The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

price supports in order to allow the marketplace to
determine price. The FmHA would no longer loan
money to farmers but would work through banks.
Reagan said taxpayers should not be required to bail
out every farmer in difficulty. The administration
still gave $26 billion in subsidies to farmers. In March,
1985, Reagan joked to an audience, “I think we
should keep the grain and export the farmers.” Dur-
ing 1985, there was an increase in militant farm activ-
ism, shootings, and suicides. Rural extremist organi-
zations, such as the Order, Posse Comitatus, and the
Farmer’s Liberation Army, gained members.
The year 1986 witnessed the disappearance of 2.7
percent of the nation’s remaining farms—60,310
farms, or about 165 farms per day, representing the
greatest average daily loss since 1941-1945. Interna-
tional grain sales totaled only $23.6 billion. By the
middle of 1987, however, newspapers were asking if
the farm crisis might be over. About 15 percent of
the remaining farms still had debt problems, but two
years before it had been 30 percent that were in trou-
ble. Farmers’ debt was down by 35 percent from its
1982 level. Government subsidies totaled $5.6 bil-
lion, and farmers, although still in debt, were earn-
ing more money than ever. The federal government
accounted for 50 percent of wheat growers’ profits
and 40 percent of corn growers’ profits. By late 1987,
the farm crisis was no longer front-page news. Many
farmers left farming voluntarily.

Impact Many casual observers assumed that small
farms went out of business because of their size. The
main cause, however, was overwhelming debt. Mid-
sized farms with small debt-to-earnings ratios did
best in the crisis. Older farmers avoided much trou-
ble because they did not borrow heavily. An Iowa
State University study revealed that the average age
of a midwestern farmer with low debt-to-asset ratio
was sixty-one. The average age of farmers with debt-
to-asset ratios between 11 and 40 percent was fifty-
three. The average age of farmers with ratios be-
tween 41 and 70 percent was forty-eight. The average
age of farmers with ratios over 70 percent was forty-
six. Predictions that the farm crisis would spread to
white-collar workers proved incorrect. By the mid-
dle of the 1980’s, the general economy outside the
agricultural sector was booming. By the 1990’s, parts
of the Midwest switched to successful service econo-
mies. The federal government continued to provide
billions of dollars in farming subsidies annually, and

the choice of which crops to subsidize largely deter-

mined which crops would be produced on American

farms.

Further Reading

Barlett, Peggy F.American Dreams, Rural Realities.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,

1993. Study of the experiences of residents of
      Dodge County, Georgia, during the farm crisis.
      Dudley, Kathryn M.Debt and Dispossession. Chicago:
      University of Chicago Press, 2004. Narrative ac-
      count and oral history of the farm crisis in Minne-
      sota.
      Dyer, Joel.Harvest of Rage.Boulder, Colo.: Westview
      Press, 1997. Examination of rural militancy; Dyer
      connects the farm crisis of the 1980’s to the Okla-
      homa City bombing of 1995.
      James Pauff

See also Agriculture in the United States; Black

Monday stock market crash; Business and the econ-

omy in the United States; Conservatism in U.S. poli-

tics; Demographics of the United States; Economic

Recovery Tax Act of 1981; Farm Aid; Food Security

Act of 1985; Globalization; Income and wages in the

United States; Reagan, Ronald; Reaganomics; Re-

cessions; Unemployment in the United States.

Fashions and clothing

Definition Articles of dress and accessories

Significance Fashion in the 1980’s exhibited a sharp

departure from the steady march of modernism, which had

promoted the use of new synthetic fibers, wild prints, and

bare styles such as hot pants. Instead, fashions of the decade

incorporated past trends from different times and places,

such as classical Egypt, the Victorian era, and 1970’s

“retro” styles. The emergence of vintage clothing as a favor-

ite style of dress for the young demonstrated the importance

of nostalgia to the decade, in clothing no less than in other

facets of American culture.

As in many modern periods, youth fashions of the

1980’s were distinct from the styles of dress of adults.

The former tend to metamorphose rapidly, embrac-

ing constant change and diversity to express per-

sonal style. People over forty, on the other hand, are

often more conservative in their clothing choices.

Youth fashions during the 1980’s were both influ-

The Eighties in America Fashions and clothing
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