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 Many great changes occurred during the 20th century, drastically changing American life to what it is today. One of those changes is mass consumerism, and the other is the expansion of the electrical world. What makes these two concepts important for each other is that they create positive feedback loops. The electrical world helped create more opportunities for mass consumerism. At the same time, as more Americans continued to buy new appliances, the electrical world was able to profit and expand. 

To better understand this positive feedback loop, it is important to establish some of the leading causes, other than the electrical world, that led to America's mass consumerist lifestyle. At the turn of the 20th century, industrial activity created a surplus of goods available on the market (Pendergast, 1998). New appliances and technology, once seen as luxuries, became more affordable to a greater population of Americans (Mundey, 2023). A larger share of Americans were paid more, allowing them to adopt a consumerist lifestyle (Pendergast, 1998). The growing popularity of credit was another factor leading to mass consumerism (Pendergast, 1998). The idea of not having to pay for an item in one large sum, but over time, allowed people to make larger purchases (Mundy, 2023). Another leading factor in Americans' obsession with mass consumption was the advertising industry (Mundy, 2023; Pendergast, 1998). This modern advertising boom began in the 1920s and continues to play an important role in our spending habits, even today (Mundy, 2023). Women were particularly targeted by the advertising industry (Carter-David, 2018). Advertising helped to sell home appliances to women by claiming these products were the key to becoming a better housewife (Carter-David, 2018). As shown in Figure 1 (Carter-David, 2018), new appliances were meant to help make women better suited for their roles as housewives.