ABSTRACT
Economists agree that it is impossible to find an historical precedent for the extended period of prosperity enjoyed by Europe during the “golden age” of the 1950s and 1960s. A variety of names have been used to describe these thirty years of spectacular economic expansion: les trente glorieuses, the golden age of capitalism, and das Wirtschaftswunder. Whatever it might be called, it transformed Europe from a continent devastated by war to a modern economic powerhouse. Both production and consumption soared. Real domestic product grew by 4.8 percent annually throughout Europe. Nothing close to this had been achieved in either the nineteenth or first half of the twentieth century.1 It was a uniquely European phenomenon that characterized virtually all countries, regardless of political persuasion. Aside from a few slack periods, there was no halt in the advance, no reversal into the “boom and bust” business cycles that had plagued pre-war Europe. Even more, the benefits of the new wealth were widely diffused. Jobs were plentiful, real wages grew, and Europeans enjoyed the highest standards of living they had ever known. Welfare legislation and comprehensive social security schemes were adopted almost everywhere. A consumer revolution swept through Europe completely transforming everyday culture with a cascade of commodities from washing machines to telephones and televisions. What had once been luxuries were now available to almost everyone. This rising affluence was the unique feature of the golden age of prosperity. It made the postwar economic system a total way of life.
