Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well, I'm a history professor, so this would be the way to find out if I were using this as an assignment:
1) Define "satisfaction."
a) Set the parameters of "satisfaction"
b) Define the units of "satisfaction" measurement
Okay that's fairly difficult. Now the really hard part:
2) Find primary sources from 1915 and 2015 that will have those units of measurement to compare.
a) They have to be apples to apples comparisons in terms of
type of source
type of person who left the source
That would be quite hard.
3) Evaluate the findings and conclude. A difficult project indeed. That would probably be an honors project or a chapter in a Master's thesis.
Personally, I would prefer to live in 2015 over 1915 in my own situation. The median American in 1915 worked on a farm or low-mid level industrial job. There were a few worker protections thanks to the Progressive movement by that time but jobs were still rough. Most only went to school through grade 8 or so. The influenza epidemic was only a few years out in 1918. Polio, measles, other diseases were still serious killers that today aren't worred about.
If you were a woman your options were pretty limited although there were impressive strides being made in women's rights at that time. If you were black things were even worse - the 1920s saw the apex of Jim Crow so you'd be heading into that. Birth of a Nation had just come out in 1914 and the president at the time was a fan so... yeah not good.
Europe was blowing itself up in the First World War, so world affairs looked a lot more bleak than today.
If you were a middle class white male that could afford to finish high school - or even better - college - yeah things were better because you had very little competition. On my dad's side of the family they were actually doing pretty well circa 1915 - they had a successful dairy business, lived in a house on a lake with a boat; that's hell of a lot more than what I've got. They could afford to send both of their kids, even the daughter (my great Aunt) to college so they were upper middle class. They lost most everything in the Great Depression, so....
Last edited by redguard57; 05-13-2015 at 08:53 PM..
I think we are less satisfied with life. We have so many choices now. Its not as simple as it use to be. There are so many reasons to doubt whether you have led a good life. We live in an age where people are constantly telling us how unhappy, sick, bad or wrong we are in order to sell us their cure. You're a bad person tithe at my church, you are unhappy buy my book, you are sick eat my super food, you are unloved buy my love attracting product. Our economy is based on curing unhappiness.
Last edited by keepingquiet; 05-13-2015 at 09:13 PM..
As a woman, the life I live now would not be possible 100 years ago. I'm single and unmarried, self-supporting, own my own home and generally do what I want.
I look just at how my mother grew up and marvel at the change - she was terribly stunted by the not-so-terrible restrictions on women in the 50s-70s and really never grew into herself, in my opinion. She wasn't looking to marry, but did it because it was expected, especially if she was to have a child. She had two career choices - teacher or nurse. She was not raised with the idea of supporting herself, establishing a strong career, etc. Now, pushing 70, she's not very intellectually developed and fairly childlike in her outlook, not to mention very materialistic. And of course, most of the men of her generation think it's adorable.
I look at my father's mother, who was born in 1906. She grew up worrying. Raised 8 younger brothers and sisters from the time she was 13, one of whom died at 12 by being hit by a car. She witnessed two world wars, the Great Depression, the Vietnam war, the Cold War etc. She was constantly convinced disaster was around the corner.
Yeah, I think I get a lot more satisfaction out of my life, even though those are only two examples out of many that I could provide. The only thing that limits me today is finances, not geography, gender, marital status or social class.
I think there was a study a few years back showing that women and African Americans were showing increased levels of happiness generation over generation.
Well, I'm a history professor, so this would be the way to find out if I were using this as an assignment:
1) Define "satisfaction."
a) Set the parameters of "satisfaction"
b) Define the units of "satisfaction" measurement
Okay that's fairly difficult. Now the really hard part:
2) Find primary sources from 1915 and 2015 that will have those units of measurement to compare.
a) They have to be apples to apples comparisons in terms of
type of source
type of person who left the source
That would be quite hard.
3) Evaluate the findings and conclude. A difficult project indeed. That would probably be an honors project or a chapter in a Master's thesis.
Personally, I would prefer to live in 2015 over 1915 in my own situation. The median American in 1915 worked on a farm or low-mid level industrial job. There were a few worker protections thanks to the Progressive movement by that time but jobs were still rough. Most only went to school through grade 8 or so. The influenza epidemic was only a few years out in 1918. Polio, measles, other diseases were still serious killers that today aren't worred about.
If you were a woman your options were pretty limited although there were impressive strides being made in women's rights at that time. If you were black things were even worse - the 1920s saw the apex of Jim Crow so you'd be heading into that. Birth of a Nation had just come out in 1914 and the president at the time was a fan so... yeah not good.
Europe was blowing itself up in the First World War, so world affairs looked a lot more bleak than today.
If you were a middle class white male that could afford to finish high school - or even better - college - yeah things were better because you had very little competition. On my dad's side of the family they were actually doing pretty well circa 1915 - they had a successful dairy business, lived in a house on a lake with a boat; that's hell of a lot more than what I've got. They could afford to send both of their kids, even the daughter (my great Aunt) to college so they were upper middle class. They lost most everything in the Great Depression, so....
I think you are forgetting that a plethora of options can lead to unhappiness. Happiness is more about perception than actual living conditions.
One hundred years ago, a lot of people lived in poverty, there were many deaths to sickness and diseases that are now easily curable, there were generally poor working conditions and a lack of free time, rampant racism and discrimination, etc., etc. And today, we have the threat of nuclear war, a decline in "traditional" families, sky-high national debt, etc., etc.
But as far as just feeling generally content and satisfied with themselves and their lives, what do you think? Are people happier now or do you think they were happier 100 years ago?
And what are the reasons for your opinion?
I would say life is easier today. All of my relatives born in the early 1900s in the US, have always said that life was much harder back then. From all accounts, they say the 1950s-1960s were the happiest times. 2000s still happier than 1915s though.
We are way better off today than we were a century ago. My grandmother always used to say those who long for the good old days either didn't live in them or forgot what they were like.
We watched a slide show recently of my mothers families photos from way back (about 100 years ago till today) and they were so poor its almost unbelievable. My great grandparents looked very old by ages 40 and 50, and I know from stories that there was a lot of family strife do to the poor conditions they were in.
Even today, I have the computer where I used to play my older videogames. Were they fun at the time, sure, but the newer ones I have are better. My new phone is better than my old phone.
This is not about more people today with more money than 100 years ago.This is about how happy people are today versus 100 years ago.A dollar,products,family and just about every thing else had greater value back then.I would rather be poor back then than rich now.What good is any thing today without value.People today are trying to create value on things.We were closer to Gods value`s back then.Today it`s what value man puts on his wife.Man will also make that value go up or down.Thank God we have man to take care of the values of things,I think not.
One thing skewing things is that people's expectations are different now - especially with everything in society telling us that we're supposed to be happy.
This is an important point. I don't think most people at the beginning of the 20th century had a belief that their lives were supposed to be generally happy. Happy moments, yes, and they were glad for them. Generally happy, no.
The non-stop whining and whingeing that is the background music of American life nowadays began to crank up in the late Seventies and Eighties.
We Baby Boomers had been born into the period of the post-war American industrial boom when the US held indisputable world industrial supremacy. That ended in the late 60s when the rest of the world finally fully recovered and became serious competitors. The US economy actually made some major "tectonic shifts" in the 70s that the presidents and Congress managed to cover up.
But by the 70s and 80s, the strain was beginning to show.
This would be an easier question to answer if there was anyone alive who could coherently remember what things were genuinely like 100 years ago. Almost anyone alive now who was alive then would have been a child and would likely have a skewed perception. Without a sufficient pool of people who could answer honestly and without bias it's all conjecture that will be tainted by our current biases and perceptions of reality.
Not true. People wrote diaries and journals. There were newspaper articles and books about people's lives. You can determine by their general tone then as you can now whether they considered themselves well off or living mean lives.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The original question is lost
