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Economy Of The 1970: A Case Study

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The topic being researched combines politics and the economy, encompassing what underpins the basis of today’s society. The ultimate aim of the project was to explore the relationship between the economy and the size and priorities of the UK Government, in particular the impact of recessions. This was decided on after the first few weeks of research as it gave the project a particular focus regarding the reference to the economy. This was a particularly relevant project title at the time of brain storming (November 2014) as the election of May 2015 was looming. This ensured it was a relevant project to be conducting. The subjects of politics and economics were not studied as part of a curriculum at sixth form so it allowed a full and opened …show more content…

It also states how the government made an attempt to lessen the effects of inflation and mass unemployment by limiting wages and increasing interest rates. Subsequently, this led to unrest in the form of strikes. There is a general consensus on the effects of recessions, both past recessions and the one endured in 2010; this includes the vast increase in employment. The problems regarding the economy did not end there as stated by a website article, The Thatcher Years in Statistics (2013), following the rise of inflation to 20% by 1973 issues such as rising unemployment rates which was only reduced by an economic boom later in the 1980s. This allows the assumption to be made, which is also consistent with the current economic climate of today, that the issue of unemployment can only be fully remedied during a time of economic prosperity. Thus, allowing more job opportunities to arise without lots of public finance being spent to purposefully bring about the presence of the jobs. However, there is a key difference between the recession that occurred in the 1970s as indicated by, The Economy of the 1970s (2010), and that is that before the economic downturn of a recession there were years of economic prosperity leading up to it known as the “Barber Boom 1970-73”. Although this caused “tax cuts”, which would have provided a direct and short term benefit for the consumer; it also paved the way for inflation, this hit over 20% by 1973. This was a theme absent from the lead up to the 2010 recession. The evidence of the implications of the recession that occurred in the 1970s is strengthened significantly by, UK recession: Life in Britain in 1980 (2009), this states that even in the 1980s Britain was still feeling the harsh effects of the recession, for example unemployment had reached “5.8 per cent or 1.56 million”. At the time, Britain’s prime minister

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