The Second World War (II) :: Essays Papers

The guerrilla World state of war (II)Wars ar good business. They do an immediate contain for a wide variety of materials needed by the organization in order to fight the war. They create move opportunities for race that might not ordinarily be considered part of the normal melt force. And, while not necessarily good for the soldiers engaged in the fighting, wars are always good for the businesses that provide the materials used in a war. The Second World War was very good for business. The Second World War completed the process of centralizing the American scrimping. The Great Depression of 1929 and Americas e sedulousnessation in the war completed the change from small, locally run businesses to large, centralise control. Big business, big unions, and big government dominated the American economy by the end of the war. The federal government issued thousands of contracts to make war goods. The largest beneficiaries of the governments largesse were the existing large cor porations. The big got bigger, Norton tells us, and the government guaranteed profits in the have of cost-plus-fixed fee contracts, generous tax write-offs, and exemption from antitrust prosecution. Large universities accredited research contracts. Farming came to be dominated by large-scale fit out companies and farm co-ops rather than family farms. The war accelerated this trend because wealthy institutions were give way able to pay for expensive new machinery (Norton 524 and 525). The huge government hold for increased production meant an increased demand for workers. Businesses wanted to hire any(prenominal) qualified worker willing to work. Unions wanted only union workers to work in jobs that had been union jobs. This disagreement eventually led to federal conflict in settling jab disputes. By 1943, labor was dominated by the centralized control of the unions, union membership climbing from 8.5 million in 1940 to over 14.7 million by 1943 (525). Along with its involveme nt in labor matters, the federal government also became involved in business activities. With the mental home of the National War Labor Board in 1941 to settle labor disputes, and then the creation of the War Production Board in 1942 to qualify the America economy to war production, the federal government had become a third partner in the centralizing of the American economy. With this increased elaboration came an increase in government policy and regulation. This led to an increased demand for federal workers to carry out these policies and by 1945 the size of the federal government had grown form 1.