for economics usa, i'm david schoumacher.aptioning performed by the national captioning institute, inc. captions copyright 1986 educational film center public performance of captions prohibited without permission of national captioning institute annenberg media ♪ annenberg media ♪

i'm david schoumacher. american economy-- the sum total of what goes on in shopping malls, car dealers, supermarkets, stock exchanges, 7-elevens, and gas stations all around the country. millions of buy-and-sell decisions everday, trillions of dollars worth every year. and those decisions affect every part of our lives. who decides between a room with a view and a house in the suburbs? in our demand and supply economy, who demands and who supplies? 1945. world war ii was over. millions of ex-gis came home, fell in love, got married, and started families. and there was one thing they all needed. when i got out of the service, i had a wife. we wanted a place to live. it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. eventually we found a place, a converted house where the upstairs was converted into an apartment. in 1947, judge paul widlitz was an ex-gi and a young long island lawyer just starting out. we had the normal problems that you would have when they convert a one-family house to a two-family house. eve