I believe that the G.I. bill contributed to the prosperity for the middle class during the two decades folowwing World War II.
The servicemen´s readjustment act of 1944 also known as the G.I. Bill was a law approbed in june of that year that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans, commonly referred to as G.I.s.
The idea of giving financial beneffits to the soldiers who had fought and returned from the war was among the american population. The gross domestic product had overcome to the Great Depresion due to the huge industrial expansion for the war but the government was concern about how the veterans would be reinserted in the economy. Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted to avoid what happened on 1932 when 10 thousand former fighters of the World War I marched to Washington demanding the payment of the bonus army given to them at the end of the war. That protest caused popular indignation after the veterans were repressed by the troops send to scatter them.
With this background the American Legion with the help of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, two veterans organization, designed the law and pushed it throught Congress. It gave veterans financial aid to attend college and buy suburban homes or start a business as well as one year of unemployment compensation. It was available to all veterans who had been on active duty at least for 90 days, exposure to combat was not required. And finally the beneficiaries did not pay income taxes.
Historians and economists judge the G.I. Bill a major political and economic success, by the year 1956 7.8 million veterans had used the educational benefits.
I hope that the answer help you. Greetings.
