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I'm only going to respond to some of these, it was a pretty good post.
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Originally Posted by Coldjensens
Special effects movies exploded, but even the robots had love interests with big hair (e.g. Stephanie and Number 5).
No disassemble number five!
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No one had really heard of terrorists.
Really?
Um, I think you were living in a cave, because the 1980s were wrought with terrorism.
Beirut, Tehran, 17 November, and Lockerbie immediately come to mind.
Again, rose-colored lenses truly blind people to the truth...
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Certain movies were quited enedlessly by everyone. Blues Brothers, The Warriors, and Clockwork Orange come to mind. There were others. Many people sounded like a sound bite movie quote device.
Blues Brothers was filmed in 1979 and came out in 1980...The Warriors came out in the 1970s and Clockwork Orange came out in 1971.
The MOST quotable movie of the 1980s was "Coming to America" My coworkers and I constantly quote that movie to this day...
The 1980s seemed to be a decade of materialism and excess, at least compared to the previous couple of decades. The most significant thing that I remember is that the pendulum had swung and many of the younger people were more conservative (politically and socially) than than their elders. The widespread availability of cable TV allowed Americans to be more connected to the rest of the world (and our society to become more homogenous). Prior to this time the media was very limited in some areas (e.g. very few radio & TV stations), and the regional differences were more pronounced. Preppies and yuppies began their rise to prominence, and labor unions/worker's rights became under siege.
They were good times. Low unemployment, low inflation, reasonable interest rates, good jobs, and the Space Program was lifting our imaginations to wild speculation. Very exciting times, and great time to be living.
These present times literally SUCK, I'm sorry to say. There isn't anything to excite, nothing to look forward to. All we see is government, government, and more government. Regulations on top of regulations, an abusive EPA and a corrupt administration that only seeks power.
These are not good times.
Evidence on the tax front? We now have the lowest individual tax rates in decades. The change in fuel sources from coal to gas is 90% related to price factors and the public wanting cleaner air.
I've been listening to 80's music lately and they make the 80's seem to be a good time economically, politically, etc. what makes those times good of they were truly good? This era always reminds of when CA was the state to be.
Yes they truly were good. And,yes, CA was the state to be. You couldn't pay me enough to live there now but it was awesome then. There was a huge generational shift around 1980 when the young generation became Gen X not Boomers. Music changed (New Wave, Punk, etc). Think The Clash, Blondie, Devo, Talking Heads, Blondie. Politics changed (Reagan revolution) and Fashion (from that late 70's pseudo hippy look to Preppy). It was a weird combination of political conservatism and social liberalism. LA felt like it was the center of what was happening and probably NY to some extent although I think of NY as being more interesting in the '70's. Wish I could go back in time...
TV, broadcasting Reagan's inauguation, immediately if not sooner, was showing the American embassy hostages being released. The nightly news would show a count of the days of being held hostage for the previous year in the corner of the TV. It was a big deal at the time because of the 400 some days held captive, but especially, because of the fubar rescue mission attempted the year before.
I think of the 80's as the decade that we lost our "innocence." The 70's folks were still thinking of peace and love and all that crap but the 80's was unabashedly materialistic. The big demographic group was the yuppies and I think that's because so many women had begun to enter the workforce and menswear for women and mannish shoulder pads were a popular look. There was also a style of jeans that came out called "baggies" and I thought they were hideous at first but after I put on a pair I loved them--they made me look like I had a shape.
Looking back, it seems the 80's started off with a bang--the gays all came out of the closet en masse and almost at the same time aids was invented. I remember feeling their excitement as they realized that they didn't have to hide anymore and then the fear as the stories about aids piled up and no one was quite sure how it was all going to play out--I remember reading an article by someone who said that it could possibly morph into something that would be passed around by mosquitoes.
Music took a turn for the better--it had begun to fossilize in the 70's with Kansas, REO Speedwagon, and Boston being some of the most popular bands on the radio. I was at a party one night and they were playing the usual and someone took it off and put on Talking Heads and it was like breathing new life into the party--everyone got up and began to dance except this one guy who was totally disgusted and kept whining but he became part of the entertainment.
The losing our innocence part came about with the child abductions and violence in the streets and drugs that were getting nastier and this only got worse as the decade went on. By the time the decade was over, the conversion of the public to cynicism was complete.
Oh yeah, and it's the decade we all got fat--I'll bet we all collectively gained 20 lbs over that decade and I think it's due to the fact that in early 80's they were telling us to avoid fat in our diets at all costs. It was fine to eat all the sugar and carbs you wanted as long as you left the fat alone. Fat lot of good that did us.
So, it was fun at first but ended badly is my summation of the decade.
Also, it was the golden age of the MBA. Which we are paying for today.
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