Mass production was also a key factor in the Boom. The new use of ‘assembly lines’ meant that production was far cheaper and faster. The first to start using this technology was Henry Ford, a car manufacturer. By 1925, Ford was producing one car every ten seconds, this meant more profit for America, and many jobs were available for people to work doing one job on the assembly line.
The presidents of the time were Republican, and believed that America should keep out of the lives of citizens, meaning that corporations could grow easily. There were risks that came with ...
Mass production was also a key factor in the Boom. The new use of ‘assembly lines’ meant that production was far cheaper and faster. The first to start using this technology was Henry Ford, a car manufacturer. By 1925, Ford was producing one car every ten seconds, this meant more profit for America, and many jobs were available for people to work doing one job on the assembly line.
The presidents of the time were Republican, and believed that America should keep out of the lives of citizens, meaning that corporations could grow easily. There were risks that came with this; large amounts of money and power were given to normal businessmen, but it paid off because it gained America huge profits from selling to foreign firms. This policy carried on, America tried to establish Isolationist policies which would further their success because the public were persuaded to buy American goods instead of foreign.
Commercial advertising was another source of profit for America; companies could now sell their goods over the radio.
Not everybody benefited from this, though; the isolationist policy meant that businesses such as those that worked in foreign trade and relied on overseas market were broke, as they no longer had any business.
Farmer also did very badly from this. Overproduction meant that prices fell to the advantage of the consumer, and so farmers had to sell their goods at terrible prices in order to sell anything. They lost out on money they would previously have gained from overseas trade, and also had the challenge of competition with new high-efficiency Canadian wheat farms.
Six million families had an income of less than $1000 a year. There was no welfare provided by the government for these people, who had lost so much money.
Black Americans were also not part of the Boom of the twenties, and most women didn’t have jobs at that time so there was no advantage for them either.
The Boom had many downsides, though. The main problem was the Great Depression, caused by The Boom. People started borrowing money in order to buy more shares, thinking that they would buy shares cheaply and then sell them off soon after for a profit. This idea was in most people’s heads, and if shares are being sold off quickly, their value decreases and so other shareholders sell until the value is almost worthless, more people sell, etc. After this, people cannot afford to buy other stocks and so their value goes down as well, with the same effect.
Millions of jobs were lost, businesses were bankrupted and many people were living on the streets. By 1932, twelve million American citizens were out of work.
