tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4290163255778893789.post1821865570173012332..comments2024-03-16T05:19:07.061-04:00Comments on Retirement Blues: That Post WW II BoomJazzbumpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07337490817307473659noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4290163255778893789.post-29823207503811028712011-08-05T19:35:53.993-04:002011-08-05T19:35:53.993-04:00Art -
Thanks. Yeah - this took me a few hours.
...Art -<br /><br />Thanks. Yeah - this took me a few hours.<br /><br />Tux - Great insights. Part of the reason post WW II America was so different from the pre-war version is the passage of decades. That sounds like a foolish tautology, but the war interfered with the natural order of things in a pretty dramatic way, and the catch-up process caused a lot of temporary dislocations.<br /><br />Re: industrial consolodation. I think the natural process of capitalism is to evolve into corporatism. Business people hate competition, and consolodate to pre-emt it. This moves in the general direction of monopoly, and exacerbates wealth and income inequalities.<br /><br />Hence the need for progressive taxation, regulation, and most especially anti-trust laws. All the things we no loner have. thanks in part to Libertarian ideologues.<br /><br />WASF!<br />JzBJazzbumpahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07337490817307473659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4290163255778893789.post-63445448659086121132011-08-05T18:08:12.901-04:002011-08-05T18:08:12.901-04:00It's their insistence upon living in an altern...It's their insistence upon living in an alternate universe of their own choosing with facts that they create out of thin air that annoys me the most. One of my hobbies is the auto industry. I like cars. I like old cars. I like learning about the history of auto companies. For example, the Packard Corporation. So. What happened to auto companies in the aftermath of WW2? Hint: It was mixed nuts at best. Most auto companies didn't even get production restarted until the 1947 model year because of having to re-purpose their factories from war use, and there was a severe shortage of capital due to the cessation of huge infusions of federal money into the economy that made it especially problematic for small manufacturers to get production restarted. Many of the smaller manufacturers had been financially ruined by the war, where politics meant that the big contracts went to the big guys even for things that the small guys had invented. Of the dozens of auto companies that had struggled to survive through the 1930's, only a handful survived the post-war recession, and of those only three had the scale and political contacts to really thrive -- Studebaker and Packard merged and eventually ceased production, Nash and Hudson merged and struggled on for another thirty years as American Motors Corporation never getting any traction, and Chrysler, GM, and Ford remained as the only "real" car companies left standing. (Note that I am omitting specialty companies such as Willys-Overland with their Jeep and the Checker Taxicab Company because their limited-production specialty vehicles were in different markets altogether from the general automotive marketplace). <br /><br />In short, what I see looking at automotive history is that post-war America looked very different from pre-war America. Most small manufacturers had been bankrupted by the war and did not even manage to restart production much less survive the post-war recession, most large manufacturers had been enriched by the war and survived the post-war recession with little trouble. In short, the war served to further the consolidation of American industry into a few giants, something which people at the time didn't really question because those economies of scale were what had allowed the U.S. to become the "arsenal of democracy" during the war and it was considered thus de facto "good". But now that we know the eventual consequences... can we really consider that to be a desirable economic outcome?<br /><br />- Badtux the History PenguinBadTuxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01345749557330760251noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4290163255778893789.post-65252180770062189022011-08-05T17:44:11.959-04:002011-08-05T17:44:11.959-04:00Eh, you're just mad at Russ Roberts because he...Eh, you're just mad at Russ Roberts because he spelled your name wrong!<br /><br />But seriously, good post. I had to go back and read your previous (again) and back more to the Beckworth and again to the Cafe, to get the gist of it all. But you put some work into this, that's clear.The Arthurianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16501331051089400601noreply@blogger.com