believed that the best way of life was to spend as much money as possible. The First World War also contributed to the boom, other countries who had borrowed money started to pay some of the money they owed with interest. Europe imported goods from America to help build up their own economies.

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The older industries such as coal, leather and textiles didn’t do to well. Coal had competition from oil and electricity which was being used at a bigger rate than coal. Leather and textiles didn’t have much competition from other countries but there was competition from man made materials. Also there was competition from the Southern States were the labourers were paid less for longer hours. The growth of industry made it worse for the ordinary people because they weren’t needed to do they’re jobs anymore because their jobs were taken over by machines which could do the work in ...

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