Between 1948 and 1955, austerity existed but slowly gave way to a general sense of optimism and general prosperity. Clothes were rationed until 1949, furniture until 1952 and food until 1954 in the United Kingdom and was the same for much of Europe. The public simply demanded that such necessities be made available to them. Luxuries remained a short supply but the supply was growing and more people began enjoying access to these goods. Overall, economic recovery was slow but steady.
In the immediate postwar era, countries in Western Europe expanded on a trend that began during the 1920s and the Great Depression to improve the quality of life for ordinary people. The pioneer of social security in the United States, Roosevelt argued that people “everywhere in the world” ought to enjoy the freedoms of speech and worship as well from want and fear (during the Great Depression social security was implemented). The Beveridge Report of 1942 identify the evils in society as squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease. Postwar Britain witnessed the founding of a national health service, the construction of mass public housing and an expansion of pensions. The working class moved from Victorian Era housing. The French also recognized that all citizens enjoyed the rights of social protections and over the 1950s the West German state did the same. Financed by increasingly high taxes on the wealthy, the redistribution of wealth increased, the share of the economy enjoyed by the super wealthy decreased. With the expansion of education, the playing field leveled. Overall, the lives of the working class throughout Western Europe improved.
The Beveridge Report stated: THREE GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF RECOMMENDATIONS 6. In proceeding from this first comprehensive survey of social insurance to the next task – of making recommendations – three guiding principles may be laid down at the outset. 7. The first principle is that any proposals for the future, while they should use to the full the experience gathered in the past, should not be restricted by consideration of sectional interests established in the obtaining of that experience. Now, when the war is abolishing landmarks of every kind, is the opportunity for using experience in a clear field. A revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching. 8. The second principle is that organisation of social insurance should be treated as one part only of a comprehensive policy of social progress. Social insurance fully developed may provide income security; it is an attack upon Want. But Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction and in some ways the easiest to attack. The others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. 9. The third principle is that social security must be achieved by co-operation between the State and the individual. The State should offer security for service and contribution.
War-time restrictions were removed. Rebuilding (with money from the colonies) was mostly complete with new housing tracts, public buildings and roads. The increasing wages led to a new wave of consumerism that redefined life over the next 30 years and waged doubled over the decade. The middle class and upper-working class went on new exotic vacations to places such as Spain and companies developed to take advantage of this expanding market. Consumer spending grew throughout the 1950s as people wanted new, modern and labor-saving devices. For many, it was a good time to be alive as people enjoyed more possession, especially televisions, low unemployment and were generally more prosperous than ever before. 69% of the population had a fridge, 64% a washing machine (up from just 17% in the previous decade); and 90% owned a television with access with 3 channels. People enjoyed rising living standards associated with these new commodities but also for the first time in modern history such benefits as state subsidized and affordable housing, free health care, free higher education and mostly low rates of crime.
In Britain through the 1950s, class still mattered. The working class was still two-thirds of the entire population, although the middle class was now approaching 30% and continuing to grow. The class difference still resulted in different accents, the use of different words, the support for different sports teams and even different meal times-the working class had a larger midday meal and only a small meal with tea in the evening. Class meant different access to schooling and expectations while at school. For the poor, life was still a struggle against the dark, dirt and the cold and although nearly all houses were wired for electricity, it was still unreliable and dangerous and people still used candles. Through the 1950s, the poor continued to use outdoor toilets although they now used actual toilet paper.
As British Prime Minister Macmillan stated in 1957: “Let us be frank about it: most of our people have never had it so good. Go round the country, go to the industrial towns, go to the farms and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime – nor indeed in the history of this country.”
Figure 8: The Rebuilding of Germany
In Britain, the unemployment rate in 1950-1969 was 1.6%, the lowest of any twenty year period. Western European countries and America also experienced these low unemployment rates, with the expectation that jobs were plentiful. Furthermore, the expectation was that this job was employment for one’s lifetime, and afterwards a state (including social security) or company pension would allow this high standard of living to continue. Someone leaving secondary school could find a decent skilled blue-collar job and enjoy the trappings of the upper working or middle class. Unions would work to protect the rights of workers. In Eastern Europe, the expanding economies provided nearly full employment to the workers (but with a high cost of choice and safety). However, several problems lay hidden. Empires key in European redevelopment.
However, problems with European industrialization began showing. The gains of the working class made the production of goods too expensive and globalization made the export of jobs possible. The systemic one was that traditional industries that managed to do well in the 1950s and early 1960s, were declining by the late 1960s and struggling in the 1970s. For example, textiles and ship building, the life-blood of many cities, were either stagnating of declining, leading to slowdowns in hiring and rising unemployment rates from young, unskilled or immigrant workers. This led to debate regarding if the role of the state was to support declining industries. The boom of traditional industries was not to last forever. Additionally, this productivity and economic success was supported by work of an increasingly underpaid migrant workforce. Workers flocked to the expanding European cities, Berlin, London, Paris, and industrial centers to perform the work was needed but lacked the workers for unskilled and undesirable jobs. Here, workers from the former colonies moved home leading to debates to include of this was welcomed migration. The foreign workers were increasingly blamed for their failure to integrate while the state largely failed to support these efforts as well.
