INDIVIDUAL ARTICLE FOR SOC SCI 3RD TRIMESTER

Poverty and its Effects on the U.S. after WW2

By ------------------ of 8D

World War 2 was one of, if not the biggest, bloodiest war in modern history. Such wars will cost a lot in people, as
the number of casualties can reach millions, in resources, where entire nations can be starved of necessities such as food
and metals, and money, used to supply a nation’s people with resources and weapons. Every country that participated in a
war pays this cost, and WW2 was no exception. About 75 million people died in total, around half of which were regular
civilians, likely the Jews that died in German camps.

The U.S. Joined the war under the allied powers after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Fast forward a few years, and
the Allied powers won the war. From a first glance, the U.S. prospered after the war, establishing itself as a global
superpower. They replaced the world’s standard currency with the US dollar instead of gold, and their economy skyrocketed
after the war, as the factories in the US were underutilized during the great depression and were able to maximize
production. They also were part of organizations like the World Bank (which the US founded), the NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization) and the UN.

All of this is true, and some communities were able to flourish. However, looking deeper, we can see that many of
America’s citizens still lived in poverty through the 1950s. Most of these citizens were the black African Americans.
Approximately three times more black families in America live below the poverty level than white families. The returning war
veterans could not always find work back home and wanted the African Americans to step down from their jobs. Many blue-
collar workers (workers which do manual labor such as agriculture, mining, or construction) also lived in poverty.

On the contrary, blue-collar workers were also the biggest consumers of many novelty goods and services. The
middle class was growing, and people could support living a life once considered as only for the rich. New schools and
colleges opened every year, and almost all workforce members had social security. People moved to bigger homes in the
suburbs. Most successful Americans were white, however.

Based on what I wrote, you can say that America was very racist during that time. So much so that the whites
prospered, and the blacks were in poverty. The image of the well-off white middle-class families in their suburban homes
was their symbol of economic stability. But it wasn’t just money either. Black people had heavy voting restrictions in the
south, were placed in separate areas in public transport, and went to separate schools. The blacks started bus boycotts, sit-
ins, freedom rides, and social movements to try to gain equality.

However, struggles with poverty continue to this day. After the war, poverty was on the decrease, but after 1964,
the poverty rate stagnated to around 18-15%, and has not drastically decreased, even after spending a lot of time and
money on lowering it. The US’s method to help treat poverty did not work well, as it actually promoted people to idle, relying
on government funds, instead of working hard to sustain themselves. Of course, government intervention is needed, but the
method that the government is using to intervene is not working. To summarize, the black Americans suffered from
discrimination and poverty while the whites mostly prospered, and while the poverty rate decreased exponentially during the
post-war decades due to becoming a global superpower, poverty is still a thorn on millions of people’s sides in America
thanks to improper methods of fighting poverty.