1. 1920’s Business Boom Notes

2. What is a Consumer Economy?
An economy that depends on large amounts of spending by individuals

3. What type of monetary habit did Americans traditionally value?
Thrift (buy only what you need and save your money)

4. What Changes in the 1920’s led to Americans buying more “stuff”?
Higher Wages
Clever advertising
Focused on “Consumer Image”

5. New products
(especially electronic household items, i.e., washing machine, vacuum, ovens, etc.)

6. Easy availability of consumer credit (installment plans)
Caused HUGE economic gains

7. Henry Ford and Mass Production
What Techniques allowed Henry Ford to revolutionize car production?

8. Assembly line - Use of assembly line increased productivity in the workplace by making workers jobs simple and repetitive

9. Vertical consolidation - Use of vertical consolidation allowed Ford to cut costs at his manufacturing plants by controlling all parts of the manufacturing process.

10. Treatment of workers
Good – Paid higher than normal wages to workers in the early 1900’s
Bad – Forced immigrants to Americanize, used violence to break unions

11. What new industries sprang up as a result of the automobile boom?
Garages
Car Dealerships
Gas Stations
Motels

12. New industries cont… Campgrounds Public Transportation
Freight Transportation
Highway construction

13. What happened to America’s top companies during the 1920’s?
They doubled in worth under Republican Leadership

14. Which Americans were bypassed by the boom of the 1920’s?
African Americans
Unskilled workers
Farmers

15. Bypassed cont…
Ranchers
Miners
Railroad employees