Is life harder or easier TODAY than 20-30-40 years ago? (80s, economic)

[KevK]

Originally Posted by njkate

I as well!! Never had to pass through metal detectors going to school....

That is because back then, if you brought a gun to school, you would go to JAIL... I mean real JAIL and not one of those nice college campus dorm style juvenile "detention" centres they have today. They didn't screw around with you back then. I know because I went to JAIL and it was not fun but I never went back again!

[KevK]

Originally Posted by MinnesotaMarvin

Harder for who? As a young black man I know for a fact my life is easier now than it would have been 20 to 40 years ago.

Your darn right! My folks never ever would have dreamed that I would have a black boss one day (I have had 2), a black doctor and a black WIFE! No way in HELL would they have ever, in their wildest imagination, seen a black making a serious run for the Presidency! In our neighbourhood in the 60s, the only times you saw a black was if you drove through their little part of the city which was called "coloured town" or if they were driving a trash truck or a taxi cab. I did not have s single black in my school until I was in the 6th grade and one family finally got the courage to move into the neighbourhood despite the fact that our neighbourhood was only 4 blocks from theirs.

[LittleDolphin]

I think it's a mixed bag--some better some worse.

Better--computers, internet, medical break-throughs, labor-saving devices, communications, digital cameras, weather forecasting...I'm sure there's more...

Worse--cost of housing, size of housing, dis-connect with nature, obesity from food additives and lack of exercise, dumbing down of media, cost of health insurance, lack of company loyalty to employees, cost of higher education, lack of medical support for veterans, violence with guns...

When both Kennedy's and Martin Luther King were assassinated (and John Lennon), the division caused by the war in Viet Nam and the current war, I think our country lost much of its innocence and we've become more cynical...and that makes me sad...I'd like to believe that better times could be ours again...I still have hope...

[laysayfair]

Originally Posted by KevK

Spare me the "good old days"!! Life is far easier today and better too. Let me tell you about life in the 1960s:

1. Houses were small. Boys bunked in one room, girls in another. Kitchen and dining room were one in the same. Floor furnaces meant uneven heat in the winter- the further from the furnace you were, the colder it felt because the houses were largely not insulated either. The house we have now- 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths and a 2 car garage. Oh and your air conditioner in those days was a cold bath and a fan in the window.
2. Cars sucked. Oh yes, they were built good and big but the most common reason for missing work or being late was the car that was broken down or just simply would not start in cold weather. And if you ran into something, you just died! No shoulder belts, no airbags and a hostile interior assured your death upon impact (few people wore the lap belts). And a "2 car family"?? Not in my neighbourhood! If mom (most did not work outside the home then) had to use the car, she took dad to work or he caught the bus.
3. TV sucked. It had some good shows- ones I even watch today like "Leave It To Beaver" but it was one set in a household and was black and white and full of tubes (ours was a Curtis Mathis). And if you got 3 channels you were lucky and they all went off the air at midnight. Coloured TV was unheard of for most of the 60s (when the term "coloured TV" came out some people thought that meant blacks would be on TV- which was also unheard of in the 1960s).
4. School was hard. Back when I was in school, you worked your math by hand and used a slide rule. There were not calculators, computers and stuff like that. If your folks were not weathly enough to own a set of encyclopedias and a typewriter, you spent your Saturday or after school in the library to do your papers.
5. Communications. My kids were amazed when I showed them a dial telephone set. They had never seen one. They were the norm back then. Long distance to Aunt Mary? Maybe a few times a year because in today's dollars it would be about $3 a minute. Now it is virtually free. Back then when your best friend moved away, you knew that you would never see him again and probably never talk to him again. Airlines for the masses- no way! Only the rich got to fly. For the rest it was a multi day drive on a 2 lane highway through dozens of little towns. Now you can fly anywhere for about $125 if you get a fare deal ($250 round trip). And like my daughter told me when I went to my 30th high school reunion- she said she will probably not got to hers because she has the ability to stay in touch with her friends throughout life.

So no thank you, I will take today.

I can't believe I actually agree with Kevk about something. They must be ice-skating in hell! (LOL)

[Bear Creek]

It's better today, but I still would rather be a kid back in the 60's and 70's.

[kwflconch]

Both depends on the issue

[DOUBLE H]

If one could take away the treatment of the minority issue, I would pick the 60's and early 70's. When I started construction at age 19 (1969), I started out at $5 an hour, but a one bedroom apartment was $120 a month; in a decent neighborhood. A brand new car (in my case a '73 Plymouth Sebring plus sticker price was $4100). Doable. A house in my area (Denver, Colo.)- Washington park area, a 2 bedroom house was in the mid $20,000 range.Very doable. Now a construction laborer starts out at $11 an hour,doubling the rate. A one bedroom apartment is 4 times the amount from back then. Same with cars, and DEFINITELY same with housing. IMHO, the middle class started to be slowly eliminated in the early '80's. God help the blue collar now. Just my 2 cents worth.

[laysayfair]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

If one could take away the treatment of the minority issue, I would pick the 60's and early 70's. When I started construction at age 19 (1969), I started out at $5 an hour, but a one bedroom apartment was $120 a month; in a decent neighborhood. A brand new car (in my case a '73 Plymouth Sebring plus sticker price was $4100). Doable. A house in my area (Denver, Colo.)- Washington park area, a 2 bedroom house was in the mid $20,000 range.Very doable. Now a construction laborer starts out at $11 an hour,doubling the rate. A one bedroom apartment is 4 times the amount from back then. Same with cars, and DEFINITELY same with housing. IMHO, the middle class started to be slowly eliminated in the early '80's. God help the blue collar now. Just my 2 cents worth.

Things were cheaper then but they didn't SEEM cheaper then. They seemed expensive. In the 60-70's my siblings and I were ill-clothed, ill-housed and ill-fed. Now were not. So of course I'd never want to go back.

[DOUBLE H]

Good point! There were things that seemed totally out of line at that time. When I bought my first TV it was a 28 inch Zenith color console and it cost just over $400. Now you can buy a similar size one for a lot less. And IMHO, they last a LOT longer. My 20 inch RCA still plays great, and I bought it in '95. Just lucky, I guess. And that first TV got hauled off after 4 years and $175 plus in repairs, I started buying them second hand.

[Fleet]

Originally Posted by KevK

Spare me the "good old days"!! Life is far easier today and better too. Let me tell you about life in the 1960s:

1. Houses were small. Boys bunked in one room, girls in another. Kitchen and dining room were one in the same. Floor furnaces meant uneven heat in the winter- the further from the furnace you were, the colder it felt because the houses were largely not insulated either. The house we have now- 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths and a 2 car garage. Oh and your air conditioner in those days was a cold bath and a fan in the window.

My parents bought a house in Oct., 1966 (for $44,500). It was (or is, I still live in it) 3 bedrooms plus a den plus a family room. The den was converted into a bedroom. Also a living and dining room. 2,618 square feet. On a 1/3 acre lot. A 2-car garage. Central heating and a/c. And, as a rule, houses in the 1960s were well-built. This one survived both the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge earthquakes with no structual damage. In a nearby neighborhood, with houses built in the 1980s, there were large exterior cracks on nearly every house.

2. Cars sucked. Oh yes, they were built good and big but the most common reason for missing work or being late was the car that was broken down or just simply would not start in cold weather. And if you ran into something, you just died! No shoulder belts, no airbags and a hostile interior assured your death upon impact (few people wore the lap belts). And a "2 car family"?? Not in my neighbourhood! If mom (most did not work outside the home then) had to use the car, she took dad to work or he caught the bus.

Darn! Why didn't you tell me before I bought my 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, of which I enjoy immensely? (See photos below.) I can post many photos showing severe collisions in which the occupants survived. And my family was a two-car family. Owned two 1966 Pontiac Grand Prixs during the mid-'60s, before that, a '56 Plymouth and a '60 Cadillac.

3. TV sucked. It had some good shows- ones I even watch today like "Leave It To Beaver" but it was one set in a household and was black and white and full of tubes (ours was a Curtis Mathis). And if you got 3 channels you were lucky and they all went off the air at midnight. Coloured TV was unheard of for most of the 60s (when the term "coloured TV" came out some people thought that meant blacks would be on TV- which was also unheard of in the 1960s).

Many, including myself, consider the '60s the best decade for TV, especially for sitcoms. Back then, the shows had imagination, like "Bewitched" or "My Favorite Martian." Also, there was definitely color TVs in the '60s. The TV show "Bonanza" was broadcast in color during its entire run, which began in 1959.
Other popular TV shows... The Andy Griffith Show, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Rawhide, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Dobie Gillis, The Red Skelton Show, The Jack Benny Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Dragnet, Adam-12, Perry Mason, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Dean Martin Show, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Green Acres, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, The Donna Reed Show, The Patty Duke Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Munsters, The Addams Family, The Lucy Show, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Daktari, Gilligan's Island, The Wild Wild West, Get Smart, Ironside... just to name a few.
I'll take those shows over today's "reality" or "comedy" shows anytime!

4. School was hard. Back when I was in school, you worked your math by hand and used a slide rule. There were not calculators, computers and stuff like that. If your folks were not weathly enough to own a set of encyclopedias and a typewriter, you spent your Saturday or after school in the library to do your papers.

School is supposed to be hard! What do you learn when it's easy? I am still well able to add, subtract or multiply without having to use a calculator (my brain is my calculator).

5. Communications. My kids were amazed when I showed them a dial telephone set. They had never seen one. They were the norm back then.

Oh, no... dial telephones! How did we ever survive that! There is still a dial telephone in my den, btw. Another point... those things lasted a lot longer back then.

Long distance to Aunt Mary? Maybe a few times a year because in today's dollars it would be about $3 a minute. Now it is virtually free. Back then when your best friend moved away, you knew that you would never see him again and probably never talk to him again.

The night rates made long-distance calling affordable.

Airlines for the masses- no way! Only the rich got to fly. For the rest it was a multi day drive on a 2 lane highway through dozens of little towns. Now you can fly anywhere for about $125 if you get a fare deal ($250 round trip). And like my daughter told me when I went to my 30th high school reunion- she said she will probably not got to hers because she has the ability to stay in touch with her friends throughout life.

Not sure what the rates were back then, but I can check with those who remember more from that era than I.

So no thank you, I will take today

Each decade has both good and bad.