This section covers the following topics

• Economic growth
• The changing labor market
• Migration to the sunbelt
• Baby Boomers
• Suburbanization
• The Ford, Carter and Reagan Administrations

Section Summary

More recent times have seen a change in the labor market from a blue-collar to a white-collar, service-oriented economy. In addition, farm populations have steadily declined. The growth of many cities stagnated as the nation underwent suburbanization. In addition, overall trends show a migration from the Snowbelt or Rustbelt to the Sunbelt.

The Ford Administration saw the negotiation of the SALT I treaty, OPEC’s oil embargo and stagflation. Carter couldn’t deal with the Iran hostage crisis but did broker a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt at Camp David. In his presidency, Reagan introduced the notion of supply-side economics and New Federalism, and in doing so created a massive budget deficit (which was further exacerbated by significant increases in military spending).

Economic and Social Changes

Economic Growth

America was enjoying a period of unparalleled prosperity. From the end of WWII to 1973, real wages and the percentage of families with discretionary income improved substantially. New wealth manifested itself in the large numbers of families with cars and TVs. Credit cards also became more common. This time of boom would contrast with the slower development of 1973 to the mid 1980s.

A Changing Labor Market

The economy was shifting from blue-collar to white-collar jobs. This led to a decrease in the power of labor unions. Although many white collar jobs (particularly teachers) were unionized, the real strength of the movement had always been in industrial workers.

Many more women were entering the labor force, but the most dramatic gains were in the number of married women (often with children) who also worked.

The development of a predominantly white-collar labor market made... Sign up to continue reading Recent Events >

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