Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

If you think life was better 50 years ago . . .
Reason.com ^ | April 1, 2016 | Nick Gillespie

Posted on 04/02/2016 7:24:52 AM PDT by Macoozie

. . . what's most striking to the chart above isn't the spread between Trumpists and Clintonistas (though it is stunning, to be sure), it's that only a bare majority of the latter feel things are better now than they were 50 years ago.

(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: economy; immigration; noexcerpt; tedcruzcampaign; tedomitesscruzers; wages
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-160 next last
To: Rashputin

You are so right...My parents grew up during the Depression...
My mom would talk about the rich kids at her school having store bought cereal and oatmeal for breakfast and she felt so poor because she had to eat bacon, eggs, biscuits and molasses that they grew and raise on their farm...They couldn’t afford the “store bought”...

LOL


121 posted on 04/02/2016 10:02:11 AM PDT by JBW1949
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 114 | View Replies]

To: JBW1949

They sure were better! You could walk into any place of employment, fill out your application and walk out hired, then and there on the spot! AND be paid more than minimum wage to start! You didn’t have to wait a year for benefits, either. The kicked in immediately except for vacation..you had to accrue time for that, and profit sharing was automatic.

You could afford to purchase a home AND a new car, all of the required insurances, and still have money for groceries, entertainment, as well as savings.

I remember those days. Our parents bought a 13 room house on four acres of land in the middle of town for $4,000. Three years later it sold for $20k which was significant bucks then!

We were able to ride our bikes on the street around town without worry..yes, we had to use safety rules. Police cars were privately owned vehicles with a bubble stuck on top during duty hours.

About the only time the police were needed was if there was a house fire or an accident down the road. The worse things the teens did in those days was putting the picnic tables in the lake water just for haha’s.

I remember one time a group of teens broke into the laundromat...not to steal the coins, but because a couple of them couldn’t go home (unfit parents were rare, but they existed) to do their laundry. They were let go without any charges filed against them, and all of them turned out well as adults.

We used to hear about sit-in protests, and sometimes the riot police used excessive force, but those things usually happened in big cities, not in our small rural towns which is what most of the country was made of.

It was a big deal to go to the city which was usually a very significant drive, to see a hippie. That’s not what we went to the city to do, but it was a thing for a kid to do when we did go there, which wasn’t often.

Our house was well filled with food as were the homes of all our friends. We all had good clothes, up to date and in good condition, so were our shoes.

Sure, there were a few ‘poor’ kids, but you could count them on one hand. They were the ones who didn’t get regular hair cuts, and who came to school dirty. They were so few that they stood out.

Sometimes some of us girls would befriend the poor girls, invite her to our house after school, scrub her up, do her hair, give her some make up and an outfit so she wouldn’t feel so self conscious at school. They wanted to be liked too. They wanted boyfriends, and they wanted to be part of a group...to be included.

I also remember teachers who didn’t take any guff. They’d throw erasers and pop the one who was giving the class problems with lightning speed and accuracy, even with their backs turned to the class. These teachers were usually Vietnam vets. It was usually the greasy, pimply guys with the black leather jackets and the cocky attitudes who got nailed.

A teacher who couldn’t control his/her class room was usually driven out by the class itself. We needed to respect our teachers, and we needed to learn. We wouldn’t accept anything less.

Ya, I remember those days, I remember them well. They were the turning point for the crap we have going on now.

My mother used to go to school meetings and she tried so hard to convince school personnel that you don’t bend down to children, you BRING THEM UP to you. She was right, and they didn’t listen.

Now we can all cry 96 tears.


122 posted on 04/02/2016 10:03:43 AM PDT by PrairieLady2 (Lyin' Ted scruze Cruz...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: driftless2

See, that is a good comparison...

Back then, a kidnapping drew national attention...Today, it happens quite a bit and usually only draws local media...


123 posted on 04/02/2016 10:04:50 AM PDT by JBW1949
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: driftless2

I think there have always been criminally warped people who want to do things to kids. In that era there were far fewer of them than now, though, I suspect. The more strict public morality of the times likely prevented a lot of it from ever happening out of shame.


124 posted on 04/02/2016 10:07:01 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: All

Well, I will admit to something I would miss...Playing online poker with play money (which I am doing now on the side)..I’m addicted to it...LOL


125 posted on 04/02/2016 10:12:01 AM PDT by JBW1949
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 123 | View Replies]

To: mountainlion
I think that it is amusing when people thank me for my service when I wear my Vet hat. Their Grandparents would have been calling me an Ahole.

Sometimes kids see things see things differently which is good.

126 posted on 04/02/2016 10:13:02 AM PDT by Little Bill (o)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: driftless2

http://jg-tc.com/news/old-tape-gives-new-clues-in-half-century-old-death/article_39f757c9-23d6-5f35-ae47-56809db3483c.html


127 posted on 04/02/2016 10:14:26 AM PDT by Pelham (A refusal to deport is defacto amnesty)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: JBW1949

Owning firearms was OK & normal in the 1950’s. Then there were the Kennedy/MLK assassinations & gun control was on a roll. By the 1970’s liberal propaganda made gun ownership out to be a form of psychosis.

Then in the 1980’s gun importation was re-legalized under a gun friendly President & things have trended toward the legitimacy of 2nd Amendment rights ever since, IMO. Under the current Tnediserp a pro-gun & pro-gun rights backlash is surging against his commands to turn in our guns and trust Muslims.

Liberals have gone hysterical trying to re-stigmatize guns & owners, using class warfare as before (”good people don’t have guns”). As gun purchases proliferate, liberals lie about “more guns in fewer hands”.

Now...was 1966 better than now? I was 18 then. Much to miss with the passing of youth, no doubt. But even with all the negative social trends of today, it’s still possible to live as a moral life under the guidance of the Almighty now as it was then.

I do miss that 25 cents a gallon gasoline, though.


128 posted on 04/02/2016 10:19:05 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam. Buy ammo.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: lonestar

I lived about a mile form an IBM plant that had moved form New Jersey outside of Boulder Colorado.


129 posted on 04/02/2016 10:19:32 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 116 | View Replies]

To: DJ Taylor
I appreciate every word!

We were probably the "last ones" who weren't burdened with adult problems as children. Adults didn't talk in front of children..it was , "Go play!".

It wasn't perfect but it was nice.

130 posted on 04/02/2016 10:20:00 AM PDT by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: redangus

I guess our parents thought that experiences were important too.


131 posted on 04/02/2016 10:20:33 AM PDT by jonathonandjennifer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: Little Bill

Sometimes kids see things see things differently which is good.

I wear a hat and am ready to jump down the throat of any anti Veteran kook but have not found one.


132 posted on 04/02/2016 10:21:29 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 126 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido
Music was better, anyway.

And cars were cooler.

133 posted on 04/02/2016 10:26:53 AM PDT by Smittie (Just like an alien, I'm a stranger in a strange land)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: mountainlion

No wonder!


134 posted on 04/02/2016 10:30:29 AM PDT by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]

To: Macoozie
we are all richer, smarter, and better off

It's all perspective and depends upon what aspect of life you're talking about and what you're using to measure it by.

Family was better 50 years ago. The family breakup and breakdown had already begun, but Govco hadn't fully replaced the father then as it has now 50 years later. The crucial process of progressively removing "the Father" in all forms had only just begun.

This unbalanced, brave, new, feminized world, ruled by emotion and the doctrines of Political Correctness, is only made possible in the absence of the Father's stabilizing male energy, which was still with US in abundance 50 years ago.

Americans had a better and longer childhood then than now. Kids were far more sheltered and naive and much less sophisticated until a much older age than today.

Childhood was more outside doing and less inside in a chair in front of a screen then than now.

VCRs, DVDs, cell phones and video games hadn't been invented yet. While they might have been nice to have, high tech baby sitters weren't required in those times as they are now in these.

Basic education was better across the board, though by the early 60s, from what I remember my WWI veteran grandpa saying and complaining about, it was in the beginning of the now steady decline.

On the bad, white America still hadn't fully adjusted to black America 50 years ago.

After a strong kick in the pants, given by necessity in our society's effort to survive WWII, our progress toward the mutual acceptance and affection between the white and the black, as Christians are to profess for one another, returned to being halting and painfully slow.

For US, living our ideals day to day, being and living as though all truly have been created equal, even those who aren't "_____" like me, has been a slow, generation by generation evolution of consciousness.

We're better now than we used to be, but we are still sick with division.

The sense is that we are being kept this way, in division and grievances, as though we are in a higher level or form of psychological slavery, and that our division and grievances benefit the keepers.

Our GovCo mandated educational system has an indoctrinational-feel to it these days and it seems to be designed to service and perpetuate this psychological slavery.

Richer? Our affluence, such as it is, doesn't have the look or feel of say... a healthy, prosperous, working family farm.

Instead, it looks and feels more like the kids partying hearty through, and being cheated out of, their inheritance after the parents died.

Our affluence is eating the seed corn while slowly selling off the family farm, acre by acre and whatever's in the barn.

Speaking of working, 50 years ago there were jobs for kids to do after school to go along with sports and playing games. Anything from a paper-route to working in a store, restaurant or gas station to whatever.

Today, just put a lemonade stand by the side walk in front of your house and the city will warn you, fine you and shut you down.

I've got to stop thinking about this. It's depressing.

Unless Jesus comes back and rattles some hearts, I can't think of a way back to the good aspects of then. And, on too many days these days, I doubt our being able to maintain the good of now.

Oh well...hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

God gave US a beautiful day today and I'm going to enjoy it!

135 posted on 04/02/2016 10:34:07 AM PDT by GBA (Here in the matrix, life is but a dream.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Macoozie

50 years ago today? Probably only had the start of baseball season in my mind.


136 posted on 04/02/2016 10:34:08 AM PDT by catfish1957 (I display the Confederate Battle Flag with pride in honor of my brave ancestors who fought w/ valor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Macoozie

Smart phones don’t make for smart people.


137 posted on 04/02/2016 10:35:10 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RightGeek

All of the extra lifespan years we’ve gained since 1916 end up being stolen from us by the government in some form, i.e. we’re not the beneficiaries of the wealth or potential leisure/enjoyment time garnered from it by and large.


138 posted on 04/02/2016 10:35:47 AM PDT by Axenolith (Government blows, and that which governs least, blows least...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: elcid1970
We're pretty close to that gas price (inflation adj)


139 posted on 04/02/2016 10:39:59 AM PDT by nascarnation
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 128 | View Replies]

To: All
50 years ago we knew that communism was bad.

Today half the country and 99% of FedGov embraces it.

140 posted on 04/02/2016 10:45:44 AM PDT by Proud_texan ("Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - PK Dick)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-160 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson