... and here’s another bit of “common knowledge” that just isn’t so. The United States experienced no large increase in exports after World War II. This is important because the lack of industrial capacity in Europe and Japan has been oddly credited with the postwar economic boom in the United States. Again, go back and look at trade data from that era and show me where the United States was ever even remotely dependent upon exports. It never has been, not even now.
[... and here’s another bit of “common knowledge” that just isn’t so. The United States experienced no large increase in exports after World War II. This is important because the lack of industrial capacity in Europe and Japan has been oddly credited with the postwar economic boom in the United States. Again, go back and look at trade data from that era and show me where the United States was ever even remotely dependent upon exports. It never has been, not even now.]
Excellent point!
Our economic boom was created by the demands of a burgeoning middle class lifestyle and all that went with it.