Designing for the Life Span Segment 2
Designing for the Life Span Segment 2 
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[D]
Transition and Change in America's Way of Life and Work.
Employment.
America begins the 20th Century as an agrarian economy with the vast majority of its population working small subsistence family farms.
Dust Bowl Farmer, Circa 1930, Library of Congress.
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It is necessary to expand upon the changes described in order to understand the holistic implications for design professions as well as for general preparation in any profession. Without a historical perspective, one might assume that the consumer economy is an absolute - something fundamental to American society... it is not. America has experienced other forms of lifestyle and living - albeit, none as successful as the consumer economy. However, the agrarian economy was indeed inclusive in its poverty.
At the turn of the 20th century, the overwhelming percentage of population living on family farms did so without electrification, telephone communications, indoor plumbing, automobile transportation and also much in the way of education. Literacy existed among the tiny middle class and even smaller upper classes.
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