Affluent Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Affluent Society - Essay Example The paper will also review the most important benefits and drawbacks of sub-urbanization and affluence for Americans in the 1950s. The suburban consumers in the 1950s gained much affluence due to the economic prosperity of the US during the period. There was an increase in luxury expenditure and increase in consumer values due to increased enlightening of the suburban population. Prior to the period of 1950s consumer values did not have much dominance in the United States of America. Affluence was not of much meaning before this period. It was during this period that the people of the United States of America gained confidence in the affluence. Material conformity was brought about by mass marketing and consumerism despite that fact that the US market was consisting of people with different characteristics and abilities. Conformity seemed to be the norm in social aspects such as religion and gender roles. The 1950s is commonly referred to as the decade of economic boom. This is a decade that came immediately after the end of the World War II. Therefore, Americans were so eager on spending their money on things that they could not access during the period of war. There wasthe growth of the industries that existed even before the war began. Good examples of such industries are automobiles and steels. There was also growth of new industries such as plastic, electronics, and computers. This is a clear indication that there was an increase in the availability of employment opportunities in the US. There was a resulting increase in workers’ wages and benefits1. This implies that the people of the United States of America were in a better position to spend money on things that were previously termed as luxuries. A research carried out by the Corning Glass company in the 1950s used American women to evaluate the possible performance of their coffee in the market. The research showed just shows the extent to which the specification of customers mattered