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It's interesting to look at the 1950s and how it compared to earlier times. Say, to those times as distant to the 1950s and the 1950s are to us.
As a society, I would say the 1950s are the most idealized of any era. In fact the entire reason we have Donald Trump is because of nostalgia for this image people have of what America used to be in the 1950s. It would be interesting to see what people in the 1950s thought of a time like the 1890s. The 1890s were as distant to the people living in the 1950s as the 1950s are to today. I wonder if they idealized them as a "golden age?"
Here is some interviews with elderly people in the late 1920s, so it's farther back than the '50s. However, one thing that really stands out is how much more optimistic people were about the future back then. Most people today have this inherent feeling that America's best days are behind it.
I'm from the 50's with a birthdate of 1958. For a person with traditional values, things were much, much better.
Let us look at trends in the negative areas of:
*Obesity
*Depression
*Divorce
*Public Shooters
*Poverty
*Debt
*Health
*Crime
*Addiction
*Privacy
*Police Violence
*Civil Asset Forfeiture
*Dysfunctional Citizens
*Homelessness
*Anxiety
*Allergies
*Phobias
*Affordable Housing
*Lay Offs
*Employment Longevity/Stability
*National Debt
We have been catering to every "wing nut" sub-set imaginable. Now the wing nuts have enough numbers to try to run the show.
And we have another "Lost Golden Age" fest on our hands.
You list a series of societal and personal problems, which as far as anyone knows have always existed in every generation. You provide not a whiff of evidence or supporting data which would establish that people are fatter now than they were in the '50's, that there was less crime than there is now, that a greater percentage of the population could afford to be home owners.....nothing. Are we to simply assume that you have researched all of these topics and speak with authority? I'm unwilling to make that assumption and would request that you produce your sources for making the claims that you do.
And if you can't, well, why should we view you as anything other than one more blow hard?
And we have another "Lost Golden Age" fest on our hands.
You list a series of societal and personal problems, which as far as anyone knows have always existed in every generation. You provide not a whiff of evidence or supporting data which would establish that people are fatter now than they were in the '50's, that there was less crime than there is now, that a greater percentage of the population could afford to be home owners.....nothing. Are we to simply assume that you have researched all of these topics and speak with authority? I'm unwilling to make that assumption and would request that you produce your sources for making the claims that you do.
And if you can't, well, why should we view you as anything other than one more blow hard?
People ARE fatter now....100% on that....the other stuff not as sure
And we have another "Lost Golden Age" fest on our hands.
You list a series of societal and personal problems, which as far as anyone knows have always existed in every generation. You provide not a whiff of evidence or supporting data which would establish that people are fatter now than they were in the '50's, that there was less crime than there is now, that a greater percentage of the population could afford to be home owners.....nothing. Are we to simply assume that you have researched all of these topics and speak with authority? I'm unwilling to make that assumption and would request that you produce your sources for making the claims that you do.
And if you can't, well, why should we view you as anything other than one more blow hard?
The national debt is up.
Asthma is up.
Suicide is up.
Abortion is up.
Lesbianism is up.
Meth addiction is up.
Divorce is up (all while never-married status is also up).
Absolute number of people in poverty is up (we can quibble about how we measure poverty).
Number of single men 25 years and older living at home with parents is up.
Jobs in the *gig* economy are up.
Black and white children growing up in female-headed households is up.
I was born in 1953. If you were to bring, say my 10 year old self to the present time, I would be amazed by all the gadgets.
When I was 10 years old, we had a small telly, with say a 22" screen, in black and white of course. My father had a newly bought reel to reel tape recorder, which amazed me when I heard my recorded voice. Taking a photo was generally saved for events like Christmas, a holiday, or say a wedding.
We didn't have a house phone. If we wanted to call anybody, we had to go out in the street to the nearest red phone box. Foreign holidays, common today for British people, were almost unknown. Most folks went to holiday camps called 'Butlin's'', or maybe a week by the sea in a bed and breakfast. I didn't have anything like that. The highlight of my year was a day trip with my Aunt and Uncle in their car, to Blackpool, on the west coast of England, about 50 miles from my home town, Oldham in Lancashire. We would sit on the beach, and dig holes in the sand. My Aunt would have a picnic basket filled with sandwiches, cake, and dandelion and burdock pop. If me and my sister were good, we would also get a ride along the beach on a donkey, led by the owner of said animal.
We, like most other folks, didn't have central heating. We had a coal fire in the living room, and a small heater in the kitchen. My father lit the fire before he went to work, and coal had to be added all during the day. There were no supermarkets as we know them today. Food was brought fresh each day, as we didn't have a fridge. We got the first one in 1964, and it was a boon, and meant my mother didn't have to go out each day to buy fresh meat.
The washing was done in a machine with a wringer on the top. After washing it was pushed through the wringer to get the excess water out. We went to school, and behaved ourselves, or the teacher hit us across the hand with a leather strap. Parents approved of this, knowing the teacher had a difficult job to do, keeping kids in line.
We played street games like marbles, and hide and seek type games. We were called in quite early, to be in bed, and well rested for school the next day. I was allowed to read my Superman comics for a while before sleeping.
We knew little of the world of adults, and were much more innocent than children of the same age today. Adults were careful what they said with children present, and never used bad language in front of children.
Highlight of the week was a trip to the movies. I was given enough money to ride the bus to town and back, to get in the cinema, and a few pennies for some candy. I used to love watching cowboy movies, especially the ones with John Wayne in them.
My hobbies included building plastic plane kits, stamp collecting, and reading my comics. I enjoyed watching American cowboy shows like 'Rawhide' and 'Bonanza' I also liked Ellie May in 'The Beverly Hillbilly's. I thought she was just so beautiful. Jethro and his schemes made me laugh.
My dad built trucks for a living, and the idea of him ever losing his job never crossed his, or my mind. We lived in a house which had low rent, and all our neighbours were similar to us. Quite young parents, with small children. We had moved on to a newly constructed council estate in 1954, when I was a baby, and most everybody else was similar to us. Few people owned cars, and we could play in the streets without worry of vehicles. One would pass, and it would be a while before another came along. I didn't know anybody who owned their house. All my relatives rented.
If you took that ten year old boy, and brought him to today, he would be astonished by the amount of cars on the streets, and such things as cell phones, and massive tv sets. He would find the children of his age very different to himself. He would be quite the fish out of water.
Divorce is up (all while never-married status is also up).
Absolute number of people in poverty is up (we can quibble about how we measure poverty).
Number of single men 25 years and older living at home with parents is up.
Jobs in the *gig* economy are up.
Black and white children growing up in female-headed households is up.
Sex reassignment surgery is up.
Plastic surgery is up.
Oh yeah? And what is down compared to the '50's? Is there more polio now? More censorship? More blacklisting? More exclusion of minorities? More deaths from heart attacks and cancer?
If you say everything is bad and list only the bad things while ignoring the good, then you have hardly made your case. Further, as with Cologuy, you provide us with a series of assertions, but fail to provide any documentation which would prove it true.
Oh yeah? And what is down compared to the '50's? Is there more polio now? More censorship? More blacklisting? More exclusion of minorities? More deaths from heart attacks and cancer?
If you say everything is bad and list only the bad things while ignoring the good, then you have hardly made your case. Further, as with Cologuy, you provide us with a series of assertions, but fail to provide any documentation which would prove it true.
All the statements were researched, but I am not going to waste my time in posting specific links for you. You seem like an intelligent one. If curious, your answers are a few Internet searches away.
There have definitely been advances since the 1950s and I have never argued against this. However, there have also been very negative trends since then. The breakdown of the family is chief among these. It has brought with it lawlessness in the black community, welfare dependency, gender confusion, sexual permissiveness across the board. Some argue that welfare brought about the initial destruction of the family, particularly the black family, and I see merits to that argument. Contraception and abortion have disconnected sex from procreation. So, as a society we have come to see sex as more purely recreational. Not sure this is a good thing. Not sure homosexuality is good for individuals. Not sure promiscuity elevates one. I am sure that killing the unborn child is murder (but our *enlightened* legal system does not view it as such).
All the statements were researched, but I am not going to waste my time in posting specific links for you.
.
You aren't going to waste your time providing us with a reason to think that anything you listed is actually true? How surprising. Of course what readers here will conclude is not "Oh he's got the goods, he just isn't showing them"...they are going to conclude that you are simply making all this up and you don't actually know. At least that is what I conclude.
Quote:
There have definitely been advances since the 1950s and I have never argued against this. However, there have also been very negative trends since then.
Yes, and your entire previous post was devoted to only the negative trends as you see them. Would not the truth of matters be a product of a balanced view rather than one which focuses exclusively on your complaints? You really aren't presenting yourself here as someone who has looked at all the evidence and reached fair conclusions, you are presenting yourself as someone who began with a conclusion and then presented only that which supported the conclusion while overlooking anything which does not. Worse, that which does support your conclusion are only assertions which you aren't "going to waste time" establishing as valid. In short you aren't giving us a reason to take what you are saying seriously.
You aren't going to waste your time providing us with a reason to think that anything you listed is actually true? How surprising. Of course what readers here will conclude is not "Oh he's got the goods, he just isn't showing them"...they are going to conclude that you are simply making all this up and you don't actually know. At least that is what I conclude.
My earlier post indicated that the positions were researched, which they are. You or anyone can find research supporting them through simple Internet searches. And no I am not going to waste my time providing links.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grandstander
Yes, and your entire previous post was devoted to only the negative trends as you see them. Would not the truth of matters be a product of a balanced view rather than one which focuses exclusively on your complaints? You really aren't presenting yourself here as someone who has looked at all the evidence and reached fair conclusions, you are presenting yourself as someone who began with a conclusion and then presented only that which supported the conclusion while overlooking anything which does not. Worse, that which does support your conclusion are only assertions which you aren't "going to waste time" establishing as valid. In short you aren't giving us a reason to take what you are saying seriously.
What specific conclusions or assertions are you referring to? BTW, I think the new LED lightbulbs are great and new automobiles are better, more reliable than ever.
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