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I'd strongly suggest looking for supporting data. If you talk to people, you will inevitably hear that "the good old times" were better than what we have. In t

I'd strongly suggest looking for supporting data. If you talk to people, you will inevitably hear that "the good old times" were better than what we have. In the 1950s, the average house was still ~3 years of average income. Cars were about 9 months of income. So the "regular bank teller" with a house, 2 apartments, and 3 cars... there's something missing in the story. Let's not even get into the fact that life was significantly worse if you happened to be not white or male. Black people didn't have their voting rights significantly curtailed via Jim Crow laws. Married women didn't have the ability to have their own money. Beating your spouse was A-OK. Yes, social mobility was better (for white men). Universities were cheaper (a year of tuition was still ~1-2 months of income). Medical care was... not so good. Nutrition a non-existent concept. (And before we go to the "all natural food", quick reminder that the 1950s were the decade of TV dinners and truly atrocious recipes) The 50's certainly had less of the constant stream of demands that our current time has. It's not like it was purely worse, or the "golden age" image wouldn't hold. But as a net, across the population, we've seen improvement. We are backsliding the last ~20 years, absolutely. But we're still not in 1950.

pdimitar 5y ago
> In the 1950s, the average house was still ~3 years of average income. Today you'd be lucky if that's 10 years; most likely very well paid too. For most people with well-paid jobs it's 15, and for everybody else it's a lifetime endeavour (20-30). Not sure how you're contradicting me exactly with this. I guess we are both showing bias and filter bubble effects. I live in a poor country and even if I am not poor myself, how almost everybody around me lives is sadly too visible.
golemiprague 5y ago
Is it so much better for black people these days to grow up without a dad in some crappy neighbourhood with gun shots every weekend comparing to growing up in a family in a peaceful neighbourhood in the 50'? I am not so sure and I don't see so much intermixing with the rest of the American society, blacks still interact mainly among themselves so it is not that different from the times when this kind of segregation was institutionalised. Women also don't seem to be that thrilled from their current situation, who said being another HR manager is better than being a housewife? From the amount of complains you hear about how hard it is to be black or a woman these days it seems like they are much less happy, at least subjectively.

pdimitar 5y ago

> In the 1950s, the average house was still ~3 years of average income. Today you'd be lucky if that's 10 years; most likely very well paid too. For most people with well-paid jobs it's 15, and for everybody else it's a lifetime endeavour (20-30). Not sure how you're contradicting me exactly with this. I guess we are both showing bias and filter bubble effects. I live in a poor country and even if I am not poor myself, how almost everybody around me lives is sadly too visible.

golemiprague 5y ago

Is it so much better for black people these days to grow up without a dad in some crappy neighbourhood with gun shots every weekend comparing to growing up in a family in a peaceful neighbourhood in the 50'? I am not so sure and I don't see so much intermixing with the rest of the American society, blacks still interact mainly among themselves so it is not that different from the times when this kind of segregation was institutionalised. Women also don't seem to be that thrilled from their current situation, who said being another HR manager is better than being a housewife? From the amount of complains you hear about how hard it is to be black or a woman these days it seems like they are much less happy, at least subjectively.