Social Change

• gap between rich and poor

  widened under Reagan and life for families worsened

  made difference between 'deserving poor' and 'welfare scroungers'

  fewer people eligible for benefit payments, capped.
• workfare

  renamed version of 'welfare'

  aimed to reduce dependency/lifestyle and required one parent to be working to claim benefit

  not strictly enforced/evidence of looking for work accepted
• social housing


  money spent cut from 32 billion in 1978 to 9.2 billion in 1988

  led to a significant rise in homelessness
• homelessness


  such a crisis

  special branch of FEMA under 1987 McKinney Act

  food and shelter programme

  special emphasis on elderly, disabled, veterans and families

  matched state/local grants
• impacts on minorities

  unwilling to extend civil rights/affirmative action due to costs

  little support

  40% funding for bilingual schools = removed

  NAACP criticized inaction damaged minorities

  planned shrinkage of services in inner cities hurt poor

  sandra day only female appointment to SC

  little action to AIDS crisis
• businesses and farms in 1980s


  Policies favored big businesses which thrived, less regulation, longer working hours

  Tax breaks for small businesses who only paid personal not corporate tax now

  Many small businesses went under but 500,000 new ones set up

  Farmers hurt by high interest rates, S&L crisis.

  17% of farmers got 60% of subsidies

  Tractorcades formed in protest
• living and working conditions

  working families did benefit from lower taxes

  hit harder by family credit regulations

  rising interest rates made everything more expensive.

  working hours increased to get by, single parents struggled

  and younger workers on different / less generous ‘wage tiers’
• significance of the bi-coastal boom

  Movement from ‘rustbelt to sunbelt’

  People who felt positive changes from new industries more likely to vote for Reagan

  75% of all new businesses in South West or East Coast and 60% of all new jobs

  Middle America / central farm states suffered
• did production in the USA change?

  Older manufacturing industries like textiles suffered - cheap foreign imports

  20% of populations in Cleveland and Baltimore living below

  poverty lines

  Car industry suffered in Detroit

  Tech industries start to ‘boom’ as do service industries