1. The Business of America
Chapter 12, Section 3

2. Objectives
Summarize the impact of the automobile and other consumer goods on American life
Explain how prosperity affected different groups of Americans
Explain in what ways the country’s prosperity was superficial

3. Main Idea
Consumer goods fuel business boom of the 1920s as standard of living soars

4. Why It Matters Today?
Business, technological, and social developments launch the era of modern consumerism

5. Industry Flourishes
President Calvin Coolidge, “the business of America is business…The man who builds a factory builds a temple…the man who works there worships there.”

6. ELECTION OF 1924

7. President Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929
Conscientious, honest & had impeccable manners
Least active president in U.S. history, took daily afternoon naps & proposed no new legislation.

9. Republican Presidents
Coolidge and Hoover
Lower taxes
Profits up
Give businesses more $ credit to expand
Minimize government interference so business can flourish

11. The Impact of the Automobile
Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles
Towns emerge
Gas stations
Motels
Shopping centers
Housing styles change
Garages
Driveways
Smaller lawns

12. HENRY FORD, THE MAN WHO REVOLUTIONIZED MANUFACTURING BY MECHANIZING THE ASSEMBLY LINE MODE OF PRODUCTION
IN 1925 FORD WAS PRODUCING NEW MODEL T’S AT THE RATE OF ONE EVERY TEN SECONDS.

13. ASSEMBLY LINE PRODUCTION
IN AN ASSEMBLY LINE EACH PERSON HAS A SPECIFIC TASK WHICH THEY REPEATEDLY PERFORM ALL DAY. THIS ALLOWS FOR SPECIALIZATION OF ONE SKILL AND ALLOWED HENRY FORD TO MASS PRODUCE AUTOMOBILES.

14. The Ford Assembly Line

15. The Chevy Assembly Line

16. $265 = $3,000 in 2012
$ = $8, in 2012
THE AVERAGE FAMILY INCOME IN 1925 WAS APPROXIMATELY $ , $ IN 2002 DOLLARS.

17. INADEQUATE PARKING AND ROADS WERE APPARENT BY THE MID 1920s

18. An early gas station…

19. The Impact of the Automobile
First traffic light in Detroit
Holland tunnel, 1st underwater tunnel links NYC and NJ
NJ builds 1st cloverleaf intersection

20. Automobile Liberation
Links isolated rural families
Broadens vacation experiences
Dating practices expand
Urban sprawl results from workers living further from their jobs
Economic prosperity
Important status symbol

21. Impact of the Auto
Humorist Will Rogers remarks to Henry Ford, “it will take a hundred years to tell whether you helped us or hurt us, but you certainly didn’t leave us where you found us.”

22. The Airplane Industry Mail Transportation
Weather forecasting
Radios and navigational equipment
Transatlantic flights by Lindbergh and Earhart promotes commercial airlines

23. Standard of Living Soars
Own 40% of world’s wealth
Annual income rises 35%
Spending increases
Dependence on gasoline

24. Electrical Conveniences
AC/DC allows factories to expand the suburbs
Household appliances impact
Housewifes lives made easier
More free time to enjoy leisure activities
Time to work jobs outside the home

25. Modern Advertising Companies hire psychologists
Address people’s desire for youthfulness, beauty, health, and wealth
National slogans and branding become familiar and make luxury items seem like necessities

26. A Superficial Prosperity
The Needy
Textile and steel make little profit
Farming losses money from deep $ debt and high surpluses
“Depressions are farm led and farm fed.”

27. Producing Greater Quantities of Goods
Chain stores selling groceries, drugs, shoes and clothes start
As businesses grow so to does the income gap between workers and managers

28. Buying Goods on Credit
Lure consumers to buy in ever greater amounts by providing easy credit
Installment plans allowed people to buy goods over an extended period, w/o having to put very much $ down at the time of purchase
Banks provide low interest rates

29. Easy Credit
Consumers buy with abandon
Accumulate large personal debt
Makes the economy a financial “house of cards”

30. Inventions & Trends of the 1920s
Invention or Trend
Effects of the Invention or Trend 5.
Alternating
Electrical Current 6.
Modern
Advertising 7.
Installment
Plans