Question

Were Americans in the Cold War really living in the "happy days" of economic prosperity during the 1950s and beyond? Or was their Cold War reality more of a "happy daze" with fears of communism and social change on their minds? Discuss with your classmates the realities of life in a cold war America.

Answer 1

The World War 2 with its end brought the ideological warfare. The communist ideology was pitted against the capitalism. Karl Marx with his concepts of communism had influenced almost all the labor class in the world.
The politicians were also mesmerized by that theory and Stalin in Russia as well as Mao in China brought the communist system. The western or capitalist countries were against that and they had publicly spoken about the desire to stop its spread.

Although, communism has correctly pointed out the profit mongering by the firms at the cost of society and labor exploitation of the capitalist system but communism itself had many flaws. It lacked the cobweb of incentives for growth and central planning overlooked ground realities. However, capitalist system also had flaws with its unregulated market voracious desire for money, consumption which led to unsustainable development. The business cycles like recession and boom were more frequent in the capitalism and there were no such thing as 'happy days'.
The young generation and blue collar class were influenced by the Marxism and after the 2008 subprime crisis the popularity of Marxism rose again.

The fear of social change is always there such demand arises from the exploited class or labor class while established class view this as a threat to them. The 'Cold War' has given sleepless nights to politicians and rich people because they were afraid of losing the power compared to the common public.