Designing for the Life Span Segment 2
Designing for the Life Span Segment 2 
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[D]
Transition & Change in the American Economy in the 20th Century.
The American Agrarian Economy- from the beginning through 1920.
The American Industrial Economy- 1900 through 1975.
Service Economy- 1965 through 1995.
By the early 1960s, the industrial economy had peaked and the number of Americans working in manufacturing was at an all time high. However, as fast as industrialization had moved to form a way of life, the economy changed even faster in its evolution. By the 1980s America had made a transition into a "service" economy occupying 60% of all Americans employed- family farms gave way to agri-business with only 2% of the population living on farms and- by 1990- 11% in manufacturing, reducing to 9% by the year 2000.
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By the end of World War II, American industrial capacity was largely at 100% capacity and technological change to manufacturing processes became very difficult. For example, the steel production methods central to much of hard goods manufacturing remained stagnant. While America had no real competition just after World War II, the inability to make changes meant that such production became cheaper in other countries. Along with escalating costs in labor, American manufacturing became off-shore manufacturing. Running parallel, employment rose in the service industries and, by the 1980s, 60% of employment could be found there. Of significance, the elapsed time of each economy became shorter making the changes more volatile and affecting greater numbers of Americans both positively and adversely.
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