The Greatly Exaggerated Death Of America's Economy In 1949
Fun bits and pieces from the old magazines
The Greatly Exaggerated Death Of America's Economy In 1949
I don’t want to talk about politics. However, there are some things that come up that I simply have to mention.
The cool part about reading the old newspapers and magazines of 1949 is the crazy stuff I run across that we’ve forgotten about. Take, for example, this brief piece from Newsweek:
Now, I don’t really care what side of the political aisle you find yourself. The truth oft he matter is that the brief economic slump that the United States found itself in during the middle of 1949 didn’t last long at all.
In other words, the Soviet propaganda machine played up and exaggerated the reports of shrinking businesses and growing unemployment in vain.
The funny thing is that you can see examples of America’s burgeoning economic strength in the exact same issues of the magazine. Take, for example, this full page advertisement less than 10 pages later:
Of course, the fact that American private trucking companies were transporting food all across the country without government intervention is not necessarily an ideological victory for the forces of American enterprise. But it certainly was a data point.
There were also technological advancements, such as expensive calculators like these:
And then there was the early precursor to the information superhighway:
Sure, Newsweek probably appealed to a more educated and higher salaried population than, say, Life. But these advertisements feature hints of the technological and business advances that were to help the American economy greatly outpace the Soviets.
I’m just not sure how many people at the time could recognize what was happening.
And, of course, the big kicker was this:
We’ll talk a little bit more about television tomorrow.