America in the Midst of an Economic Sea Change
China, India, Brazil, and many other nations are becoming industrial powerhouses. These countries are starting to produce goods and services that are both efficient and competitive with those produced by the United States. When you combine this trend with the advances being made in technology, it’s fair to say the train has left the station and we’re living in a changing world.
The impact of these changes on the United States is the emergence of our fourth socioeconomic society. The following material covers the history and affects of socioeconomic changes on the U.S.
Socioeconomic Background
Prodigious changes in our economy bring about changes in our social behavior. This is called a socioeconomic change. Socioeconomics is defined as “the study of the interrelationship between economics and social behavior.” Socioeconomic changes are not short term. America has had three full-cycle socioeconomic changes. Each one has lasted between seventy-five and one hundred years. America’s current and fourth socioeconomic change began in the early 1980s, so it’s approximately twenty years old.
America’s first socioeconomic economy, the agrarian economy, began in seventeenth century. It was followed by the agrarian industrial economy and then the manufacturing industrial economy. The fourth socioeconomic economy in the United States is the service economy, which is still emerging and expanding.
The first socioeconomic society began in the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. There’s a harbor in the town of Plymouth called Plymouth Harbor. There’s a rock in that harbor called Plymouth Rock. On approximately December 22, 1620, forty-one Pilgrims (then called Saints) and sixty-one crew members disembarked on that rock in that harbor and founded the town they called Plymouth. The town, the rock, and the harbor were all named after their port of disembarkation, Plymouth, England. During that first winter half their number died. Therein began what could be called “The American Adventure” and its first socioeconomic economy.
The survivors of that first winter were strong, determined people. The survival and future growth of these early settlers were predicated on their ability to become self-sufficient. They had to produce their own food, make their own cloth, build their own homes, and develop transportation systems. Thus, the focus of the first settlers in America was directed toward farming, textiles, mining, and shipping. Farming took the lead and became the centerpiece of their suburban society. Consequently, the first economic model for the new colony was agrarian.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, farmers used oxen and horses for power and crude wooden plows to work the fields. All sowing was done by hand. Cultivating was done by hoe. Hay and grain were cut with sickles, and threshing was done with flails. In other words, people and animals produced the food in their agrarian economy.
For a long time after the settlement of the American colonies, their industries were mainly agricultural. English laws restricted the growth of commercial interests. The colonies were permitted to trade only with the mother country, and even one colony’s trade with another colony was illegal. U.S. products were usually transported in English ships. After the Revolution this state of affairs ceased to exist. The shipping interests of the United States grew rapidly, its commerce spreading to all parts of the habitable world. In the early years of the nineteenth century, the business of importation and exportation grew with extraordinary rapidity.
