How the 80's Set the Way of Life Today

To begin, I'd like to pose the question: What measures success today?

Your immediate response is most likely how much money you have, your career, your assets... but it wasn't always like that. Maybe a little bit back in the 50's, but if you think about the 60's, the 70's and 80's bridges a huge gap between social conflict and rebellion to our more materialistic ways of consumerism that we live in today. 

Looking back at the 60's, it's obvious that there was a lot of unsettlement. This discomfort came from the suppressed feelings of their lives not containing any meaning. The 50's consisted of the stereotypical happy family with a stay at home mom, two children, and the father "bringing home the bacon" or so that was the image portrayed to us of normalcy. There was an emphasis on consumerism. In my last blog post, I highlighted a few of the advancements in terms of luxury that separated the middle-class from those with more money. For example, you start to see a difference in the luxury of cars. I think there must have been a point where buying things and conforming to that perfect image became too much for most and they started to take out their built up aggression out on "the establishment." The 60's were all about questioning authority of all forms whether it be religion, politics, or your own family structure. You have a focus on fighting for justice in the 60's in more ways than just one. There were huge civil rights issues going on that started off fairly peaceful like the sit-ins organized by the SNCC, however, they turned into acts of defiance. You start to see groups like the SNCC and CORE and the emerging of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers. You also get feminism kicking up into high gear with Betty Frieden. Tons of antiwar protests. People just weren't happy anymore and they weren't afraid to get violent. It's important to recognize the events that took place in the 60's when considering the 70's. This is because the 70's were kind of a recovery period from the craziness of the 60's, I mean they had a lot going on. The country starts to lean more left and adopt more liberal values. After all, the late 60's came with the emergence of hippie culture and Summer of Love institutions. People were free to live how they wanted to a little more openly in the 70's, especially leading into the 80's. A lot of living together before marriage, pot smoking, pretty much what we see a lot of now if we're being honest. Radical feminism was also big in the 70's, which pushed public discussion of gender issues beyond the goals of equality, advocated public investments in child care while pushing for abortion rights, on top of pointing out the dangers of maintaining heterosexual relationships with men. As the economy started to grow, there wasn't as much disturbance. Then in 1980, we get Reagan in office and you see a huge shift in the economy over the next few years, which we later come to name the Great Expansion. There's also a shift in values. The hippie lifestyle, radical feminists, and the gay community got a lot of backlash from conservative Christians who made their way into politics. They pushed the theory of supply-side economics which insisted that lowering tax rates would motivate workers to produce, creating jobs and more tax revenue, as well as boosting the supply of money. However, Reagan incorporated this theory and created his own system of economics that focused on deregulation, cutting taxes, less federal spending, and fewer regulations. He also was against unions and organized labor and encouraged downsizing. The growth in the economy came from traditional sectors such as automobiles, oil, chemicals, and steel, as well as service industries. He did an amazing job as far as pulling the economy out of a recession for a few years, but by the end of his second term, Reagan left office even further in debt, back in a slight recession, and at a 10 percent unemployment rate.

But to focus more closely on the decade itself, the 80's has a lot of relevance in today's world. Especially when you consider technology.

The manufacturing of personal computers exploded and business for IBM boomed. Take a look. 

Now, this is neat because personal computers are now so common among consumers that I'm typing up this blog on a MacBook Air of my own. On the topic of technology, the Walkman also blew up. So did the VCR and dinosaur cell phones. You also get cable TV and the first Atari 2600 with which you also get Super Mario Brothers. ;)

The 80's also had a focus on building up space shuttles, however, that took a turn for the worse when the Challenger exploded, killing seven astronauts.

IF you ask an old person about the 80's, they'll tell you it was a simpler time. There wasn't any obsession with social media, in fact, they didn't even have social media. Cell phones were literally just around as means of communicating with one another, not for giving us access to the internet. They played on their Atari's, not hi-def Playstations with video games detailed enough to have conventions about. Saturday morning cartoons. Cameras had film. But these all serve as a basis for what we have today. Technologically speaking, these are all things that have SIGNIFICANTLY advanced. Some are bigger fans of advancing technology than others, but the point is that it's happening. Camera's have gone digital, we have Twitter and Facebook, we're almost at the point where cars will be driving themselves. Technology will never cease to amaze me. And as far as politics is concerned, it'd be interesting to see if history will repeat itself in its own version of the 60's-80's. Today you see a lot of discontentment. Just last year there were a series of peaceful protests that turned violent and a lot of them had to do with race. There are also protests regarding the protection of our environment. Even looking at the media attention Flint, Michigan received regarding their water crisis. With situations like that happening on top of having an unpopular president in office, it makes you wonder if we'll see a little bit more of the anti-establishment mentality of the 60's swing back around.

The Fabulous Fifties

NOW, before we get started I'd like to point out that our textbook does an awful job at highlighting the importance of the poodle skirt. I mean, seriously. I actually forgot the poodle skirt had any correlation with the 50's until I asked my grandmother how she would describe this era, to which she replied, "oxford shoes, poodle skirts, Happy Days, and Elvis." Then, after I told her she'd be featured in my blog post she continued to go on about rock and roll, drive-in theaters, televisions, "stupid commercials", musicals, lots of cigarettes, cheap gas... oooga horns... the poodle hairdo like Mary Martin in South Pacific... and she kept going. In fact, she's still texting me fun little facts about the 50's. The fact that she lived through all of that and is texting me on an iPhone really says a lot about history and how it has evolved. It's actually interesting to look at fashion and how trends seem to resurface. In a few years, perhaps those poodle skirts will be "in" again, but technology never does go backwards.

While we're on the topic of summarizing the 50's, here's a nice little intro vid.



The video highlights a lot of different accomplishments; way too many to focus on individually, but I would like to point out a few. Oh, and I know what you're thinking. They totally forgot to mention poodle skirts!

First and foremost, let's cover CREDIT.

With higher wages, inflation and unemployment low, and increased leisure time, the middle-class was ready to spend their money! And for the first time after the war, with the expansion of consumer goods readily available and flexible forms of credit, such as the first general-purpose charge card, consumerism boomed. These cards included the Diner's Club card, American Express, and the BankAmericard.

This second "achievement" I would like to highlight, is the fact that 90% of Americans owned a TELEVISION. Acting became more prominent of a career with popular shows including I Love Lucy, and other shows that targeted the white suburban middle class and urban working class families. Game shows also rose in popularity. The $64,000 Question consisted of contestants competing for money, household appliances, and cars.

Speaking of cars, in the 50's the AUTOMOBILE became the single most important symbol of American prosperity. Manufacturers like GM, Ford, and Chrysler started to incorporate luxuries and accessories into the cars. The fancier cars had curves, oversized bumpers, and bulging headlamps. Cars were made to target the suburban families prioritizing their comfort while making them affordable. Other auto industries lobbied for the interstate highway system which was set in place by Eisenhower with a bill that came to be the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956).

The video also mentioned the first microwave which was priced between $2000-$3000 with the first home model priced at $1295. HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES were huge especially with the image of the housewife. Our textbook mentions that by the mid-fifties, households spent on average almost a third more of their income on food than they had spent prior to WWII with the consumption of meat and convenience foods rising dramatically. The supermarkets were developed near suburbs and the majority of what was stocked were brightly packaged, chemically preserved foods.

This housewife ideology meant that women were supposed to remain out of the workforce and fully take on their roles as wives and mothers. The only jobs that women were left with were the "women" jobs which were limited to teacher, secretary, nurse, etc. The typical family usually consisted of a mother and a father, with two children. Divorce rates were low because divorce was frowned upon. The man was the head of the household and worked (most likely a white collared job) to support his family, the wife was obviously doing housework or grocery shopping (sheesh), and the children were in school. Unless of course, you were a teenager in the 50's. If that were the case, you might be at a drive-in heavy petting or be cruising around aimlessly in your parent's new automobile that they had just purchased with the fancy bumpers and cushiony seats. Which was probably fine by the way. Gas was only 23 cents a gallon! Anywho, that's basically the depiction of the average family in the 50's. Women had a bunch of babies because they were getting married younger and there was a huge emphasis on having a family. Hence, the baby boom generation.

This "ideal" family lifestyle wasn't the case for all Americans and America in the 50's wasn't entirely peachy. The 50's were still a time of conflict and anti-communism after the Cold War. There were also Civil Rights issues going on at the time. However, instead of focusing on the bad I want to wrap this up by focussing on what we have achieved. So with that being said, the video emphasized the DESEGREGATION OF SCHOOLS. Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1945) was a case made up of five lawsuits that parents had initiated against local school boards combined into one single suit. This case challenged the principle of "separate but equal" and argued that racial segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection. The Supreme Court agreed that the segregation of schools was unconstitutional making that day a very important day in history. Another attempt at desegregating the South was the Montgomery Bus Boycott which formed when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person on a city bus. Rosa was arrested, but what happened as a result of that was amazing! Martin Luther King Jr. led a boycott against the bus company which caused the bus company to fail and eventually led the Supreme Court to strike down segregation of all forms of public transportation.

It's safe to say we've come pretty far as a country and although we're still struggling with some very prominent issues in our own time, it's refreshing to look back at history and see how far we have come. Obviously, you still have a lot of people set in their ways, but I have hope that people will progress in a humane way.


Sources Used:

Becoming America Volume II: From Reconstruction by David Henkin and Rebecca McLennan 

http://fiftiesweb.com/pop/info-family/

http://www.history.com/topics/1950s

Blog 2: From Economic Booms to Economic Busts

After watching the Big Short, I was intrigued with the financial crisis of 07-08. This all started with a crisis in the subprime mortgage market in the US and ended with the closing of Lehman Brothers, a global financial services firm that to date has the largest bankruptcy filed in US History. The crisis of 08 is considered the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 30's. It is important to take a close look at what happened then in order to refrain from making the same mistakes in the future. After all, it's been said that history tends to repeat itself. So I suppose I'll start with discussing the Great Depression, how it started, and our attempt at a nationwide recovery. Then I'll briefly discuss the financial crisis of 07-08 and how that all ties in with what's going on today. But first, although it doesn't quite meet the time period required for this blog, I'm sure you won't mind a minor detour as it does serve a purpose in what this blog will discuss. 

The place is Jekyll Island and the year is 1910. First, a brief history: Jekyll Island was and still is a beautiful island off the coast of Georgia that was once the stomping ground of many big names we still recognize today. The Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, and Baker families all participated in a hunting club located on the island in the 1800's.
You can access this information on the island's website, however, the story I'm about to tell you is something the history tab on their website doesn't mention.

A meeting took place on the island in November of 1910 with the purpose of reforming the nations banking system. The six men that attended this meeting accounted for one-fourth of the nation's wealth. It all began with Senator Nelson Aldrich, followed by A.P. Andrews, Henry P. Davison, Paul Warburg, Frank A. Vanderlip, and Benjamin Strong. However, to keep their names a secret, they only gave out their first names to staff on the island, hence "the First Name Club." By the end of this meeting, a plan for a Reserve Association of America was set in place. This plan would include one central bank with fifteen branches across the country. In 1911 the plan was introduced to Congress under the name National Reserve Association but was shut down when Woodrow Wilson was elected and the Democrats controlled both houses. The idea of having a central banking system wasn't completely shunned though. After a couple of years, the Federal Reserve Act was put together, passed by Congress, and signed by the president in 1913. The final Act resembled many of the ideas Aldrich and his colleagues had put together on Jekyll Island. What's funny is that all of the men involved in the meeting that week on the island denied it even happened until the 1930's. 

So, that's a little history on the Federal Reserve! If you knew about this little secret meeting then this served as a reminder, but if you didn't know about it, it's kind of interesting! This article kind of conflicts with the information I found on Wikipedia, specifically the names of who attended the meeting, but nevertheless, if you'd like to further read on the subject, here it is.

Now that that's out of the way, here's an intro vid to the main discussion. The Great Depression.




The Great Depression hit many hard. Our book points out that by 1922, our nation had just recovered from the industrial recession that had followed WWI. Along with this came the popularity of consumer goods such as automobiles, appliances, radios, movies, etc, all of which played a significant role in the growth of the economy. The book also points out that by 1929, production expanded at the rate of about 5 percent per year and factories were producing 64 percent more consumer goods than in 1920. The economy was almost growing faster than what we could keep up with and with credit and really just the culture of high consumption, we see what was once an exciting time full of hope spiral down into outright shock when the stock market crashed in 1929. In September of that year, stock prices in the market were up over 50 percent since the beginning of January. But unfortunately, the market was overvalued and unstable. On October 29th the market crashed resulting in the single largest one-day loss in history. This was the day that the optimistic attitudes of the 20's completely vanished. In the US, the unemployment rate rose to 25%. At the time Herbert Hoover was in office and the first thing he did after the market crash was cut taxes, assuring the country that the crash was just a setback. He didn't give a voice to the people suffering out on the streets, jobless and homeless. Hoover did eventually try and help by passing the Federal Home Loan Bank Act which aimed to reduce foreclosures and create housing, and by setting in place the Emergency Relief and Construction Act which helped fund public works. Then FDR came along with a new sense of optimism and a New Deal which consisted of different experimental projects and programs to help with the restoration of our nation's economy and our overall sense of being helped him win the election. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected into office in 1932 winning by a LANDSLIDE. After all, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."



FDR wanted to preserve the free market system so he came up with reforms to help rebuild the economy. Within the first 100 days of his presidency, he began to give these experiments a go. The First New Deal consisted of closing down the nation's banks in order to pass the Emergency Banking Act (1933) which allowed only banks equipped to operate to reopen. He also took steps in ending Prohibition for good, making alcohol legal again! ~ cheers ~ He signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act into law which enabled the construction of dams to control flooding and to create inexpensive power, set up the National Industrial Recovery Act which guaranteed workers the right to unionize, and also had many other laws passed which left the majority of Americans content. With the nation still in a depression, he set forth a series of even more aggressive reforms and programs called the Second New Deal. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) came of this which aided in providing jobs for the unemployed that focused on rebuilding cities. FDR also signed a Social Security Act, resulting in federal aid for many Americans. A lot of these programs are still set in place today.

It's interesting when you take the time to compare the Great Depression and the Great Recession. This article goes far more into depth than I ever could so if you have the time I encourage you to give it a look. :) 

This is interesting today because I actually came across an article doing research for this blog that predicted the beginning of another recession in the near future. I know that there are many factors that contribute to the fluctuation of the stock market, but it's always interesting to hear what people come up with. If you have the time here is the link to the article I'm talking about.

Sources used: 

Becoming America Volume II: From Reconstruction by David Henkin and Rebecca McLennan 

http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression

https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/jekyll_island_conference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jekyll_Island_Club

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt

 

Blog 1: From Farming to Packaged Meat

Take a moment to ponder over the expansion of the food industry with me as we look back at the different agricultural advances that have been made between the mid-1800's to the early twentieth century and how this affects our everyday life today.

We'll start at the time period right after the Civil War. The war resulted in the rebuilding of private small farms where yeomen farmers would grow crops and raise livestock for themselves and their family's as well as for the local marketplace. In 1869 we see meat begin to be regulated in Louisiana after years of unsanitary distribution of butchered livestock. The sloppiness of these butchers actually resulted in outbreaks of cholera, an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine, that was spread through contaminated drinking water. The water literally carried traces of offal (animal entrails), animal feces and urine, and blood.

As a result, the people were not happy. They took to the Slaughterhouse Act of 1869 which aimed to end the sale of rotten meat and turn the meat business into a clean, efficient, large-scale industry. They did this by transporting livestock to one large, central state-supervised meatpacking plant. There, the animals were inspected to ensure that they were free of disease and passed on to licensed butchers that would then slaughter, dress, and package the meat where it would proceed to be inspected a second time. The slaughterhouse would also be frequently inspected for cleanliness by physicians. The new location prevented any waste products from interfering with drinking water, however, the runoff into the ocean would eventually result in the depletion of some marine life. 😕

Throughout the industrial revolution, the mass production of meat was actually the first large-scale industry. The railroads made it convenient to transport livestock and packaged meat to slaughterhouses across the country. By the 1870's, the meatpacking industry in Chicago was booming! With the transporting of meats, local butchers and slaughterhouses were being run out of business. People stopped buying locally produced foods. According to our textbook, by 1900, manufactured food accounted for one-third of all commodities produced in the United States.

Let's fast forward a few years. During the Progressive Era, mass urbanization transformed the country. Millions flooded the cities in search of employment, new experiences, and the ready abundance of consumer goods. Farm life was replaced by city life as cities began to grow. With the meatpacking industry at an all-time high and the jobs involved with meatpacking being set up as an assembly line, the workers were cheap and disposable. Usually, the workers in the slaughterhouses consisted of recent immigrants and migrants who were overworked, underpaid, and exposed to dangerous and unhealthy conditions. These conditions often went unnoticed until Upton Sinclair released his novel, The Jungle. Below is a video that explains the severity of the poor working conditions and how the release of the book aided in resolving a few key issues.



Roosevelt actually responded to Sinclair's novel by ordering an investigation on the slaughterhouses! Even though he didn't agree with the socialistic message being preached, he did agree that "radical action must be taken to do away with the efforts of arrogant and selfish greed on the part of the capitalist." Shortly after, the Pure Food and Drug Act, as well as the Meat Inspection Act were passed in an attempt to ensure better regulations as far as meatpacking went and better treatment towards workers.

This is important today because of the impact that these laws have had on the industry as a whole. I'm thankful every day that I was born in a time period where I could enjoy an In N Out burger without worrying about where the meat comes from. 😉 (even though after that short clip from Food Inc we watched, I'm not too sure about anything)

With Food Inc. being brought up I'd like to briefly go over how the correlation between the meatpacking industry and an oligopolistic market.  If you're unfamiliar with the term, an oligopoly is a state of limited competition in a market. As I mentioned before, the industry started to boom with the urbanization of cities, specifically in Chicago. The major companies that dominated the industry were Swift, Wilson, Cudahy, and Armour. All of these companies moved to Chicago and eventually rose to the top. For example, take a look at Gustavus Swift. He moved to Chicago with an intent to build a major national business. This would come to be Swift and Company. In 1902, Swift and Armour and Company acquired a two-thirds controlling interest in the Fort Worth Stockyards. There were multiple lawsuits against him for conspiring with other companies to control the meatpacking industry. These companies were said to have controlled almost 100% of the beef production in 1906. Today, we see a lot of domination in the industry from companies like Tyson, Cargill Meat Solutions, Swift, and National Beef.

Side note: If the fifteen minutes of Food Inc we had watched wasn't enough to freak you out about eating Tyson, their Wikipedia page alone is full of controversies towards the end that really bring home the bacon... it's also shocking to see how much of the industry is controlled by Tyson.

Today the meatpacking industry isn't as valuable an industry, however, it is still significant. In a way, these recent documentaries on the industry that attempt to expose the dominating companies and their unethical practices resemble Sinclair's The Jungle. I just got finished watching Cowspiracy which is another documentary that focused on the massive impact of animal agriculture on the environment that even took a few jabs at major environmental protection agencies for not opening up about the subject (totally recommend watching it if you haven't already). It'll be interesting to see the way we handle all of this new information. I look forward to seeing what will change over the next few years especially now that becoming vegetarian or even a vegan doesn't sound so bad. 😜

Sources Used: 

Becoming America Volume II: From Reconstruction by David Henkin and Rebecca McLennan 

Sinclair, Upton (1878-1968)

Wikipedia: Meat Packing Industry 

Wikipedia: Slaughter-House Cases

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