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For Blacks in VA in the 1950's it was pretty bad. Public schools were shut down to avoid integration. In 1912, the VA legislature passed a law to permit housing zoning by race. In the 1950's Black neighborhoods were systemically destroyed to put in interstates. Take Jackson Ward and Church Hill for example. A thriving communities of churches, homes and businesses cut in pieces by I95. I95 could have gone 1mile west into an abandoned industrial area, but wasn't. They have never fully recovered. For more: https://encyclopediavirginia.org/ent...l-in-virginia/
The 1930s saw widespread suffering and deprivation due to the Great Depression.
The 1940s saw widespread death and austerity due to World War II.
The 1950s saw a decade of peace and prosperity.
The red scare was mostly abstract. Something on the TV news. Moreover, patriotism was extremely high so almost everybody in the middle class was on the same page in opposing communism and being wary of it's influence and penetration. It was only Hollywood and the media screaming about McCarthy. Your everyday Joe opposed communism and supported McCarthy.
Coming off World War II, nobody saw Korea as a big deal, but the few soldiers sent to fight their, and their Moms. That was not even a big battle in World War II. Perspective is everything. Also recall, to that point America was undefeated in war. I would expect that the Korean War had general support from the US middle class who probably figured we would defeat North Korea in a year.
The threat of nuclear war was again, abstract. You didn't obsess over it on your commute on the subway. You were probably talking about who is pitching for the Yankees that night.
Prosperity
Recall that the entire industrial capacity of the world lay in ruins, except for America and the USSR, and the Soviets had no clue how to make products the world wanted. The USA became the worlds suppliers and our massive exports fueled a huge economic expansion that fueled prosperity nationwide. For the first time, homes were cheap, with the low cost stud-frame homes started for veterans after the war.
You just had far more prosperity than previous decades, with few of the cultural and social problems we have today. Very little gun crime, especially once Prohibition ended. Very few suicides.
It would take 50 pages to list everything. It was a golden era for Americans. It is not just "nostalgia". Things were very good until the first oil shock in 1973. It has been all downhill since then. Not bad, just a continual slide downhill.
Not completely. The microchip revolution really raised our quality of life for a while there, so there is that. The microchip revolution was a speed bump along our long, slow decline in overall quality of life.
Just one example -- nobody complained about schools in the 1950s. Education was pretty uniform and targetted on the 3-Rs. Parents were happy with schools and with teachers, for the most part. Look at today. Half of today's parents have huge concerns/complaints with schools today. Our schools were the envy of the world in the 1950s, especially our Universities.
Education is just one small example of the greatness of the 50s vs today. It certainly wasn't perfect. We have some massive benefits today. Today's tech is amazing and made massive imporovements in our quality of life, but there are so many other areas where we have suffered huge declines in QAL from the 1950s.
It was not a complete bed of roses. Black people were subject to racism. Women had limited options and were subject to sexism. Safety was not exactly emphasized. No seat belts or air bags in the 1950s. I am not saying it was some utopia, but it was a golden age.
I think there was a great deal of optimism in 1950s Australia. Keep in mind we had been in the war for the full duration, six years, and Sydney and Darwin had been attacked.
This lead to the call to “populate or perish” as the whole country, nearly the size of the US, had a population of only around 8 million. Thus started our push to encourage immigration, though initially white immigration, and the immigrants were called New Australians and committees set up to welcome them.
The armed forces returning had led to huge efforts to house all needing to be, and although houses were smaller than now, they had big yards, and people were increasingly able to buy cars.
Which led to the tragedy (in hindsight) of Sydney, the dismantling of the system of electric trams, which was one of the largest systems in the world. The last one ran in 1961 and like the others, was stripped and unceremoniously burnt at a location near the famous Bondi Beach.
This was to make the city more car friendly. Now a few of these lines are being replaced at costs of literally billions of dollars and although buses and trains are well used, the city grinds to a stop because of traffic congestion.
On the other hand, the fifties brought us the planning of the opera house, the introduction of vaccination for polio in 1956 and also in 1956 ( quite late on an international scale) the introduction of television in time for the Melbourne Olympics.
Although my husband and I like to bicker about who was picked on more as kids, he as an immigrant from southern Europe and me as a kid with red hair and freckles, I think overall the decade was a bit of an oasis between the turmoil of the war years and that of the sixties with our increasingly unpopular involvement in the Vietnam war.
I agree with you on the effect of inflation since the 1950s but you are short-changing your arguments.
New car prices today are far more than double from the 50s. My first brand new car in 1973 was $2,500, today the entry-level Nissan Versa is MSRP $16,390, that's over 6 times as much. My 2017 F150 sticker was $46,800, my wife's 2020 Outback was $36,000.
I was too young in the 50s to know about car prices, and my father bought used, but I looked up his 1957 Chrysler Wagon MSRP and it was $4,746. Of course needed the room for all of us, but a more basic 1955 Ford Fairlane was $1,801.
I'd love to know where home prices have only doubled since the 1950s. Our first house was built in the 1940s, we paid $50,000 in 1978, and it sold recently for $874,000.
I guess my point is that there are other considerations that made that decade worse than today in ways other than expenses.
I think, when he said that cars and houses have doubled, it includes the inflation prices. Otherwise, houses have gone up 30- 50 Xs their value from the 50s or 60s. Salaries surely haven’t. Our house in Seaford cost $17,000 in 1965. It would sell today for at least $600k
Moderator cut: Quoted post removed. Posted related to Current Events or Politics belong in those respective forums.
Your version of history is completely not reality.
Welfare at the Federal level in the US goes back to just after the Civil War. But most of it started with the highly successful New Deal programs of the 1930s. The United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was created in 1953. How can there not have been welfare in the 1950s when there was a US government department for it? "Welfare" was only dropped from the name in 1979 due to the stigma that was placed on it by conservatives at the end of the 1970s
I would argue that the United States was great in the 1950s because people were more than happy to pay their taxes and help people less fortunate than themselves. As a result we didn't have people living in tents on every street corner in the 1950s. Since the late 1970s greed has killed the heart and sole of this country.
Last edited by mensaguy; 02-04-2024 at 01:32 PM..
Reason: Quoted post removed.
Welfare has always existed in Virginia, whether as a state or a colony. My guess is all all the colonies and states thereafter followed a similar model adjusted for local conditions and traditions. In VA, prior to the Revolution, welfare was the responsibility of the Church of England. Parishes were given the authority to levy taxes to support the needy; the vestrymen (always men) were leading citizens. Orphans and widows were thusly supported. After the Revolution and disestablishment of the state church, the function fell to the state. In 1773, as tensions mounted between the Crown those who became the Founders, one thing they agreed on was free care for the mentally ill and what is now Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg was founded.
Hunger was endemic in the 1950's; two select Senate committees met on the problem, but nothing was done until the 1960's. Even in the 1950's paying for health care was an issue and thus the groundwork for the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960's began in the Eisenhower administration.
One might argue there was less welfare in that Virginia had a vagrancy law; thus when public school systems throughout the Commonwealth were shut down to prevent integration during the period of massive resistance, Black kids went to work, if not, they could be prosecuted under the 1904 statue An Act in Relation to Vagrancy; the penalty was the cost of a bond. White students did not face such a bleak prospect; they would get tuition vouchers for private schools which were segregated. This system wasn't overturned until the 1960's.
A momentary sigh of relief before heading off to Korea to fight commies. It's amazing how many of those commies got to the USA and their offspring run our government.
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