What effects did America’s prosperity have on the way life of different social groups in US society?

However this mass move to suburbia had other effects. The first was 'Keeping up with the Jones's'. This was an obsession with people living in the suburbs. Whatever your next-door neighbour had, you had to have one better. If the people living a few doors down bought a new fridge you had to get the next model up. Television advertising was one of the biggest causes of this. By the mid 1950's 20% of TV broadcast time was taken up with adverts and because television was one of the highest sources of entertainment, the adverts reached an extremely high percentage of the population.

Now that father didn't live close to work he had to have an automobile to get him there. The motor industry boomed. The family car was not just a form of transport. It also became a status symbol. Cars became bigger and bigger. Fuel consumption wasn't an issue. The motor industry picked up on the 'keeping up with the Jones's' phenomenon and started producing the same cars with minor adjustments or refinements. Tail fins, bumpers, and radiator grills were all added in different styles and sizes. This meant that cars quickly looked out of date. Advertising helped convince families to buy a new car regularly. Unfortunately this caused some real problems. Scrap yards became bigger and more common. 'Gas guzzlers' as they were known caused petrol smog and air pollution. It was sometimes impossible to have your windows down while driving through the highways of major cities. In this case the prosperity of the country changed the lives of most people for the worse. Even if it wasn't apparent at the time.

The jobs around the house that usually took all day could be finished in a morning thanks to the boom of consumer goods like fridges and vacuum cleaners. This left women bored and unhappy with suburban life. They had to find a way of entertaining themselves after the work was finished. They could not use the skills they had learnt from working in the factories during the war because the men had come back from the fighting and expected to come home to a job. Many joined the women's rights movement that was sweeping the States. However, fighting for equality with men didn't suit everyone. Some women organised Tupperware parties. It was a social gathering where the women of a neighbourhood could meet and talk while buying and selling plastic storage containers. This change from poverty before the war was definitely a change for the better but it still left women dissatisfied with their way of life.

Teenagers were also unhappy with their life style, although they were generally well off. It was estimated that 75% of 16-17 high school boys had a car and in 1957 it was estimated that the average teenager had between $10 and $15 a week pocket money. This money was spent on the new industry that had built up around them. The new craze of rock and roll provided records to buy. Fashion, magazines and the movies also took a high percentage of this money. However they found that a safe, secure life style was boring. They had not lived during a depression or in wartime like their parents had and so found new ways of fulfilling their need for excitement. Films and music icons like Elvis Presley and James Dean were the perfect idols for teens at the time. The life of most teenagers was dramatically changed by the prosperity of the country at the time.

By 1960 there was 32 800 000 home owners and with more homeowners the standard of living was greatly increased. People had more money and they spent it on a lot more non-essential items. Unfortunately Black Americans in particular were still undermined and persecuted. They had a high rate of unemployment, low wages and had the poorest housing. This meant that they did not share in the prosperity.