AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Americans are used to bargains - furniture, electronics, food, fashion - all produced overseas and often delivered to our front doors. Now the Trump administration's latest round of tariffs seeks to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., even if it means stopping the flow of cheap products. So how did cheap goods become so accessible in the U.S? And is the American dream possible without them? Lizabeth Cohen is a professor of history at Harvard University and the author of "A Consumers' Republic: The Politics Of Mass Consumption in Postwar America." she joins us now. Welcome to the program.
LIZABETH COHEN: Thank you. It's a pleasure.
RASCOE: So how did the U.S. become a place where most consumers - I mean, they really expect widespread access to affordable products?
COHEN: Well, it didn't start that way. It's coming out of World War II and looking ahead to the postwar economy that, I would argue, the concept of an economy that would prosper based on mass consumption really takes off. It takes off in a way where people are told and believe that their consumption is not only for their own good but for the good of the nation.
There was a consensus between economic planners coming out of the New Deal. There were corporations and companies who believed this and unions, as well. The concept was, you got to pay workers well. They're going to buy things, which will stoke the fires of factories. That will create more jobs and put more money in consumers' pockets. It was a closed circle. But that changes with the 1970s, and I think that's key to where we end up today with this search for cheap goods.
RASCOE: What changed in the 1970s? What was the switch?
COHEN: So you have a number of things converging. One is, we start deindustrializing, and that's globalization and the move of jobs offshore to cheaper labor markets. Also unions begin their long decline. And by the late 1950s and particularly starting in the 1960s, marketers embraced a concept called market segmentation. And the idea was figuring out how people were characterized by a different kind of lifestyle and therefore would buy different kinds of goods. And so what had been a kind of consumption for the good of the nation became a fulfillment of one's identity through consumption. And as people's economic capacities really declined, you know, people are less worried at this point about whether these goods are made in the United States. They're just not, and they're looking for the cheapest price.
RASCOE: So would you say that consumption, access to cheap goods - has it become linked to American identity?
COHEN: Absolutely. The desire to have a car, to have a television, the latest version of it, to own a home - which is becoming increasingly difficult for many Americans - that has definitely defined people's sense of what they can expect as an American. And this is why I think we're going to face some serious challenges if, in fact, these tariffs raise prices. I think it's very much going to affect people's confidence. We're seeing consumer confidence at new lows, and we have to remember that 70% of our GDP is dependent on consumption. The economy will definitely suffer if people do not keep that cycle going.
RASCOE: Is there a way to reestablish that link between manufacturing and American identity?
COHEN: That is definitely the ideal that the Trump administration has in mind, but I think it will play out differently. First of all, it takes a long time to build a factory. And when those factories are built, they are not going to be the kind of factories that prospered in the 1950s and into the 1960s. They're going to be very automated. They're going to have a lot of robotics, and they're going to require a smaller number of workers who have very sophisticated skills.
Many working people are not attending college. They're not even getting very good high school educations, and they're not in a position to actually take on the jobs that are going to become available. That's one problem. The other, I would say, is that there really is an awareness, I think, among many Americans, that waste leads to an environmental crisis. And when we continue to consume, we're only contributing to an environmental crisis in the world.
RASCOE: That's Lizabeth Cohen, professor at Harvard University. Thank you so much for joining us.
COHEN: Thank you. I very much appreciate the opportunity. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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