American Industry and Consumer Spending

Corn yield per acre increase between 1945 and 1970: 300%
Wheat yield per acre increase between 1945 and 1970: 200%
Cotton yield per acre increase between 1945 and 1970: 200%⁵

Annual investment in capital equipment by American industries during the 1950s: $10 billion⁶

Annual spending on entertainment in America by 1960: $85 billion⁷

Welfare

Total cost for Medicare in 1966: $3 billion
In 1966, congressional estimate of annual cost of Medicare by 1990: $12 billion
Actual annual cost of Medicare in 1990: $112 billion
Actual cost of Medicare in 2003: $244 billion ($172 billion in inflation-adjusted 1990 dollars)⁸

Share of the American population living in poverty in 1960: 22%
Share of the American population living in poverty in 1970: 11%
Share of the American population who had never visited a doctor in 1963: 20%
Share of the American population who had never visited a doctor in 1970: 8%
Infant mortality rate decrease between 1965 and 1972: 33%
African-American infant mortality rate decrease between 1965 and 1972: 50%⁹

The Political Front

John Kennedy’s margin of victory over Richard Nixon in 1960: 118,574 votes
Lyndon Johnson’s margin of victory over Barry Goldwater in 1964: 15,951,296 votes
Richard Nixon’s margin of victory over Hubert Humphrey in 1968: 510,314 votes¹⁰

Societal Changes

Number of unmarried heterosexual couples living together in 2008: 6.4 million
Number of unmarried heterosexual couples living together in 1980: less than one million.¹¹