62
mission. Rationed goods during World War II created an entirely new scrap metal
and textiles collection and reselling industry (Woods and Petersen 1995).
During the first half of the 1940s, most people responsible for managing and
contributing to this effort had firsthand experience with personally managing scarce
resources. Most had lived through the great depression and were already personally
inclined to save every scrap of material they had. These habits were born out of a
sense of individual self-preservation from living through years of deprivation.
It was not difficult to cultivate appreciation in the citizenry as a whole for what
each and every individual piece of metal, fabric, paper, glass, or rubber could mean
for the day-to-day success or failure when so many knew personally what it was to
live without enough material resources. The concerted effort lasted for a few years,
especially toward the end of the war as demand for diminishing resources increased,
and ended with a decisive victory and a sense that it was all worth the effort.
Once the war was won, however, it was no longer necessary to continue to scrimp
and save nor for everyone to focus on individual fragments and leftovers. Since the
troops were home, the people of the American public could turn its focus from the
manufacture of implements of defense and destruction to other, more productive,
endeavors. And so, as a nation, they did.
4.2 New Priority: Consumption
The years following the end of the war ushered in a period of mass consumption in
the United States and around the world unparalleled in human history. A new sense
of stability, security, and prosperity inspired optimism, and new appetites developed
for more than a subsistence level of existence. Positive popular sentiment inspired
by a sense of security and perceived abundance drove the sharp rise in population
known as the “baby boom.”
Growing families increased demand for just about every conceivable good and
service. The World War II military-industrial complex, set up to win the wars
abroad, had the enormous capacity needed to continually supply the troops. As they
returned home to have families and enjoy the fruits of a hard won peace, these
industries retooled. Companies that made tanks, fighter planes, and gunboats
retooled to produce cars, passenger planes, and powerboats for recreational use to
satisfy the demands of a growing and more affluent consumer and leisure class. The
waste problems created by this post-war euphoria consumption would need a
systems- level approach to understand and quantify.
A recounting of a few key events in the next section traces the emergence of the
“life cycle” concept that today is an easy take as a matter of course in describing any
phenomena that change through time.
4 Do Something: Mid-twentieth Century Developments
mission. Rationed goods during World War II created an entirely new scrap metal
and textiles collection and reselling industry (Woods and Petersen 1995).
During the first half of the 1940s, most people responsible for managing and
contributing to this effort had firsthand experience with personally managing scarce
resources. Most had lived through the great depression and were already personally
inclined to save every scrap of material they had. These habits were born out of a
sense of individual self-preservation from living through years of deprivation.
It was not difficult to cultivate appreciation in the citizenry as a whole for what
each and every individual piece of metal, fabric, paper, glass, or rubber could mean
for the day-to-day success or failure when so many knew personally what it was to
live without enough material resources. The concerted effort lasted for a few years,
especially toward the end of the war as demand for diminishing resources increased,
and ended with a decisive victory and a sense that it was all worth the effort.
Once the war was won, however, it was no longer necessary to continue to scrimp
and save nor for everyone to focus on individual fragments and leftovers. Since the
troops were home, the people of the American public could turn its focus from the
manufacture of implements of defense and destruction to other, more productive,
endeavors. And so, as a nation, they did.
4.2 New Priority: Consumption
The years following the end of the war ushered in a period of mass consumption in
the United States and around the world unparalleled in human history. A new sense
of stability, security, and prosperity inspired optimism, and new appetites developed
for more than a subsistence level of existence. Positive popular sentiment inspired
by a sense of security and perceived abundance drove the sharp rise in population
known as the “baby boom.”
Growing families increased demand for just about every conceivable good and
service. The World War II military-industrial complex, set up to win the wars
abroad, had the enormous capacity needed to continually supply the troops. As they
returned home to have families and enjoy the fruits of a hard won peace, these
industries retooled. Companies that made tanks, fighter planes, and gunboats
retooled to produce cars, passenger planes, and powerboats for recreational use to
satisfy the demands of a growing and more affluent consumer and leisure class. The
waste problems created by this post-war euphoria consumption would need a
systems- level approach to understand and quantify.
A recounting of a few key events in the next section traces the emergence of the
“life cycle” concept that today is an easy take as a matter of course in describing any
phenomena that change through time.
4 Do Something: Mid-twentieth Century Developments