Ending the Depression

The Second World War did not end the Great Depression. The coming of war just replaced one form of misery with another. Unemployed men were moved off the streets into the infantry (where you lived like a dog and were used as target practice by the German and Japanese soldiers).

The Great Depression really ended in 1946 when factories that had been producing tanks and trucks for the military switched to producing cars and those that produced radios and radar for the military started making radios and television for American families. The war had produced a disciplined, hard-working work force so industry became very efficient..

People had saved during wartime, because they were earning, but could not spend due to rationing. After the war they started spending to sustain their growing families.

Production and Consumption grew rapidly together.