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What is remarkable is the rise in the number of highly paid professional, technical, and managerial workers, not the wages paid to each of them which, as you point out, did not grow all that much. But the existence of a mass upper middle class is a first in the history of the world and it developed between about 1960 and today, fueled by expansion of the university system and nondiscriminatory admissions (you didn't have to be a WASP to go to college).
So which aggregation of people should I most identify with? Men? People over 55 years old? Jewish people? Americans? Chicagoans? People who play a musical instrument? Curly-haired people? Please provide some logic as to why I should be happy if a truck driver in Tulsa gets ahead economically but unhappy if a farmer in Bangladesh does the same thing.
Me too. Americans are too smart and too nice to screw the rest of the world intentionally.
I am all for the prosperity of the farmer in Bangladesh however it's the prosperity - or the lack of it - of people in the country I live in that immediately impacts my life and the life of my children. If the life quality of average Americans declines, only the richest people won't feel the impact - and even they will have to move somewhere else to escape the squalor. I don't live in Bangladesh and I don't want to have to move to Bangladesh, I support the policies that make the life in MY country better.
Besides, the way globalization works, that Bangladeshi farmer is more likely to be even poorer due to the ruthless exploitation it brings. The key trick of the globalists is to use the misery of many to harvest wealth for the few.
Really, social change does not coincide with calendar years. 1970 was very much closer to 1965 than 1975, and that's true with almost all decades of the 20th century, except for the rare times when a dramatic event really changes the country. Pearl Harbor, in December 1941, was one. Until then, 1941 was just like 1938, 39, and 1940 in most respects. 1942 was completely different.
Everything the other posters have mentioned is right. The 70s didn't really change until the oil crisis of 1974, which was the first big shock of the decade, but others followed. Vietnam ended in 1975, and then Nixon and Watergate dominated shortly afterward, which was a huge political shock. In between, there was a recession initially cause by the oil shortage and hung on tenaciously to around 1978. While it wasn't as severe as the one that followed in 1980, it was the first in a long time, and had a long term effect on America that was little noticed, but really changed a lot of young people's expectations.
It was a much more colorful era. Homes were decorated more brightly, clothing was brighter, as were car colors, and lots of other stuff. While it's true that kids in the suburbs and small towns still spent all their time playing outdoors, in the large cities, the crime rates were rising, graffitti became overwhelming, and inner core neighborhoods were decaying.
So life was grittier in big cities, but not so much in small towns or the suburbs. The suburbs were really at their best then; most were growing, but not explosively, and most were attracting shopping districts with malls as anchors. The 70s was the decade when malls really became hot and were built everywhere, almost always just at the edge of, or just outside of city limits.
The rise of the mall also brought on the rise of the chain stores. Many national chains were developed strictly for mall traffic alone, and that development introduced the boutique to small town America. The malls also raised hell with all the old, large, established store chains like Sears, which survived by moving into them, and its ancient competitor, Montgomery Ward, which went bankrupt because it failed to move into the malls.
People traded in their vehicles much more often, usually every 3-5 years. Buying a new car was much more common than leasing one. People were neither as fat or as fitness obsessed back then. Girls especially so, and the girls of the 70s didn't have all the micro-divisions of fashion, hair styles, and all the other stuff that exists today. Kids spent a lot more time hanging out together than now, as talking on the phone was to non-private and texting and cell phones didn't exist. So, instead, if they were too young to drive, kids rode bikes or walked to each other's houses, and then went off to a public park, a mall, or somewhere else, often in small packs.
Boys wore their hair longer in the 70s than in the 60s, and there were more of them wearing long hair. It was a very big deal with a lot of school districts, and a lot of boys never graduated when they would not buckle under. Hippies weren't really hippies until the 70s. Until then, the hippies actually looked like most American kids, but by the 70s, what was once ghetto-chic hippie fashion became high fashion, and middle aged men and women began wearing a strange version of what was once only worn by kids. When rednecks began growing their hair long, the deal was settled.
Around the time the adults looked like hippies, the kids preferred looking like Hollywood cowboys. Cowboy fashion was a big deal in the 70s, except in the big cities, where the hippie fashions went to extremes. CAlifornia dominated half the country, and Philadelphia and New York dominated the other half in just about everything. Even cars had California versions.
Single adults did much the same, but in adult ways. Everyone still went to the movies a lot, and the 70s were the time when motion pictures became age-specific. The ratings system originated in the late 60s, but really took effect around 1970-71. The term X-rated came from that time; the X rating was first reserved for a lot of blood and gore and nudity. When several hit films were rated X, that were neither excessively violent nor had a lot of nudity, the R rating was added, and took over the adult fare. X then became exclusively the porno terrain, and it still retains the X rating, even though NC-17 was later intended to do away with it.
PG-13 came with Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom. Raiders of the Lost Ark was rated PG and a huge hit, very safely a PG, so families took their little kids to it and everyone loved it. The Temple of Doom was safely PG until late in the movie, when a heathen priest tore the beating heart out of a sacrificial victim and held it aloft, still beating. That horrified the little kids, and shocked the adults. But it didn't kill the ticket sales. PG-13 was a nod to that fact.
I can't remember a similar shock except for a flick from 1960. Psycho. Everyone of all ages went to the movies then, and there was very little that would shock anyone but the smallest child. Psycho terrified everyone! Adults fainted and little kids peed their pants. Ironically, it revived Hitchcock's career, but the shock was so extreme no other producer dared go there again for the next 15 years. the mid 70s were the first time real slasher movies began to appear again, and while much gorier, they all lacked the shock of Psycho, which actually never showed much, but left a lot to the mind.
Besides, the way globalization works, that Bangladeshi farmer is more likely to be even poorer due to the ruthless exploitation it brings. The key trick of the globalists is to use the misery of many to harvest wealth for the few.
This could not be more untrue. Why do Bangladeshi farmers wait in line for hours to apply for jobs at Nike plants? Because it pays better and the work is easier than the backbreaking, life-destroying work they do in their traditional way of life.
As Groucho Marx is reputed to have said to a Communist acquaintance, you are qualified for the job you're applying for but I'm not going to give it to you because you don't want to be exploited.
I was a child in the late '70's & early '80's, but here are some random memories - obviously from a kid's perspective:
-No cable & no VCR's (though they did exist, I think).
-Going along with the above, going to see movies in the theater was a much bigger deal than it is now.
-No Internet.
-No cell phones.
-Bowl hair-cuts for boys (I hated them!)
-Saturday morning cartoons.
-Ice cream trucks in the summer.
-Being able to ride my bike alone or with friends around the neighborhood, without worrying about being kidnapped/abducted.
- Malls for shopping.
-Less violence in the news - or, if there was as much, I wasn't aware of it due to not having 24-hour news stations, no cable, etc.
-I remember hearing on the radio that John Lennon was murdered (December 1980). At the time, this was quite a shock to my young mind, since it was the first time I heard of a famous person being killed like that (I hadn't been around when JFK, MLK, and Bobby Kennedy were killed in the 1960's).
- Vinyl records, the radio, and cassette tapes were the only way to listen to music, until CD's came out in 1982. And, when CD players first came out there were extremely expensive. I myself didn't get a CD player until the '90's.
Actually, the middle class began to dwindle under the Reagan administration.
Yup. He cut taxes for the top tier and consumerism shot up during his presidency. Carter in the late 70s basically scolded people for "defining themselves by what they have not by what they do."
Carter also told people to "put a sweater on" and "keep your heat at 65 degrees." (We did this through the 90s but probably because we were poor.)
The 70s- early 80s was the last decade of CEOs making reasonable pay. After Reagan, if you didn't know any better and just looked quickly at the stats you might think, "Wow, the AVERAGE American's income went up!" But really, it just looks that way because the CEOs income went waaaay up and everyone else's shrunk by comparison so it averages out to look like a big increase.
"Reaganomics" started the consumerism that you see today and echoed the "greed is good" mantra of Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street.
There was no MADD, SADD or DARE. Most parents i knew drove drunk all the time even with their kids in the car. And the ones i knew who got "caught" were allowed to drive or walk home and pick their car up later.
I was 17 and married in 1975, the same year. What memories we all share. My questions now what? We are stuck in a dead end life. Remember your parents going out dancing or to have a drink and listen to music? Why don't we have a place foe us late 50's and 60's? I have been thinking about it. I am so bored. I am NOT an aged person that wants to sit around, I feel much younger and have energy. we are too young for a nursing home and too "old" to hang out at the local bars and restaurants. there are a few bars that play music. but we need more. so many ideas that I would love to accomplishment. Remember you are only as old as you feel! ( It doesn't need late hours and cater to adults. (no kids specials) make it adult oriented
I remember some of the fads. Pet Rocks, CB radio, streaking, polyester leisure suits, mood rings. The first digital watches, you had to push a button for the red LED display. The first pocket calculators. 8 track tapes, bumpers on cars that stuck out. High inflation. Not as many restaurants as today, but one chain stuck out: Sambo's. They used to be coast to coast. Now I don't know if any remain. Air travel was rare. Everyone was conscious of the cost of gasoline but few alternatives existed. Only NY, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington had rail transit.
Yup. He cut taxes for the top tier and consumerism shot up during his presidency. Carter in the late 70s basically scolded people for "defining themselves by what they have not by what they do."
Carter also told people to "put a sweater on" and "keep your heat at 65 degrees." (We did this through the 90s but probably because we were poor.)
The 70s- early 80s was the last decade of CEOs making reasonable pay. After Reagan, if you didn't know any better and just looked quickly at the stats you might think, "Wow, the AVERAGE American's income went up!" But really, it just looks that way because the CEOs income went waaaay up and everyone else's shrunk by comparison so it averages out to look like a big increase.
"Reaganomics" started the consumerism that you see today and echoed the "greed is good" mantra of Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street.
There was no MADD, SADD or DARE. Most parents i knew drove drunk all the time even with their kids in the car. And the ones i knew who got "caught" were allowed to drive or walk home and pick their car up later.
Reagan's tax cuts were across the board, not just for the top tier.
It was not "greed" during the '80s, it was "prosperity." The 1980s happened to be a very prosperous decade. Nothing wrong with that.
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