What was the greatest impact that Americans on the home front felt during World War 2?

Answer 1

The greatest impact was the loss of assistance provided by those off fighting. Many soilders came from small farms or poor families that depended on their assistance with day to day operations or additional money brought into the families budget. The greatest thing of "social" significance was the mass entrace of women into the work place. The men were away, but the factories still needed to operate. Women rose to the occassion, exchanging their aprons for welders and discovering that they had the intelligence, skill and dedication to the job - they were out there making the country run. It was a powerful and empowering realization and women would never again take a back seat to men in the workplace. After the war, huge numbers of women flooded the market to stand equal with men in the workplace. Working women created a life style change in their families. They were providing the second income, allowing their families to have more goods and services. The two car family came to be, along with other "luxuries" that had once been out of reach. "Saving up" for something became a way of the past. People wanted what they wanted NOW. Department stores were the first to issue store credit cards - then banks started offering them. This was the starting point for living outside of one's means. The two incomes suddenly were not enough so they looked for more money in other places. Credit cards gave them a new source of money and they spent to their credit limits. With credit cards maxed out - people again needed another source for money. The Mortgage Industry provided the answer, and the term "refi" became a part of the American culture. So people borrowed more money to spend against their homes. Eventually they consumed the equity and were trying to figure out where the next source of spending money would come from. There wasn't one. That is the real cause of the housing and credit crisis. People were irresponsible - caught up in the seemingly endless supply of cash to fill their wants and desires. The Boomers, those born after the war and raised with more affluence-never learned the lessons of their elders who went through the Great Depression and understood the lessons of saving and sacrificing to survive. The Boomer generation, which makes up over a third of this country's total population - impacted the economy with bad credit, no savings, no home equity and no way to hang on to their "stuff". So they defaulted on everything. And here we are today in this credit mess. And it was all started by those war time women who help us win a war and build a nation.! Now THAT'S IMPACT!