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 ...
I miss freedom and the rule of law. We have lost so much freedom over the past 50 years that whatever gains we may have made in narrow areas do not matter at all.
Life was better 50 years ago
Fifty years ago, we were only three years away from landing on the moon. It will take more than three years for us to get back.
Fifty years ago, the fastest airplanes were in operation (SR-71). Now, they are museum pieces.
Fifty years ago, we had fighter aircraft that did limited roles, but did them well. Today, we can’t get our Swiss Army knife of a plane working.
Fifty years ago, we were building nuclear power plants, which, along with hydroelectricity, are the only forms of reliable energy that do not produce CO2. Now, it is nearly impossible to get a nuclear plant built, and we are removing dams. And we are no closer to controlled nuclear fusion than we were then. Instead, we are dumping huge amounts of money into intermittent forms of energy that require CO2-producing power plants.
Finally, fifty years ago, our founders would still have believed that the grand experiment was still going. Today, they would believe that it has failed.
Smarter and better off? Maybe, but we’ve given up our morals for it. Back in the day you could work in a factory or another local business and support a family, good luck trying to do that now you’d be on welfare! And you’d be replaced by a trans/gay/whatever at the drop of a hat for “diversity reasons”.
F em!
Where were you raised??? I don’t ever remember any kidnappings around where I was raised...Everyone all around knew each other and a parent was always close at hand that knew all the kids...
Today, a lot of people don’t even know the people next door much less across the street...
I’m also sixty-seven and when we went on vacation my brother and I stuck our bare feet in the back windshield, and wrestled in the back seat. My parents seemed to think we were fine without car seats. It was also a lot of fun.
“we are freer to express ourselves” Major perception difference. I am not freer to express myself than my dad was, especially at work. My kids are not freer to express themselves than I was, especially in public school and college. Their teachers are terrified of inadvertently making some innocent comment that will be taken the wrong way and turn into a major hassle.
We value our family, our friendships. We respect the families of others. Family is the core of government and society. That is what we value. Family is precisely what has been destroyed and why we feel alienated.
I’m 59, I like to ask my peers “who’s childhood would you rather have had, yours or your kids?” After thinking a bit the answer almost always is “mine was better.”
Very well written. And bittersweet as well, if you get my meaning.
Yes, you were one of the lucky ones to live in an era that will never be again.
I did NOT read the article, but fifty years ago;
I had skilled trades job plus a part time job.
Damn good health benefits. I do not think I paid over 300 bucks out of pocket for the kids births.
We owned our house and the mortgage.
We had a new car and I drove a clunker or motorcycle to work
My wife stayed at home with the kids.
There was a few bucks left over for a savings acct.
I think I would trade for those days back in a New York Minute.
I used to get in to the movies for $0.25, 2 full length movies, 2 cartoons and a news reel. Popcorn was a quarter and a soda was a dime, candy a nickel. A dollar purchased 4 gallons of gasoline, same as a silver dollar. Interest on your savings account was 3 percent.
My first car was a new VW, $1,950.00.
Today a dollar buys half a gallon of gas, but the silver dollar buys7 gallons.
Movies are $8.00 - $12.00, popcorn is $11.00. A VW is $23k.
Can’t you just hear the sneer bleeding through his smug, sanctimonious screed?
You captured it very well.
Let's see... the first time someone tried to kidnap me, I was maybe 3 or 4 years old. This was in southern California, at a drive-in movie theater. The second time was in a neighborhood in a small town in northern CA, a town that now has over 1,000 residents since it has grown tremendously since my family lived there in the 1960s. The third time was in another small town in northern CA, a slightly larger town that has also experienced explosive growth and is now almost 8,000 people. The third time, I remember telling friends that I had encountered the Zodiac killer, who was going on a murder spree in the Bay Area at the time (but I did not tell the police).
The crimes were committed in the 1960s and 1970s, but we didn't have instantaneous news the way we do now so were not as aware of them. I think that if you compare actual crime rates, they are lower now.
I was raised in the mountains of East Tennessee...I guess things were not as chaotic there as in California...I’m sorry for the experiences you had to go through...
Thank you. I relived it-—— reading it.
Perverts don’t grab kids today, or at least any more or less than they did 50 years ago. That’s just hysteria and a rationalization for helicopter parents to justify their overprotective ways. Let the kids play. My childhood was joyfully free of video games, play dates, organized sports, clarinet lessons and other structured activities. All I had to worry about after school was getting my homework done and being home when the streetlights came on.
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