ABSTRACT
In the middle years of the twentieth century the living standards of the mass of the people rose to an unprecedentedly high level. This improvement came, ironically enough, at a time when the nation still faced serious financial problems and its balance of payments and economic future were sources of constant concern. The persistence of economic problems and the improvement of mass living conditions were, in some ways, related. The improvement of standards owed a great deal to rising real wages and the development of a large consumer market. The soaring demand for domestic goods of all kinds increased the imports of both finished and raw materials and reduced the quantity of British-made products available for export. Had luxury imports been fewer and a larger proportion of domestic production been exported, the national economic picture would have looked brighter but some of the improvements in living standards would have had to be sacrificed. Essentially, the choice was between national and individual prosperity. The people chose the latter and paid for their choice in deficits, balance of payments crises, devaluations, and inflation.
