Postwar Economic Trends
- Surge of economic growth from 1950-1970 largely due to cheap energy costs
- National income doubled
- But: Since 1970, U.S. Productivity & Standard of Living has declined
- High inflation rate of 1970's due to spending on Social Welfare Programs and the Vietnam War
- By the 1980's, there was a significant shift from industrial to service employment with a declining membership in labor unions (only 19%)
- Economic challenges include the rise in poverty, the unequal distribution of income and resources
* Americans today prefer the accumulation of private wealth to the provision of public services
Population Trends
- "White Flight" from inner cities to the suburbs
- 80% of African Americans live in cities
- Income gap between Blacks & Whites is narrowing
- Note: Income of Japanese-Americans is 32% above the national average (Chinese-Ams: 12%)
- Huge birthrate (the Baby Boomers) from 1945 to late 1950's
- Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965: Abolished the Quota System
- The "New Immigrants" came to the U.S. for economic opportunity rather than political freedom
Political Trends
- Woman are still mostly employed in low skill/low prestige jobs (make up 44% of the U.S. workforce)
- Woman's Liberation Movement v. Male Chauvinism
- Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed sexual discrimination which led to"Affirmative Action" programs for women (also for other "minorities")
- 1972: E.R.A Amendment introduces but never passed
- 1973: Roe v. Wade decision of the Supreme Court
- 1978: Allen Bakke case
- Neoconservative Intellectuals of the 1980's opposed government funded Social-Welfare programs