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Tx is about quantity of growth, not quality. Population growth has increased much faster than job growth in TX so we'll see how the next several years go. I do agree that QOL in the 80s and 90s was much better than today for most areas of the US. Things just didn't cost as much and wages were much higher for many different jobs compared to today when adjusted for inflation. Now, you seeing younger and older workers struggling with underemployment even if they have good job skillsets.
It's four years later and the Texas economy is beating the national and most states despite the be fed attempts to kill manufacturing jobs. Quality of life us better with a good job and an affordable cost of living. How some can say life is good wit out jobs where multiple household members have to work to pay the bills is beyond me.
80s/90s was just too cheesy; the only things I would say were better back then were the cartoons/tv programs, and perhaps the mentality of the country. 00s/Now for me.
80s/90s for me. Where to start... A lot of what the OP posted comes to mind. Cartoons, prime time TV, heck, TV shows in general. Music was great. Video games and arcade shops were everywhere and always busy. Comics were big, hanging around comic shops was fun as well. Lots of kids (and adults) out and about bike riding, skateboarding, working in the yard, just being outdoors in general. Going to the malls was always fun as well. Different atmosphere than it is now.
I actually have a hard time moving on. I don't sport a mullet or anything like that but, I constantly wish I could relive those times. Despite the constant ups and downs, I feel like my family had a much closer relationship before than we do now, even with my friends. I wasn't alive before the 80s but, even those years seemed better overall than what it is today.
80s/90s was just too cheesy; the only things I would say were better back then were the cartoons/tv programs, and perhaps the mentality of the country. 00s/Now for me.
Then again, I was born in the mid 90s.
Growing up in those times, you're surrounded by that stuff so it doesn't seem corny but, looking back at a lot of the things now, they are unbelievably cheesy lol
Growing up in those times, you're surrounded by that stuff so it doesn't seem corny but, looking back at a lot of the things now, they are unbelievably cheesy lol
Those time periods (especially the 80s, and the early portions of the 90s) seem quite cheesy. I just don't get quite that feel from time periods even further back (1900s-1950s), or even the 1960s. Maybe it was all the "totally cool" culture that seemed to pervade the society back then, or the whacked out hair-styles
In contrast, the 2000s and beyond seem quite refined and futuristic (even with the early materials of the decade); hair styles aren't as whacked out, smartphones and awesome internet exist, etc.
Cities are much better today, or at least the best ones are. Many of my own city's most vibrant districts were desolate back then.
Food is better. Sushi was far less common, Mexican was hard to get outside certain areas, many common overseas cuisines barely existed in most cities, if they existed at all. Beer, wine, coffee, and ice cream were mostly what we'd consider crap today.
Communication and information were even worse. Want to find the baseball score? Go to the right radio station and wait for it to come around. Or the few TV stations. Or wait for the morning newspaper. Want a map? Buy one. Doing a reasearch project about other cities park systems (I did this)? Spend a lot of time calling long distance and waiting for snail mail. If you loved something uncommon like cities, good luck finding other people to discuss that.
Frankly, a lot of today's people would die of boredom.
Cities were less diverse -- mostly black and white, not so international. This was due to decades of low immigration.
Of course housing and income economics are different today, and we have to show up at airports 30-60 minutes before we used to.
Other things are cheaper. Computers and airfare for example. I paid over a month's takehome for a computer in the early 1990s. Long distance calling cost money. Developing photos was like buying lunch for each roll.
Economically speaking it was better back in the 80s/90s. Jobs paid more and things cost less. Life was just all around easier. I was born in the mid 80s and loved my childhood of the 90s and noticed a big change after 9/11. I think once the Great Recession happened in 08, the US has not been the same.
I do agree with the poster above that said things became better in the sense that we have better access to things we've never had before but I'd trade that in for a better economy.
80s/90s for me. Where to start... A lot of what the OP posted comes to mind. Cartoons, prime time TV, heck, TV shows in general. Music was great. Video games and arcade shops were everywhere and always busy. Comics were big, hanging around comic shops was fun as well. Lots of kids (and adults) out and about bike riding, skateboarding, working in the yard, just being outdoors in general. Going to the malls was always fun as well. Different atmosphere than it is now.
I actually have a hard time moving on. I don't sport a mullet or anything like that but, I constantly wish I could relive those times. Despite the constant ups and downs, I feel like my family had a much closer relationship before than we do now, even with my friends. I wasn't alive before the 80s but, even those years seemed better overall than what it is today.
Interpersonal interactions have declined since the 80s and 90s due to technology adoption across the board. Regarding outside activities, you can thank the helicopter parenting mentality and the excessive degree of over-scheduling of activities. It wasn't until the later in the 80s and the 90s that the 24/7 news media cycle began in earnest, although mobile platforms accelerated that in the next decade. Movies, TV, Music, Arcades were all great in the 80s. I definitely prefer the 80s for music, I have over 700 CDs/cassettes/albums from that decade. Regarding the arcade era, my favorite was the Pac-Man imitator Digger- it came out in 1983. I still play it on Windows 7/10, via Dos Box conversion. Anyone remember when many restaurants had pinball machines and arcade games everywhere?
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