Life During the 1960s Essays - Socialism, Economy,

Unit Two ? Life During the 1960?s The sixties were the age of youth, 70 million children from the post-war baby boom became young adults. The Civil Rights movement was the cause of great changes during this time, people were able to show they could still affect politics through ?peaceful? demonstrations. Many young people were involved in making America better for all people, regardless of their race. The 60?s decade in the US was dominated by the Vietnam War, though it was not a World War, its affects were still felt throughout.. There was an ongoing cold war between the East and the West in regards to Communism and Capitalism, there could be no winner but both sides believed their ideology was best (The People History 1960?s, n.d.). During this time the draft was accelerated and anti-war sentiment continued to grow, in order to avoid the draft some fled to Canada (Goodwin his assassination shocked the nation and marked the end of an era in history. From the 1930s and into the 1970s, the Soviet economy had been geared for heavy the military and heavy industry, production with a lot of steel and cement. It was a "command" economy, directed from a central planning commission. Agriculture was mainly collective, with farm workers allowed small private plots. Technical education was vast, with graduating engineers, scientists, doctors and persons of other professions in great number. Soviet manufacturing had grown to 17.6 percent of the world share in 1938, still behind a 28.7 percent share for the United States, but in the 1960s the main question concerned future growth. During this time a shift had taken place in work, there was a move towards consumer items such as cars, electronic devices and civilian aircraft. Unfortunately the Soviet Union was not able to keep up with sophisticated techniques in computers and lost it?s second place stance in manufacturing, falling behind Germany and Japan, the losers of World War II (Breslauer, 2002). Also in the 60?s the Soviet Union was the first to send men to space, beating the US by one month. Socialism and communism have become common words for the American public as they have been highlights of many discussions through the years. According to our key terms, Communism is defined as a system of government in which the state plans and also controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power. They claim to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people. Socialism is an economic system that is characterized by public ownership of the means of production, the pursuit of collective goals, and centralized decision making. ?While the word "socialism" is sometimes used interchangeably with "communism", the two are not the same - communism is an extreme form of socialism? (Communism vs Socialism, n.d.). In a socialist economy, producing and distributing goods is usually owned by a collective or central government that often times plans and controls the economy. Communism, on the other hand, has no centralized gove rnment, instead there is a collective ownership of property and an organization of labor. There are many differences between socialists and communists to be noted. Socialists reject a class based society but they do believe that one can make the transition from capitalism to socialism without a basic change in character of the state. Communists, however, believe that if the working class and its allies are in a position to make a basic change in the character of the state that they must do so (Communism vs Socialism, n.d.). Socialism ideally was where everyone would share the benefits of industrialization, there would be more workers then bosses and the majority would rule. ?As a purely economic system, socialism is a lousy way to run a large scale economy. Socialism is not a political system; it?s a way of distributing goods and services? (Lenin & Reagan, 2004). Quite oppositely, in a communist economy fewer and fewer people have a say so in how things work. References The People History 1960?s. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2010 from http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1960s.html Goodwin, S. & Bradley, B. (2009). American Cultural History. Retrieved