‘“The roaring twenties” is a phrase used to describe The United States of America during the 1920’s, this period was full of excitement and money for the American people. “Boom” is a word used to describe how America expanded economically, as more people were making earning more money, more businesses were opening and America experienced the feel good factor.’
There were five main reasons why there was a huge boost in the American economy, and they are the following: Industrial strengths, World War One, Republican Policies, New Industries & methods and last but not least the state of mind of the American people.
In the 1920’s there was lots of natural resources which was from US soil like oil in Texas, coal in Pennsylvania, and farming in
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Every american believed he or she had the the right to prosperity. They all wanted the nicest things on the market and they go out and spend much more than what they had using the credit system which was known as buying on the margin. All the americans wanted to go from ‘rags to riches’ which encouraged the people on taking risks. Young women in the cities began to act differently. They smoked and drank in public with men and wore more daring clothes but surprisingly they started to go out with men on their own, usually in cars. More women were employed and along with this advertising directed at women became more …show more content…
However, there is plenty of evidence that all was not well with the American economy in the 1920s, and in 1928 the 'boom' began to slow down.
Farming- overproduction led to the fall of wheat prices, wheat fell from $183 a bushel in 1920 to only 38 cents in 1929. The average income of a farmer was only 40% of the average american wage and most farmers couldn't afford to pay their mortgage. In 1924 about 600 thousand farmers went bankrupt.
Low wage earners- unskilled and just any normal worker or the 2 million unemployed could not seem to prosper just like the rest of the american people. The top 5% earned 33% of the income which cause a huge gap between the poor and the rich. Only 3% of semi-skilled works owned a car.
Old industries- coal was over produced around america but it was being replaced by oil and gas. in 1929 a coal mine worker only earned a third of what the rest of the nation did. There was also troubles in the textile industry because of the invention of new materials and the overproduction of the previous one.
Cartels, trusts and monopolies - ‘fixed the market’ and tried to keep prices high and wages