Technology in the 1920s

 Calvin Coolidge favored government policies that would keep taxes down and business profits up, and gave businesses more available credit in order to expand

 Goal: keep government interference in business to a minimum & allow private enterprise to flourish  Most of the 1920s, Coolidge’s administration placed high tariffs on foreign imports  Reduce income taxes meant people had more money to spend

 Laissez-faire: a policy or attitude of letting things run their course; without interference Invisible Hand Introduced by Adam Smith

 In 1927, 15,077,033 Model T Ford’s rolled off the assembly line  Model A’s now came in two different colors “Arabian Sand” and “Niagara Blue”  Automobiles were becoming the backbone of the American economy

 Automobiles changed the American landscape Paved roads were constructed  Like Route 66, which went from Chicago to California Houses had a garage or carport and driveway Construction of gas stations, repair shops, public garages, motels, tourist camps and shopping centers started for the mobile population

 First automatic traffic signal in Detroit  The Holland Tunnel, first underwater tunnel designed for motor vehicles opened in 1927, NYC to Jersey City, NJ  The Woodbridge Cloverleaf, first cloverleaf intersection was built in New Jersey in 1929

 Liberated the isolated rural family Travel to city for shopping & entertainment  Families could vacation in new faraway places  Increased the mobility of society

 Urban Sprawl: the unplanned and uncontrolled spreading of cities into surrounding cities  Workers could live miles from their jobs  Cars became a status symbol

 Began as a mail carrying service for the U.S. Post office  Established as a peacetime means of transportation  Pan American Airways (founded 1927) inaugurated the first transatlantic passenger flights

 America owned about 40% of world’s wealth  Average annual income rose about 35%  People found it easy to spend their extra income and then some

 Electricity transformed the nation  Factories used electric to run machines  Development of alternating electrical current made it possible to distribute electricity over longer distances No longer restricted to central cities Number of electrified households grew

 More homes had electric irons  Well-to-do families had electric refrigerators, cooking ranges, and toasters  These appliances made the lives of housewives easier Freed them for other community and leisure activities

 Average factory worker was producing 50 % more at the end of the decade Wasn’t the economy & the stock market reaching new heights?

 The industry provided a solution to the problem of luring consumers to purchase the large number of goods produced each year….easy credit

 Installment Plan: an arrangement in which a purchaser pays over an extended time, without having to put down much money at the time of purchase  Banks provided the money at low interest rates  Some saw installment plans as a sign of fundamental weaknesses of a prosperous economy

 New goods flooded the market  Hired psychologies to study how to appeal to people’s desire for youthfulness, beauty, health, and wealth  Brand names became familiar from coast to coast  Luxury items were now necessities

 Power of advertising were applied elsewhere  Businesspeople formed service organizations such as Rotary, Kiwanis, and the Lions Sang songs, raised money for charities, and boosted the image of the businessman