March 12, 2014: Prosperity and Cold War Fear (1950 – 1960)

Last time on Beneath the Waves program "Competition, Cooperation and Social Order" we explored how academic theories (such as social Darwinism's survival of the fittest) can be taken out of context and used by others for their own exploitive purposes. Although with the end of WW2 views of superiority based hierarchies diminished and, instead promoted the rise of African and Asian independence movements, the model merely became dormant only to surface later in time.     Many Americans feared that the end of World War II and the subsequent drop in military spending might bring back the hard times of the Great Depression. But instead, pent-up consumer demand fueled exceptionally strong economic growth in the post war period. The automobile industry successfully converted back to producing cars, and new industries such as aviation and electronics grew enormously. A housing boom, stimulated in part by easily available mortgages for returning members of the military, added to the expansion.   The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the G.I. Bill, provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans including low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business, cash payments of tuition and living expenses to attend college, high school or vocational education, as well as one year of unemployment compensation.