In what ways did the U.S. emerge from World War II fundamentally changed....?

Question

consider national power, economic health and the home front........

Answer 1

At the end of WWII the US was the only nation with industrial capacity. All the other industrial nations had been bombed, their industrial plants lay in smoking ruins. Consequently we had a huge economic advantage for 10-15 years. We had only been a 'world power' since the Spanish American War, but now, only about 50 years later, we were THE world power!

We had the GI Bill which allowed returning GIs to get college educations and to buy homes. So just to make things even better in the 50s and 60s we had the world's highest percentage of college graduates which drove a huge wave of invention and technological innovation. We also had progressive taxes, so schools were good and the govt. could do a good job without deficit spending.

But also at the end of WWII we went on a binge of military spending. We went on a permanent 'war footing' during peacetime. Every president since Truman has used military spending as a device to dump money into the economy to keep it going. We never had a large standing army before WWII. We never spent nearly as much on ships, airplanes, bombs, etc.etc. We fought the Cold War not because the Soviet Union was such a big threat but basically just as an excuse to spend this money.

And since the 80s it's REALLY gotten out of hand. We are spending $2 billion apiece for airplanes designed to 'clean up' after a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, a threat that no longer exists. We built thousands of tanks that cost $30 million apiece and cost so much to run that the crews have to learn in simulators, but as soon as they got into battle in Iraq they bogged down and we didn't have the parts to keep them going. We built 'stealth' planes that we only used after conventional planes went in and bombed all the radar facilities. We have unquestioned air superiority but are spending tens of billions to develop the next generation of fighter/bomber.

We now spend more on military and weapons that the rest of the world combined, and SIXTEEN TIMES as much as all the nations that could oppose us, put together.

Now we are spending huge deficits because politicians don't believe in progressive taxes and want to cut taxes but increase spending. They do this even in good times, so in bad times when we might -need- to borrow money, we can't as easily. We're going down the toilet because Americans have unrealistic expectations. As Paul Harvey likes to say, there is no self-government without self-discipline.

Answer 2

It was as simple as that hard to define moment when Son is now the Man - - - - clearly the breadwinner, the power to reckon with. It was less about econmic wealth and global markets but the sheer fact that America did it. Organization. Making thiungs happen. Even with SNAFUs and FUBUs, both WWII innovations - - - America had and still has the organizational ability to tool up and produce millions of items needed for sustained warfare. Not simply weapons but food & material, even in terms of maintaining morale, America mobilized and in that instant the World realized that they would have to defer to America's Judgement until they could adopt an American System.
A system with a measure of equallity, Equally difficult for various nations as well as the American Nation was the need to end segregation. Segregation aside from 'morality' and concepts of good & evil, in the cold impersonal sense segregation makes no sense. In life and in Death. A man A woman of any race can bring a life into life, save a life, mend a wound, tend to crops tend to heards, can slaughter, can cook, can do any number of things. In America that was the biggest change on the home front. Blacks & Women now had Jobs and either America's ecomony would expand to accomadate a larger work force or - - - there was no or, America boldly moved forward, expanding the economy, there were stumbles along the way, but the fact we are HERE and not There says a lot about progress.

Peace...........................

Answer 3

ww2 actually boosted the economy and got the world out the great depression. so in a way its a good thing. in the national power perspective us dropped 2 atomic bombs in nagasaki and hiroshima forcing them to retreat and end ww2. technology is the heart of winning a war and the 2 bombs showed that us has the technology to win wars which put them at the top. But i dun see how that makes them the global 'police' . Also after the ww2 instead of having to focus on a war people now have time to come out with more antivirus, cures, preventions for pandemics and deseases and other medical breakthroughs. So health improved

Answer 4

well it came out with the lowest unemployment rates it will ever have