The End Of Affluence Essay Research Paper — страница 2

the only reason the U.S. began to lose its productivity rate. The shipping of jobs to overseas companies and the entering of the Japanese into the global market also helped in the disabling of America?s economic growth. This crippling of America?s economy reached many more Americans than thought possible and had a domino effect on the economy. It first hit the corporations and forced them to downsize, causing a contraction of the company. This contraction meant the government could not extract taxes, causing the U.S to borrow from other countries and thus expanding our national debt. The expansion of the national debt started producing figures that forecasted a 2% loss a year, and by the year 2013 many predict a 35 trillion-dollar loss in productivity. These figures all lead to

the assumption that America will eventually lose it?s edge in the global market unless we reverse the receding productivity trend, and begin taking the market back. This brief history should give you an idea of how our economy has wavered over the period since our Independence. Now let?s take a look at we had to work with during this same time period. Data Showed that the average income of American Colonist in the terms of purchasing power, exceeded the average income earned in England by the mid-1700. There was an abundant of land on the frontier, natural resources, a thriving domestic trade and agricultural exports supported by slave labor accounted for this unusual prosperity. The exception since the Civil War was the result of scientific, engineering and technological

breakthroughs of the nineteenth century and an unregulated market economy. America did not have an edge over other industrial nations in the development of labor replacing machines of the industrial revolution, although U.S. used these inventions to their advantage. The steam engine, the open-hearth furnace, and the internal combustion were all European inventions. British investors roamed all over the world putting their money into risky new enterprises. The Germans created a remarkable industrial boom after the Prussian victory in 1871 in the war against France. Free markets thrived everywhere from the Turkish bazaars to the shops of London long before the American economy took off. What distinguished Americas post civil war industrial revolution was the enormous continent wide

market place, which enabled America to sell goods on a scale that could not be matched by the other countries. The mass production that resulted was not just a matter of replacing labor with machines, which all advanced countries eventually accomplished. It seems that mass production in America was a highly complex system of producing and distribution that reduced the costs of manufacturing each unit dramatically as the volume of production was raised. This increase was made possible by a market large enough to absorb the goods that high volume factories could produce. For nearly a century no other nations mass production industries were comparable to Americas, nor was our rate of growth equaled by any other major country during this period. Between 1870 and 1913, the eve of

World War I, America?s rate of growth rose to nearly four percent a year. Germany?s gross domestic product (GDP) grew only 2.8 percent, Japan 2.3 and France 1.5 percent during this same period. America?s population grew faster than Europe?s over the same years. The GDP per person also faster at a rate of 1.8 percent a year between 1870 and 1913, while the GDP per person rose only 1.6 percent in Germany, 1.4 percent in Japan, 1.3 percent in France and a lowly one percent in Britain. By 1913, America was the most productive major nation in the world, producing 25 percent more per worker than Britain, who was the world leader for more than a century and twice as much per worker as Germany or France. By World War I, America was making more than 30 percent of the worlds goods! In the

mid nineteenth century, Great Britain was a highly mechanized and urbanized nation, the leader in the production of textiles, iron, and most of the other products associated with what is known as the First Industrial Revolution. Its dominance coincided with the fact that the most prosperous consumer market at the time was the area known as ?The Golden Triangle? which was between London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. By 1840 America?s markets were growing rapidly. Canals and turnpikes made transportation far more efficient, and domestic trade was thriving. The American market place began to expand dramatically with the development of the railroad. The first short rail lines in America were laid in the 1830?s to connect nearby cities, waterways, and canals. By the 1840?s,