today we're looking at consumerism in the 1920s
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you'll find more resources that go with many of the bellringer videos the decade of the 1920s
was a 10-year period that saw massive changes in the culture and Society of the United States but
along with that came major changes economically consumerism which can basically be defined as
encouraging the purchase of goods and services in ever increasing amounts became the norm for
Americans throughout the Roaring Twenties this buy more mentality was fueled by new technological
advancements in production in what many consider to be the Second Industrial Revolution that took
place in the 1910s through the 1920s mass production shifted from heavy industrial
goods such as steel to making more goods for consumers this production of more Goods gave
consumers more options of what to purchase new household inventions became available such as
toasters telephones new appliances and especially radios this expanded production also drove down
prices making many of the Goods more affordable than ever while at the same time wages were
Rising for workers giving them more purchasing power for example in the decade leading to the
1920s from 1912-1924 the average yearly wages for workers grew by over 120 percent while at
the same time for example the cost of a Ford Model T car dropped by 50 percent and speaking of Ford
much of the consumer and Industrial Revolution of the early part of the 1900s can be attributed
to Henry Ford and his automobile company around 1913 Ford introduced the assembly line system in
his factories which cut down on the amount of time it took to build a car and made the entire process
much more efficient the Model T was the first automobile produced on a moving assembly line this
in turn made cars more available and brought the price down the number of automobiles on the roads
in America Rose from 8 million in 1920 to over 23 million by 19 129 other factories producing
consumer goods began to adopt Ford's assembly line system and the number of consumer goods
being produced Rose dramatically additionally Ford also introduced the idea of the five dollar day
although today this might seem like a trivial amount at the time this doubled the salary of
Ford's employees the theory behind the five dollar day was if workers made more money they will spend
more money which would result in companies making more money plus by paying more money Factory
owners would have fewer labor disputes with their workers the theory basically worked as spending
exploded throughout the 1920s and Americans bought more and more advertising of products took a major
shift during the Roaring Twenties as well prior to the 20s advertisements had basically simply
announced to Consumers that an item was available but during the 20s advertisers began to glamorize
products and attempt to make consumers emotionally attached to certain products advertisers attempted
to make Americans believe that items you owned shaped their identity and by not owning certain
items consumers were sending a message to others that they were not successful advertisers launched
massive Nationwide advertising campaigns advertising became so convincing that for
really the first time in American history a majority of Americans were purchasing more than
they needed of course the need to buy more also had a very negative downside the use of credit to
buy items became common among American consumers many businesses began to offer payment plans to
Consumers so that they could get the product now and pay for it in smaller increments or
installments naturally businesses also charged interest on these payments or in other words
charged a higher price for the purchase of these items on credit with this economic explosion many
Americans began investing in the stock market and many borrowed money to do so many Americans
believe the stock market would just continue to rise up and up indefinitely quickly however many
Americans found themselves with high amounts of debt and additionally 80 percent of Americans
were not saving any money and were literally spending everything they earn living paycheck to
paycheck all of this consumerism and use of debt eventually caught up with American consumers as in
late 1929 the stock market crashed plunging the United States into the Great Depression
bringing the decade of the Roaring Twenties with lavish living and excessive spending to
a sudden and abrupt end so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching foreign