In his book Postwar, Tony Judt argues that o during the 1940s and 1950s, Western Europeans resented the high cost of the postwar welfare states o Western Europeans had good reason to be grateful for the postwar welfare states o postwar welfare states led immediately to "stagflation" (economic stagnation plus inflation) during the 1950s European welfare states were able to achieve massive capital investment while also encouraging extensive production and consumption of consumer goods