The Decade Of The 1920s - The Decade Of Prosperity

Why might the decade of the 1920s be called “the decade of prosperity”?

The decade of the 1920s is called the “decade of prosperity” because during this time, there was tons of economic growth. Yet, the wealth was ridiculously diverse and directed to wealth inequality. The wealth inequality eventually caused the Great Depression. No one ever imagined the Great Depression, everyone thought the decade of prosperity was going to continue forever.

Americans were doing great during the fastest economic growth in times gone by. Jobs were plenteous and abundant, price increases were low, and earnings continued to rise throughout the entire decade. The country’s riches nearly doubled from 1920 to 1930. Before 1929, The United States had the best quality of life in the world.

The decade of prosperity was a time with many new advances. TVs had an enormous impact on the economic growth. Mostly all Americans during this time had a TV or at least a radio. TV’s and radios allowed for sales persons to promote their products to possible buyers. Americans began to develop an idea of what the typical Americans were like and how they commonly dressed and acted by watching TV, which encouraged people to go out and shop at clothing stores to buy the new fashionable and trendy clothing that they had seen others wearing on TV.

The Roaring Twenties is a common name for the 1920s. Things were “roaring” at this time. It was after a war that had damaged tons. Things were being rebuilt quickly, there were new developments in technology, and shoppers were quick to buy new thing like vehicles. Previously, cars were viewed as an extravagance but after the war, they were being manufactured in bulk allowing for more people to afford them so people went senseless and starting purchasing cars like it was nothing. Things were thriving and flourishing.

Everyone in America was ecstatic. Everything around them appeared as if it was growing and intensifying. However, everyone became so overjoyed and delighted that they began to think irrationally. They started to spend large amounts of their money in the stock market because they anticipated the economy to continue thriving. All the new technology was a huge factor in making the Americans believe everything good would continue, not expecting it to soon come to an end.

People were becoming so optimistic, they began to spend money they did not even have by using credit from the banks. The banking systems soon decided it was time to enforce harsher policies. However, the new policies they enforced were much tougher than they thought. The new extremely stern and severe policies caused tons of banks to close down.

A main cause of so many bank closings was due to people pulling out their money because they were worried about all the changes occurring. The new rules and guidelines caused depreciation and ultimately the breakdown of funds. There was no turning back. The reduction in money source caused interest rates to become higher, to astonishing amounts. Everything began to go downhill.

Companies were not able to sell enough to keep up with the amounts they were manufacturing which caused people to be without a job, ultimately causing a decline of the workforce. The increase of unemployment rates caused lower amounts of earnings and with that, came smaller amounts of money being spent. With smaller amounts of money being spent, there were fewer things being manufactured, and so on. This was the beginning of the Great Depression.