Economic Changes In The 1920s

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Following the conclusion of the Great War, the 1920s were an age of dramatic economic, social and political change. By definition, change refers to a difference in a situation at different points in time. Heraclitus was the first philosopher known to have directly concerned change with certain aphorisms such as "one cannot step into the same river twice" . This is generally referring to the contradiction between calling the river the same, while knowing that the materials of the river, the waters, have completely changed – but nothing ever truly ‘changes.’ This principle can be applied towards the quote “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” The boom and bust of America and the coming in and out of isolationism. The eternal …show more content…

Laissez-faire in the 1920s created an economy filled with inequality. While manufacturing, finance and services all enjoyed high times, agriculture and energy struggled throughout the decade. Despite the fact that the economy itself was structurally flawed, the stock market would go through the roof. Phenomenal economic growth was centered in only two industries: construction and automobile manufacturing. Even these industries would begin shrinking in the year before the stock market crash. For most of the 1920s the economy grew along with capital facilities. But by the time the stock market crashed, there was so much plant space producing so many goods that the backlog of inventory was three times greater than normal. Half of America was living at or below the minimum and could not afford to buy these products. As a result of this drastic economic change, the government was forced to look past laissez-faire and interfere with the publics marketing operations with the intent of improving the economic …show more content…

With the transition from war to peace, the economy went up. However, prices also increased. After the nineteenth amendment was passed, women had the ability to vote. With suffrage came a new aura for women, in that they felt equal with the rest of the world. Republicans promised to return the nation back to normalcy to benefit the people and gain popularity. When you assess drivers of change in this time period, it becomes apparent that one type of change leads to another. This ‘domino effect’ is prevalent in America, as when they emerged from the Great War, social and economic change was necessary in order for America to survive. These changes drastically affected the events that followed later. You cannot have one change without another. With reference to America in this period, we can see that “the more things change”, or even though water flows, “the more they stay the same”, it remains the same river. If change is eternal, then everything is a recurrence of the past. And so even though there were many changes during this time, America as a nation remained the same, and is just progressing through the cycle of

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