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The Great Society
Following World War II, the United States experienced a financial boom in which millions of Americans enjoyed the benefits of national economic growth. Jobs in government, manufacturing, and service industries transformed the nation into an affluent society that most people could not have imagined years earlier during the Great Depression. Federal programs such as the G.I. Bill helped families buy homes, start businesses, attend college, and build generational wealth in unprecedented numbers.
These opportunities were not available to everyone, however. By 1968, 35 million people lived below the poverty line of $3,130 per year for a family of four, and $1,540 per year for individuals. As an emerging middle class migrated to the nation's developing suburbs, the poverty of coal mines, migrant farms, and inner cities became invisible. |