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The 80's had alot of cool high school flicks also e.g. Can't Buy Me Love, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Pretty In Pink, Rock n Roll High, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Three O'Clock High, Vision Quest, Weird Science
I was a teenager in the 1980s so here is my take. 1980s America was still proud of who it was, and patriotism was more prevelent. People were far less reliant on technology, no internet, no cell phones, not everyone had cable and kids still played outside. There was no obsession with saftey, kids did not wear bicycle helmets, most people did not wear seatbelts in cars and getting pulled over after having a beer did not get you tossed in prison for 5 years. People treated each other with more respect, children addressed adults as "mr, or Mrs", people did not cuss in public as much and you NEVER heard cussing and filth on broadcast television as you do today. Dropping a public "f-bomb" could land you in the county jail. Political correctness did not exist, no one took wacko liberal fringe movements seriously. Ronald Reagan was president and WE KNEW he was a REAL AMERICAN, we knew he loved this country and we KNEW The enemy was the communists in the Soviet Union. Leftests, social engineers and the drug culture of the 60s and 70s were in retreat in the 80s, and Nancy Regan reminded the youth of America to "just say no", and statistics bear out the fact that many people were listening to her. In the 80s rock music was still alive, and you could actually understand the lyrics and they did not promote violence. In the 1980s country music was still real country, not the shinia twain pop music we hear today. America was still America in the 1980s, we still loved our country, many of us still went to church, we still believed in capitolism and our kids still played baseball (not Eurosoccer). In the 1980s our economy was not perfect but we built most of our own products right here in the USA. The 1980s was really the last stand for this country before we decended in to Clintons 90s, and the new century. The America of 2011 is a shadow of what it was 25-30 years ago. We are socialist, we are ninnies, we are obsessed and dependent on technology, we are dependent on hostile nations like China, we have embraced immorality and we are selfish and we are all in debt up to our necks. Remembering the 1980s is a bit sad in a way, so much has been lost since then.
What you failed to mention in your over-zealous portrait of Reagan is that he is the reason why products stopped being manufactured in the USA and jobs began being outsourced to third world countries. His deregulation policies and labor union busting tactics directly led to China's rise. Reagan also created huge budget deficits like no president before him. He was our first big-spending president and set the bar for all subsequent presidents to spend more and more. He spent billions on wasteful programs such as Star Wars and the fictional War on Drugs. Reagan invented the idea of buying things on credit that you cannot afford. He was a master of creating short-term economic bubbles that were set to burst after he left office. His policies were a disaster for the environment. When Reagan took office, he plunged us into a recession with huge rates of unemployment. When he left office, he left us in recession with huge rates of unemployment. The day Reagan took office, wages for average Americans became totally stagnant and have actually declined since then. America's standard of living declined under Reagan despite the stock market growing. The separation between rich and poor greatly widened during his presidency. Reagan also raised taxes and he was a liberal before he ran for office.
The bottom line on Reagan is that he made people feel really good, but his actual policies and achievements were far less impressive than he gets credit for. He was a liberal Hollywood actor who mastered the technique of convincing/fooling people into believing him. Clinton's presidency was equally as impressive if not more. He left us in a budget surplus despite spending a lot. His Monica affair greatly tarnished how people view him. Also, as someone else pointed out, crime was actually higher in the 80's than today. I'm sure you won't agree with that, but you are ignoring the actual facts. As far as political correctness, I actually agree with you it is way overdone and needs to go away. That said, political correctness is not only a liberal thing. It is a conservative thing too. It works both ways.
As far as the 80's, it was one of the best decades of the century. It was a time of relative peace and prosperity. We were not at war with any countries. The Cold War loomed, but that was no different than the past 50 years. Gas prices actually declined since the terrible decade of the 70's. Things were much more affordable than today. Music was better, although I prefer 90's music to 80's music. The 80's saw the birth of lots of cool new technologies. NES was the greatest invention of all time for young boys.
As for the decade of the 2000's and 2010's, I agree with a prior poster who said we have not really entered the 2010's yet. Just like in 1980 and 1981, we had not really entered the 80's yet. It was too early to tell. The 2000's are most comparable to the 1930's economically, except that instead of introducing New Deal policies we continued to pursue conservative economic policies that were more closely aligned with Herbert Hoover rather than FDR. It wasn't until Obama took over that our economic policies shifted slightly more liberal, but not nearly as liberal as FDR's policies. Obama is also far less effective as a President at getting his policies through than FDR was. FDR got almost everything he wanted, and Obama has gotten far less of what he wants.
I was a teenager in the 1980s so here is my take. 1980s America was still proud of who it was, and patriotism was more prevelent...............[blah, blah, blah].... The 1980s was really the last stand for this country before we decended in to Clintons 90s, and the new century. The America of 2011 is a shadow of what it was 25-30 years ago. We are socialist, we are ninnies, we are obsessed and dependent on technology, we are dependent on hostile nations like China, we have embraced immorality and we are selfish and we are all in debt up to our necks. Remembering the 1980s is a bit sad in a way, so much has been lost since then.
You didn't even need to say you were a teenager in the 80's, it's obvious.
You can take a ruler and put one end on January 1981 and the other on today, and you will be able to draw a straight line through every decaying decade and every mental midget who sat in Congress or the White House after that. The trajectory of arrogance and greed seems to have been inevitable.
The 80's was the beginning of America II, the sequel to our first republic. And like most sequels, it doesn't make the grade.
Seems to me the original poster had a memory lapse of reason.
Does anyone remember interest rates?
My goodness a good rate on a home loan was 10 , 11 or 12 percent
It was expensive to borrow money.
Some of my memories of the 1980's was an epidemic of cocaine.
AIDS and HIV was spotlighted and often people were discriminated against.
We certainly had a drug war.
The 80's music in my own opinion was much better , Of course we all have different tastes but I really thought the 80's was a great time for music.
Some music was simply made for MTV and video which I do not think we see that as much these days.
People drove bigger cars.
People in public did not dis respect others if you disagreed you did not see a tantrum that you see in todays society.
Kids did seem to respect adults much more and we certainly were disconnected from the net.
some of us really love the technology but there is a bit of romance lost in reading a real book or looking up a word in the dictionary or reading a set of encyclopedias and researching a project the old fashioned way.
IMO the world is not in a better position rather jaded and cynical now.
Although I do think we have some better understandings for differnt life styles and I believe we are more individualistic than in the decades prior.
I was a teenager in the 1980s so here is my take. 1980s America was still proud of who it was, and patriotism was more prevelent. People were far less reliant on technology, no internet, no cell phones, not everyone had cable and kids still played outside. There was no obsession with saftey, kids did not wear bicycle helmets, most people did not wear seatbelts in cars and getting pulled over after having a beer did not get you tossed in prison for 5 years. People treated each other with more respect, children addressed adults as "mr, or Mrs", people did not cuss in public as much and you NEVER heard cussing and filth on broadcast television as you do today. Dropping a public "f-bomb" could land you in the county jail. Political correctness did not exist, no one took wacko liberal fringe movements seriously. Ronald Reagan was president and WE KNEW he was a REAL AMERICAN, we knew he loved this country and we KNEW The enemy was the communists in the Soviet Union. Leftests, social engineers and the drug culture of the 60s and 70s were in retreat in the 80s, and Nancy Regan reminded the youth of America to "just say no", and statistics bear out the fact that many people were listening to her. In the 80s rock music was still alive, and you could actually understand the lyrics and they did not promote violence. In the 1980s country music was still real country, not the shinia twain pop music we hear today. America was still America in the 1980s, we still loved our country, many of us still went to church, we still believed in capitolism and our kids still played baseball (not Eurosoccer). In the 1980s our economy was not perfect but we built most of our own products right here in the USA. The 1980s was really the last stand for this country before we decended in to Clintons 90s, and the new century. The America of 2011 is a shadow of what it was 25-30 years ago. We are socialist, we are ninnies, we are obsessed and dependent on technology, we are dependent on hostile nations like China, we have embraced immorality and we are selfish and we are all in debt up to our necks. Remembering the 1980s is a bit sad in a way, so much has been lost since then.
I agree with some of your thoughts although it is a bit right of center.
The reason Nancy had a just say no to drug campaign was of a war on illegal drugs
Did you forget we had a major major cocaine problem?
The drugs did not retreat it just shifted .
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lol
