Posted on 01/19/2016 9:06:44 PM PST by Theoria
Take a look back at some of the most popular TV programs of the mid-1960s -- "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Bewitched," even "The Beverly Hillbillies" -- and what do you see?
Like today, middle-class Americans typically had washing machines and air-conditioning, telephones and cars. The Internet and video games were not yet invented. But life, over all, did not look that different.
There were TVs and radios in most homes. Millions of people worked in downtown offices and lived in suburbs, connected by multilane highways. Americans' average life expectancy at birth was 70, only eight years less than it is today.
But flash back 50 years earlier. Then, less than half the population lived in cities. Though Ford Model T's were starting to roll off the assembly line, Americans typically moved around on horse-drawn buggies on dirt or cobblestone roads. Refrigerators or TVs? Most homes weren't even wired for electricity. And average life expectancy was only 53.
Americans like to think they live in an era of rapid and unprecedented change, but this kind of comparison -- pitting the momentous changes of the mid-20th century against the seemingly more modest progress of our present era -- raises a critical question about the nation's future prosperity.
What does this portend for our well-being over the next half century? Has technological progress slowed for good?
The idea that America's best days are behind us sits in sharp tension with the high-tech optimism radiating from the offices of the technology start-ups and venture capital firms of Silicon Valley. But it lies at the heart of the current political unrest. And it is about to elbow its way forcefully into the national conversation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Unless we close our borders, kick out all illegals and prevent Muslims from taking over our legal system, yes, we are lost as a country.
Stop rolling down hill
Like a snowball headed for Hell
Stand up for the Flag
And let’s all ring the Liberty Bell
Let’s make a Ford and a Chevy
Still last ten years like they should
The best of the free life is still yet to come
The good times ain’t over for good
Time for a vaccine against political lampreys.
America has turned her back on faith and morality. She loves evil and hates good. Children are killed in the womb, homosexuals have special rights over Christians, fornication is more common than virginity among the unmarried, divorce is around 50%, pagan tattoos are fashionable, entertainment is perverted and the spoken language has devolved into a course stream of cussing, blasphemy and "f-words". The character of next generation is worse than the previous, in spite of higher standards of living. The churches have vacated the Bible and preach from the book of Oprah instead and the government grow more and more intrusive every day. America is no longer good because she has denied God and replaced the worship due Him with the worship of the state. America is in decline! God is judging this nation by giving us the leaders we have chosen. Obama is judgement for our failure to look to God in gratitude and providence. Save national repentance, America is ripe to be the latest empire to fall into the dust heap of the historical record. Liberty was found in Christ and we chose idolatry and lost Christ's favor. The pattern is repeated, Israel, Judah, England, America the empires rise during the times when they are guided by the fear of the Lord and fall when they despise him.
Too many things are beyond repair.
Barack Obama went around the globe proclaiming that America had been an evil land until HE became president, all that would change. Gimme that Peace Prize for doing nothing but selling Hope and Change.
He also berated Americans saying that their standard of living and expectations were too high. You CAN”T just go around setting your thermostat and whatever YOU want to. You CAN’T just go around driving your SUV wherever YOU want to go. You CAN’T just eat what or as much as you want in the land of plenty. This just isn’t how things are done in the rest of the world and frankly they are jealous.
We fight against an agenda that seek knocking America’s standard of living down several pegs. Job security? Nah, low cost employment is booming for India. Owning your own home? Nah, it is extravagant; opt instead for a tiny home or a skyrise squat in a ‘smart growth’ high density community.
Can America improve? Will those holding it back ever cease and desist?
Yes.
I remember being a teenager in the late 1970s and reading articles like this. “This is the last generation that will enjoy a standard of living better than their parents”, etc. None of the talking heads anticipated the Reagan boom that began just a couple of years later. Nobody seemed to expect the collapse of communism. Do you watch Seinfeld re-runs? There are no smart phones, laptops, online dating, facebook, Amazon, or email. That was 20 years ago. In 2007, who would have predicted an unknown black guy would be elected President in 2008? A barrel of oil was over $100 in 2014, today: $28. Last July, all of the “smart” people said Trump was a joke and would flame out by the end of the summer.
The point is, for better or worse, when it comes to the future, nobody knows nothin’.
I would contend that the presence or absence of gadgets and length of life isn’t what benchmarks whether or not our best years are behind us, it’s the increase in grinding bureaucratic minutiae, percentage of our life equity extracted and diminished ability to be left alone by governing collectives that delineate it.
Life equity is particularly telling. In conducting the business of its growth and perpetuation, government is essentially siphoning off all the extra years gained by the citizenry through its innovations and creativity. If you knock out the life expectancy skew produced by the early 20th century mortality of the 0-5 YO age cohort, you can see how government readily eats up the 20-25 year difference going from no income tax to a middle class
rate in the 20-30% range.
And that rate equates to years. Labor=Time=Money, some Labor more than others. You don’t think about it as much (particularly if you like what you labor at) but if you ponder what that would translate for you in vacation time per year you would have a lot of personal time to do or pursue other things.
If your lucky enough to make 100 years from a middle age today, recognize that fully 1/2 of that will have been spent (barring some political miracle or catastrophe) by you to meet the demands of others.
I’d be surprised if that penned out to more than 2 or 3% of that lower lifespan in 1900-10 era. The work and world might have been grueling then for many, but at the end of the day what you earned or produced was yours, and there were far fewer enticements to keep you from striking out for something different if it wasn’t tolerable.
(Psalms 9:17) The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
We have turned our backs on God.
We do what is right in our own eyes.
We are marching high speed into captivity just like ancient Israel .
We have put an Ishmael in the White House and he is doing everything possible to bring this nation more judgement.
We are even inviting in the Assyrian army and people think it’s a cool thing.
If people do not repent and turn back we are toast as a nation.
To paraphrase Yoda: “Technology does not one great make.”
If we are to be great again, and I think the recent oil activity has shown we certainly can be when we put our minds to it, we need to quit stepping on out own tender parts and get to work. We need to cut the multitude of jobs designed to fatten the ranks of bureaucratic micro-management, stop relying on consensus and give more rein to those who will take the ball and run with it. We need to train the next generation of those people as well, and they won't learn by being choked and bound in miles of red tape.
One more thing: we will never get strong again if we don't do our own heavy lifting. Conceive it here, design it here, build it here, from our own resources. Then we will be great again.
We have reached our mediocre point.
We will not be a superpower much longer after Obama has performed a national lobotomy on the USA. The patient, the USA, electorate willingly signed away her birthright and position of leadership in the world by putting a radical Community Organizer in the White House.
Gone is America's status as a world player with a clear vision of the world. Gone is thee respect of our enemies and friends. Gone...is the will.
MAYBE and G-d willing, the next US President will restore some of what was lost.
Elon Musk has actually opined that the window for colonizing Mars may not remain open forever, due to the threat of terror/war bringing down modern civilization on earth.
The “rugged individualist” mindset that guided America to heights never before seen had its zenith in the 1950s and early 60s, with a brief resurgence during the Reagan era. Those whose goal is the fall of America started their nefarious, satanic work decades ago in the education system. In public schools, students don’t even salute the flag anymore .. at least not the American flag. In earlier times, prayer in school was present and encouraged; nowadays a student who is caught with a Bible is suspended.
Multiculturalism and its associated demographic changes, a creeping sense of entitlement and a movement away from the idea of American greatness have all shoved this country inexorably leftward, leaving a shell of what it once was.
This isn’t to say America won’t have momentary surges of pride and unity as it did in the days after 9/11, but the country’s best days are in the past.
-due to the threat of terror/war bringing down modern civilization on earth.-
It is possible that some third world nuclear power will significantly degrade or take life for millions or billions of people. But another, closer and significant danger to civilization are the cultural Marxists behind the ecology movements. They lock out significant lands from development as nature preserves. They lock out cheap technologies like Freon and make technology ever more expensive and less available to ordinary people. They use all sorts of potential global catastrophes to frighten people. Global warming is one example. There is Peak Oil, Global Cooling, Bird Flu, the list is endless.
Without Liberty innovation will whither and die. We've lost ours.
Mothers have KILLED 56 MILLION BABIES in this country and women VOTE FOR MORE DEAD BABIES!!!
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