The Basis of American Capitalism Part One (FRQ)

FRQ Question: How did TWO of the following help shape American national culture in the 1920's?

- Advertising
- Entertainment
- Mass production

I chose "mass production" and "advertising". On to the essay.

The Basis of American Capitalism

by Brandon Finley

America’s a capitalist nation. But what is capitalism? Capitalism is an economic system based on free markets and supply and demand. Since the government doesn’t limit the marketplace, private interests can prosper. Overtime innovators innovate and with these inventions, production increases as well. In the end there is plenty of leftover supply of products. However, these goods go to waste if their isn’t a demand to buy them. Advertising fostered this consumer demand to purchase these goods. Plus, if all of the masses do is consume they will never innovate. In the big picture, America’s industrial capitalism conceived so much innovation and surplus that a mass consumer culture must be carried out to match the mass production. Likewise, the masses stay consuming and the trail blazers keep innovating which causes an increased social class gap.

The basis of America’s industrial capitalism is innovation. Without innovation, capitalism would not work. Entrepreneurs use these innovations to make goods/services. As supply increases, prices decrease sometimes enough to make it available and affordable to the masses. For example, Henry Ford invented the Model T automobile in the 1900s. To make his invention available and affordable to the masses, be implemented the ideas of “Taylorism” (the idea to subdivided tasks among workers to increase production) in an assembly line. With Taylorism the need for an actual skilled worker diminished. There was never a shortage of workers thanks to that, the Great Migration of the 1910s, and his practice of Welfare Capitalism as well. In the end, consumers bought Ford’s cars like crazy! This is just one of the many examples of innovation leading to mass production in America’s capitalism.

Now that the supply was there, what created the demand? Something had to get the word out there; so what was it? One word. Advertising. What advertising did was encourage consumer spending for a brand by hyperbolically hyping it up with a certain “cool” factor through media. Hmm...where have we seen this before...I don’t know...how about the “Yellow Press” that hyped up World War I for America with anti-German propaganda. Anyways, along with the concept of overly exaggerated information causing Americans to be misled, another concept called “Obsolescence” emerged. Instead of being usual passive consumers, the masses would return each and every year to buy, buy, buy, even if the product has decreasing value. Examples include today’s world like automobiles and electronics. All in all, these advertising techniques created an American craze of materialism. It fostered a mental stigma in people’s heads to keep on buying, buying, buying to be “cool” and have validation according to society. Ever heard of keeping up with the Jones’s”? In review, this is how advertising created overwhelming demand to match the overwhelming supply of goods presented Capitalism.

It’s amazing how much innovation and production the US has created. However, what isn’t ok is the mass consumer culture that has been created to match it. One group slaves away at 9 to 5 jobs and consumes. Another creates their destiny marvelously and rolls in the dough off of working class labor. No wonder why we have a huge wealth gap in America. Innovators; the masses consume as they are kept dumb by advertising and materialism. Innovation is key to a capitalist culture and economic system. Consuming is key as well. But as these two groups and going different directions how can they be equal?