The American Century and the American Crisis

This chapter analyzes structural changes in the United States during the postwar period and, to a greater or lesser extent, other advanced, industrial economies. It attempts to answer the question of when the “American century” ended and the American crisis began. The economic and social institutions of the United States and many other developed nations have not adjusted successfully to the profound and startling cumulative effects of the normal pattern of economic transformation associated with growth combined with, and compounded by, these additional sources of change and growth. The...

This chapter analyzes structural changes in the United States during the postwar period and, to a greater or lesser extent, other advanced, industrial economies. It attempts to answer the question of when the “American century” ended and the American crisis began. The economic and social institutions of the United States and many other developed nations have not adjusted successfully to the profound and startling cumulative effects of the normal pattern of economic transformation associated with growth combined with, and compounded by, these additional sources of change and growth. The symptoms of this problem can be seen in the prolonged and persistent fiscal imbalances that have been especially noticeable in the 1980s. The chapter presents some data that describe the size and scope of the structural changes and fiscal imbalances that the U.S. economy has experienced in the postwar era and discusses A. G. B. Fisher's theory of structural change during economic growth.