The Production Machine of WWII and the beginning of the era of Mass Consumption
1930's Depression Context:
Lewis Mumford was a very powerful force in shaping
policy during FDR's New Deal Era.
Three main ideals:
Technics and Civilization Promotes the liberating
potential of hydro-electric power as an "inexahustible" supply which would re-open the Western
frontier and rekindle the frontier experience that "makes this country great".
The Culture of Cities Life in the over-industrialized and over-crowded cities of the East was de-humanizing. An opening of the Western Frontier would allow a return to a "pastoral" living community centered around regional river basin development, using dams as the principle means of development.
Palotechnic Era vs. Neotechnic Era Palotechnic relies upon "coal and iron" and exploited finite fossil fuels that generated a "befouled and disorderly environment; the end product an exhausted one". Promotes: Private Owners = monopoly on energy resources.
Neotechnic, in contrast, purfied the social and ecological environment through "infinite" hydro-electricity. This promotes
PUBLIC POWER = DEMOCRACY
Its very important to understand the "frontier" metaphor and
its historical context.
Frontiers represent initial barriers which we eventually conquer
or subdue. We never respect a frontier. Never.
Here is an example of Man's power over Nature:
(start at time stamp 4:30)
Two more important points:
By 1940, America was kind of a "green economy" as 45% of its
total electricity came from a renewable energy source - hydropower and 75% of the entire Western US's electricity
came from this source.
The 1930's Federally funded dam building effort essentially
increased the nations hydroelectric output by a factor of 5-10
(much of this was Grand Coulee Dam). Dam built electricity allowed for the construction of
the following during WW II (1942-1945)
Full employment ensued because to win a War at this time required outproducing
your enemy. As a result, an unprecedented factory production machine suddenly
appeared.
69,000 airplanes (aluminum industry) (55 planes per day)
5,000 naval battleships (4 ships per day per day!)
7 million aircraft bombs (5,500 bombs per day)
31 million artillery shells (24,000 shells per day)
Bonneville Dam was the number one target for a Japanese Mainland air strike because it supplied electricity to the Boeing War Machine
Important Quotes from this period:
Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation,
which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off (FDR 1933
Inagaural Speech).
The question that I will ask you to consider today is this: When the war is over, are we likely,
and do we want to keep this attitude to work and the results of work? Or are we
preparing and do we want to back to our old habits of thought?
Because I believe that on our answer to this question the whole economic future of society
will depend. Sooner or later the moment will come when we have to make a decision
about this. At the moment, we are not making it - it is beind made for us.
(Dorothy Sayers 1942 College Lecture) ( i.e. do we intentionally
turn the war production machine off and go back to our former means of production )
Only if we have large demands can we expect large production. Therefore, it is important
that in planning for the postwar period, we give adequate consideration to the need
for ever-increasing consumption on the part of our people as one of the prime requisites
for prosperity. (Robert Nathan 1944 - an economist).
From the 1948 Pamphlet "The Miracle of America"
The mainspring of the American standard of living is High and Increasing Productivity!
We take abundance for granted as we consume more than half of the world’s coffee and rubber,
almost half of the steel,
a quarter of the coal and nearly two-thirds of the crude oil ( At this time
the US had only 1/15th the population of the world ).
The 1946 Employment Act named “purchasing power” as one of the things government was meant to promote.
Thus prompted, Americans of the late 1940s got down to the business of buying things.
In the first five years of peace, consumer spending increased by 60 percent.
People bought cars and boats and clothing. They bought furniture and appliances.
They bought Tupperware.
Most of all, they bought houses. Housing starts went from 142,000 in 1944 to 2 million in 1950.
The Ad Council cheered them on, casting consumption as what distinguished happy capitalists
from those poor benighted souls living under the communist boot.
American in the 1950s: The Decade that Changed Everything:
The Atomic Age; Prosperity for All; Interstates; Suburbia; Television; Rock N Roll; The Age of Advertising;
The Happy Homemaker
And so set the stage for every increasing production and
consumption. American prosperity required dominating the world in trade and products and for
a long time we did and in the short term, it certainly did pay off. Life the 1950s and 1960s was a
lot better than life in the 1920's and 1930's - personal prosperity and personal productivity were
very high and the free market society was borne without boundaries.
Promotes the liberating
potential of hydro-electric power as an "inexahustible" supply which would re-open the Western
frontier and rekindle the frontier experience that "makes this country great".
Frontiers represent initial barriers which we eventually conquer
or subdue. We never respect a frontier. Never.
And so set the stage for every increasing production and
consumption. American prosperity required dominating the world in trade and products and for
a long time we did and in the short term, it certainly did pay off. Life the 1950s and 1960s was a
lot better than life in the 1920's and 1930's - personal prosperity and personal productivity were
very high and the free market society was borne without boundaries.
