Download A Business Boom

14.2
A Consumer Economy
 Consumer Economy:
Economy that depends on
consumers buying goods
 Why such success?
 Higher wages for workers
 Advertising
 New products to purchase
 CREDIT available
 Buying on Credit
 installment plan


Customer makes partial
payment (installments) at set
intervals over a period of time
until debt is paid
This led many Americans into
debt for the first time
 Electric Power: Mostly in
cities (new appliances)
 Few farms had electricity
 G.E. (General Electric)
 Advertising
 Competition for
customers
 From info on product to
focus on image
 Rise in Productivity
 Gross National
Product (GNP): total
value of goods and
services a country
produces annually
Ford and the Automobile
 1st car was in Germany in
the 1880s
 Ford and the Model “T”
 Sold 30,000 by 1908
 Ford’s Assembly Line
 Adapted the assembly line: worker does one
specialized task
 made it more efficient and cheaper: $390 for a car in 1911
 However, Ford’s cars were plain and boring in style
 Ford was a man of paradoxes: could be generous but also
strict and unreasonable
Industrial Growth
 New businesses
 Garages, car dealerships,
motels, campgrounds, gas
stations, restaurants
 Steel, rubber, glass, leather
manufacturing/factories
 Overall, businesses grew in
size and wealth
 Competition grew, while
monopolies declined
Economic Problems
 Unskilled laborers/factory workers were still living in
poverty
 Farmers suffered greatly during the 1920s
 Prices for wheat and hogs fell, pushing many farmers
into poverty