The Production Machine of WWII and the beginning of the era of Mass Consumption

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.

Plus American Nationalism Arises (not surprisingly)

US Production statistics (1942-1945)

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:

From the 1948 Pamphlet "The Miracle of America"

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. Let me say that again: 142,000 to 2 million in just 6 years!

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

Slogans R Us

Leisure Time:

Atomic Energy is Fun, Safe

The Homemaker

You will buy a TV; You will buy a TV



You will especially buy a New Car!!


And don't forget about Smoking ...

WTF

And even Future Presidents:

1950s conversion to Suburbia and Conformity:

And Networks of Freeways:

As a result of suburbia + interstates the US built the most energy intensive transportation economy that could be built. But since the price of gas was so low, and America produced 50% of world oil during the 1950's, possibly problems with this approach were wholly ignored.




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. But what will life be like in 2030 compared to 2010?




Global Consumerism as the Anthropocene: From Hunter-Gatherers to a Global Geophysical Force in just 10,000 years.

Proxy Waveforms for Global Consumerism

1750 to 2000 Changing "Human Enterprise"
Note the Great Acceleration around 1950 in rate changes.

And where does it end up in an invisble way:

The great ocean garbage patches.

The mobility shift and Rare Earths:

And China controls 97% of the Rare Earth Market and Distribution

Best Proxy for Global Consumption Increases:

Factor of 10 Growth in just 25 years! This is the principle driver of Climate Change

Global Economic Meltdown temporary blip

Shipping fleets gear up to serve more and more consumers

Note - these are now the Consuming Poor!

So Who Franchises the World?



Qualitatively, 'Consumption' is not the problem. Its the RATE of Consumption relative to your resource base that is the problem.

We have a serious problem of consumer non-linear scaling. The best example of this is:

It is this non-linear scaling of consumption with population growth that is not adequately understood or considered.

The manifestations of unbounded crank turning are:

This ultimately is our Post WWII consumption legacy and its definitely now playing out in the real world. Why do you want to live in that world?

Sustainabilty = Consume Less; lower the gloabl rate. Reintroduce the Sacred.

Else ,