>There have been plenty of severe economic climates before, and we haven't seen the same issues from those. And there was a lot more poverty then than we have

>There have been plenty of severe economic climates before, and we haven't seen the same issues from those. And there was a lot more poverty then than we have now. There also wasn't the widespread expectation of having a "good life," and probably a much smaller pre-existing middle class all attempting to hang onto their position. Furthermore, the whole notion of "middle class" and all the expectations that come with it probably weren't as firmly rooted as they are now, so people just... expected less. >Climate change wasn't the issue back in the 80s - instead it was things like Mutually Assured Destruction. There's always something. We need to stop making excuses like "it's current affairs issue X". Just saying "there are bad things now and there were bad things then" does not mean that circumstances are always equally good or bad. The economic/social/political climate CAN be better or worse at different times. Life was certainly very hard for the generations living through the great depression or WW2, and the burdens those people carried should not be diminished by people living in more fortuitous times.