The Top 10 for the 20th Century: Economics - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Nov, 1999 by Jeff A. Schnepper

Being asked to list the 10 most significant economic events of the 20th century is a lot like being asked to list the 10 most beautiful women in the world--every husband has a different answer for number one, and few agree on numbers two through 10. Moreover, with economics, you normally have movements, rather than single, isolated events. Nevertheless, here are my top 10:

The explosive revolution in travel and transportation. The automobile opened near-universal access to the nation and led to the growth of the suburbs. It allowed the luxury of independent travel--without the exhaustive costs of time and money. No longer did people have to live where they worked. With a car comes freedom--ask any teenager. With a car comes the suburban shopping mall--the cultural hub of modern society, Sociologically, the car you own defines who you are in America. The car means independence and self-sufficiency--the very definition of the American psyche.

The car lets you move, but the jet lets you fly! Modern air travel means that distance and time have been diminished again. The wonders of far-off civilizations are now hours, rather than lifetimes, away.

The ubiquitous use and availability of the telephone. Several years ago, I led a Rotary Group Study Exchange to Pakistan. While that nation lacked many of the comforts Americans take for granted, when I wanted to call my family back home in the U.S., I was handed a cell phone. People now have instant communication with others around the world. As the sun never set on the British empire in the last century, today, because of telecommunications, it never sets on international business and commerce.

The Great Depression. The devastation of the U.S. economy in the 1930s led to the growth of big central government in Washington. The bureaucracies of government regulation and oversight were a direct result of the Depression. They were established to create work and stimulate a sluggish economy.

The Depression opened the door to a huge expansion in active government intervention in the nation's economic and, later, social affairs. Big government was conceived under Abraham Lincoln, germinated under Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, but gave birth in full flower under Franklin D. Roosevelt as a reaction to the needs created by the Depression.

World War II must be listed as a major significant event simply because it lifted the U.S. out of the Depression. The war eliminated unemployment and stimulated production of what was to become the dominant economic force in world history.

The establishment of the Federal Reserve System. The nation now had a system to "control" the money supply and to stimulate, or contract, economic expansion. The system, as later developed, provided not only economic pinching, but created a foundation of credibility that serves as an underpinning of America's money and its banking system. Banks may still fail, but not because customers delete their liquidity in panicked runs against them. The most powerful man in Washington may well be Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, not Pres. Clinton, in terms of immediate economic impact.

The victory of capitalism over communism. As an economic system, we won--hands down! I have a friend who came back from Cuba recently. He said it was like going through a time warp back to the 1950s. The Soviet Union is no more, and China's growth is a direct result of the introduction of capitalism and the profit motive into its system. Capitalism may not be the best economic system--it has its faults--but it's the very best we've been able to come up with so far.

The universal pervasiveness of television. With satellite and cable television, there now is instant worldwide visual communication. I saw John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, killed as it happened. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein saw the Gulf War on CNN. Virtually the entire world cried for Britain's Princess Diana minutes after her death.

Even the poorest and most remote areas now see "Beverly Hills 90210" or "Dawson's Creek" and "know" what clothes to wear, how to speak, and how to act. The "apple of opulence" is presented to all--in glowing color. Can you watch "Dallas" and grow up in Watts and not feel something has been denied you? I grew up wanting things; my children grew up "needing" things. In terms of total impact, this may even be my number one.

The growth of pensions as an employee benefit. In the beginning of the 20th century, only the very wealthy owned stocks. Even after World War II, just a small percentage of the population was involved in the stock market.

Pensions changed all that. With their ability to invest in stocks, they made almost all working Americans investors on Wall Street. With the run up in stock prices over the last decade, many workers who dreamed merely of retiring with enough money to live are finding themselves potential millionaires. The reader of the Wall Street Journal today may just as likely be a Teamster checking his mutual fund as a businessman reviewing his portfolio. When E.F. Hutton talks, we all listen; when Alan Greenspan talks, we all jump!