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Looking back to the Good' ol' days... what made them so... good?

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posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 05:16 AM
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Two things to look at.... and maybe a third.

To start, what do we define as the "Good Ol' Days"? Well this definition may vary from person to person. For my parents, and for most of the population, the Good Ol' Days were the 50's and 60's - defined by cheap cost of food, housing affordability, single breadwinner households and the good ol' nuclear family. Yes my parents are conservative as are most of my family. It's a constant nostalgia binge fest whenever I'm at the house. Let's be honest, those are the years people are looking back on when they reminisce back to those times. On occasion we can also point to the 70's. Any time before that, we're delving in the World war of the 40's and the Great Depression 30s. Any time before that and we're no longer discussing our parents (99% of us at least). So let's focus on the 50's and 60's.

Why were those days great? Let's start with taxes.

The top income tax rate was 91%

Yep. Trickle down economics was all the rage, thanks in part to the New Deal and other movements:


During the 1950s and early 1960s, the top bracket income tax rate was over 90%--and the economy, middle-class, and stock market boomed.


www.businessinsider.com...

Significant economic growth in the 50's and 60's came about from WW2.


As the Cold War unfolded in the decade and a half after World War II, the United States experienced phenomenal economic growth. The war brought the return of prosperity, and in the postwar period the United States consolidated its position as the world's richest country. Gross national product, a measure of all goods and services produced in the United States, jumped from about $200 thousand-million in 1940 to $300 thousand-million in 1950 to more than $500 thousand-million in 1960. More and more Americans now considered themselves part of the middle class.

The growth had different sources. The automobile industry was partially responsible, as the number of automobiles produced annually quadrupled between 1946 and 1955. A housing boom, stimulated in part by easily affordable mortgages for returning servicemen, fueled the expansion. The rise in defense spending as the Cold War escalated also played a part.

After 1945 the major corporations in America grew even larger.

www.let.rug.nl...

Let's be honest. The United States and Canada came out the main winners of the war as they were, for the most, left untouched. We had a war ravaged Europe, Japan and China. Aside from those nations, who else was there left for the United States to compete with? Her growth during those times came about largely because of her geographic advantages as well as her benefitting from the thows of war:


After World War II, according to the Potsdam conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, Germany was to pay the Allies US$23 billion mainly in machinery and manufacturing plants. Reparations to the Soviet Union stopped in 1953.

Beginning before the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, the United States pursued a vigorous program of harvesting all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents and many leading scientists in Germany


en.wikipedia.org...-8

Have you ever heard the French and the Germans reference the good ol' days to the 50s and 60s? I certainly haven't.

US population? About half in the 50s of what it is today. 183 million by the 60s.

www.u-s-history.com...

It's more than possible for us to replicate, in the least, close to what the good ol' days were with our current population. But let's be honest, we had a far lower population back then so competition was not as fierce. Given this, it helped with prosperity many had experienced during that time. The United States was still, in a sense, expanding into the west.

It's so easy for us to forget the circumstances that made those days great. This was part of a pretty serious debate I had with my father. We look at those days but we don't fully grasp why it was easier for our parents, neither do they. The facts above, in my opinion, are largely inconvenient. We like to point to this imaginary 'hard work' ethic that supposedly doesn't exist today, and 'family values', as if this was a factor at all. I look at youth today and I shake my head at the older generations constantly criticizing them for now pulling their weight. Back in the 50s and 60s you could leave highschool and get a decently paid job without a degree. College was virtually free or cheap for many. Housing could be afforded by a single income earner in major cities. These times are different. We need to understand this. We cannot apply the prosperity of the far past to today. Different circumstances, different factors.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 06:01 AM
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a reply to: Southern Guardian

Truth be told in the 50's and 60's there wasn't as many people living beyond their means,people were more frugal,when we were kids we didn't get all the new stuff that came out,and I always had to get a job to buy something out of the ordinary,made you think if you really wanted it,now people kids are quick to jump on fads,no self esteem



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 06:01 AM
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a reply to: Southern Guardian

Truth be told in the 50's and 60's there wasn't as many people living beyond their means,people were more frugal,when we were kids we didn't get all the new stuff that came out,and I always had to get a job to buy something out of the ordinary,made you think if you really wanted it,now people kids are quick to jump on fads,no self esteem



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 07:37 AM
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If you were black, the 50s and 60s sucked. Big time. Looking back, there never where any "Good Ol Days" for black folks. Every bleepin day was a damn struggle made worse by pricks that didn't like ya simply because you looked different. In those days, black folks where straight up murdered and they got no justice and i'm not talkin bout getting shot by the cops. At least now, a brother gets a candle light vigil and a blurp on the news. if it's the cops, i can die knowing that least the fam will broke off (but life is invaluable).

It's just that looking back, after talking to relatives who lived through that crap and what they saw, hell. America sucked back in the day. Ain't nothin happy about it, keep your terrorism of the 50s and 60s and yes, that's how it was described.

I can see your parents perspective, no disrespect to you or your parents hun, all good. For the conservative mindset (even the black conservative) the old days where the best days, I ain't hate on your parents for this.

edit on 24-9-2017 by cenpuppie because: (no reason given)



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 07:51 AM
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My parents when they were alive didn't really talk about "The Good Ol days", except a few stories of when they were teenagers during the 1950s.

For the most part I remember the "Good Ol Days" as being the 1970s to 1980s, mainly because I was a kid, no responsibilities and having a lot of fun.

What I do remember is food being a lot cheaper. My father was the sole income, and was a enlisted man in the US Navy. Yet we were able to buy T-bone steaks at least a couple of times a month.

I can remember going to the store with a dollar and being able to get a soda, a candy bar and 2 comics with that dollar.

I also remember spending a lot more time outside doing things.

But then I also remember that from 1976 to 1984 I lived over seas in S. Korea, Bangkok, Thailand and Naples, Italy. The American dollar went pretty far in those countries were we were stationed.

But my remembering of the "Good Ol Days" is mostly because I wasn't old like I am now, and being able to run around as a kid having fun.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 07:56 AM
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My grand parents lived through the depression, so they had a different approach to good times you did not spend money because you could you put things away for a rainy day.

Fast forward today people are ready to drop a grand on a cell phone because its the new thing, or people buy a car cause a celebrity told them to.

We lost the culture war, but on top of that we lost good jobs for regular folks which has reduced the buying power of the regular folks which makes bad decisions have a stronger impact.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 08:00 AM
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originally posted by: cenpuppie
If you were black, the 50s and 60s sucked. Big time. Looking back, there never where any "Good Ol Days" for black folks. Every bleepin day was a damn struggle made worse by pricks that didn't like ya simply because you looked different. In those days, black folks where straight up murdered and they got no justice and i'm not talkin bout getting shot by the cops. At least now, a brother gets a candle light vigil and a blurp on the news. if it's the cops, i can die knowing that least the fam will broke off (but life is invaluable).

It's just that looking back, after talking to relatives who lived through that crap and what they saw, hell. America sucked back in the day. Ain't nothin happy about it, keep your terrorism of the 50s and 60s and yes, that's how it was described.

I can see your parents perspective, no disrespect to you or your parents hun, all good. For the conservative mindset (even the black conservative) the old days where the best days, I ain't hate on your parents for this.


I guess the follow on question from this is... would those good ol days be good days if they applied to black people too? I certainly don't think today represents anything close to the inclusion of the good life for white people back then to all citizens. It's worse for all, IMO.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 09:19 AM
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When I compare the 50's and 60's to today the main difference I see in the workforce is there is now a total lack of freedom.

Everything now has to be done to letter, by the books. High school, college, post-grad, internships...then, maybe, if you know some people, you can get a good paying job and spend a decade or so paying for the education that got you there.

Also, you can't make any mistakes anymore. Absolutely everything is documented and saved. Any employer can, and will, assume to know everything about you based on a quick internet background check. People are no longer allowed to prove themselves on the job.

College-educated is now the norm. Without that you can't compete. And with that, you start out life in debt. Unless you have a wealthy family.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 09:24 AM
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if you were anything other then a middle class white family there were no good old days. in the 50s if you were poor you were looked down on. if you were black you could entertain the whites but not go to the same schools or drink from the same fountain or ride in the front of the bus. you couldn't be gay or in an interracial relationship, otherwise you could be murdered. there has always been good old days for some wile the rest of the population had it bad. really not very different from today. my grandma was a alcoholic single mother in the 50s. my mom hated the time period because of being dirt poor and treated like a p.o.s. i never got to see a time that was good growing up poor. ask some one who grew up poor or had more pigment in their skin and they will tell you there never was a good old days.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 09:24 AM
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a reply to: Southern Guardian

The answer is pretty simple. My grandmother would have told you the good old days ended with 1929. It ran from 1890 to 1929. But even then there were difficulties.

Truthfully, I came back to the US in 1974 and it has been a downhill slide in terms of the quality of life ever since. Progress has meant ever less freedom, fewer choices, less time, less disposable income and ever more regulation. Health care is a perfect example. Every year we pay more for ever less and crappier health care.

The only constant is change and in sum, it is practically never change for the better.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 09:38 AM
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I guess the main thing, at least to me, that made the 50's, 60's, and 70's "the good ole days" was that I was a kid for most of that time.
outside of that, I would say that it's true in some ways, that time period was better, but in others, no it wasn't.
yes things were cheaper, but wages were also much lower.. although I think that a single person trying to live on minimum wage might have had an easier time back then.
the 1970's, at least in my hometown, was a time of revitalization, the old run down schools, gov't buildings, store fronts, ect,
were closed down, many times for safety reasons, revamped and repurposed, or just town down and replaced with something new... there is very little of the old downtown that I grew up that survived the 70's.
the same goes for the housing, newer apartments were built and the poorer families moved out of some pretty unsafe situations to take advantage of them.
lol... where the younger people talk about how the social security funds were wasted, I can't help but wonder, do they realize just how much that waste improved their childhood...

and, I'm sorry, but not only did my mother have to work to help provide the funds that kept us solvent, but there were whole factories that were filled with many, many women doing the same.
I can say that we probably ate better, although the "experts" probably disagree with me... we ate home cooked meals, made from natural ingredients, like butter, whole milk, and real eggs..... and I do believe we were healthier for it!!

yes, one could say that we've lost some things that we thought were good, but then we enjoy things that we think are good that weren't available back then. where at one point, there was no tv in my life, we had to walk downstairs and a half a block away to use a phone, then experience the joy of sharing our party line with strangers, walk to the local library for information.... I now can enjoy much more via the internet and every person can have their own phone number.


the one thing that makes them the "good ole days" are the memories that reside in our mind....



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 09:44 AM
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a reply to: Southern Guardian

Nope, whenever ANYONE reminisces about the good old days they are remembering their youth, youth feels good. Feeling old sucks. Plain and simple.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 09:46 AM
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a reply to: Southern Guardian

WRT education... Colleges were still institutions of learning and hadn't quite become the cash cows that they are now. Also high schools taught critical thinking they didn't teach to a test.

How much did colleges cost?


law school tuition has risen nearly 1,000 percent after adjusting for inflation: around 1960, "median annual tuition and fees at private law schools was $475 ... adjusted for inflation, that's $3,419 in 2011 dollars.


Just some food for thought....Tuition started rising, IMO, due to 2 things: the GI Bill and The Higher Education Act of 1965, even though the tuition didn't start rising until 1975. Both of these allowed for government money in one form or another to be used for Education.


Prior to the 1970s, college tuition rates only increased only about 2-3% a year, which was fairly on par with the rest of the economy. Since the mid-seventies, however, college prices have soared, going up 5-6% above inflation.


Timeline of College Tuition

And not without mention: Credit cards...Basically revolving credit accounts are fairly new to the scene. The "good ol' days" prior to the 1960s really didn't have much in the way of the average Joe having credit accounts. That didn't happen en masse until the 1980s. So most people lived within their means, in housing that was affordable, working a single job that could support a decent lifestyle without the ever larger credit card bill looming over them.


Since the Great Depression, the wisdom of saving 10% out of a paycheck had been as deeply ingrained into the American mentality as free speech, apple pie, and baseball. By the mid 2000s, the personal savings rate was effectively zero and many millions of people were deeply in debt -- not from productive investment but from living beyond their means

source

And with little savings...what happens? Inflation and personal debt.

Basically it's not up to our government to get us back to the "good ol' days," it's up to each individual to get out of debt, start saving when possible and change their attitude about money. Just my two cents.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 09:52 AM
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a reply to: Southern Guardian

My opinion things started declining rapidly after Nixon took us off the Gold Standard in '71. It has highlighted and widened the financial disparity between classes.




No other single action by Nixon has had a more profound and deleterious effect on the American people. In the end, breaking the solemn promise that a dollar was worth 1/35th of an ounce of gold doomed his Presidency, and marked the beginning of the worst 40 years in American economic history.

www.forbes.com...



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 11:05 AM
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These are the "good ole days"

It's a matter of perception. You are as happy as you chose to be!!



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 11:26 AM
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originally posted by: richapau
a reply to: Southern Guardian

Nope, whenever ANYONE reminisces about the good old days they are remembering their youth, youth feels good. Feeling old sucks. Plain and simple.


Simplistic argument and you're wrong. I'm 65 and can speak to the 50's and 60's.

1. There were jobs and you had every reasonable expectation of retiring at that job --- if you chose to --- and receive some sort of pension or retirement when you did.

2. Part of that employment was good healthcare payed for by the employer

3. People felt safe. Believe it or not, in my suburb of Boston, we did not lock our doors or our cars because we didn't have to.

4. People had self-respect. People didn't throw trash and cigarette butts out of their car window because it just wasn't right to do that. Still isn't but people just don't care.

5. Politicians have always been slimy but not like today. Now they steal and lie with impunity. They also fought with each other politically, they would never stoop to dividing the country or demonizing a demographic to further their prejudices and agendas. The lessons of WWII were still fresh.

6. We respected one another. We disagreed for sure but you'd never see the kinds of BS like you do on ATS everyday.

There were problems for sure. Civil rights in certain areas of the country was an embarrassment but was increasingly being addressed.


edit on 24-9-2017 by jtma508 because: (no reason given)



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 01:09 PM
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Two main things, morals and respect. Both seem absent from today. What made them disappear is as important. Lack of fundamental religious values, largely christian. Rise of corporate controlled government. Drug culture. For profit prisons. Destruction of the family. Cable TV. And many others. Our old school values have died the death of a million cuts.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 01:23 PM
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We never KNEW what was actually HAPPENING.
Now that we do ,THEY WEREN'T.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 02:20 PM
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a reply to: Oldtimer2


Truth be told in the 50's and 60's there wasn't as many people living beyond their means,people were more frugal,when we were kids we didn't get all the new stuff that came out,and I always had to get a job to buy something out of the ordinary,made you think if you really wanted it,now people kids are quick to jump on fads,no self esteem


I believe most millenials today work either just as hard as those during the 50s and 60s or harder. Do you know how expensive college fees have become? You'll easily get yourself into debt by a good $60K for a standard degree. Little to no government assistance. I know of kids having to work full time while they study and live on ramen noodles day and and day out. It's also difficult getting internships or decent jobs once you get that degree. Nothing like 40 or so years ago. Property prices are through the roof in most major cities. I think kids of today work their butts off just as hard as those in the past. I think kids actually get a harder rap today. Sorry Oldtimer I have to disagree.



posted on Sep, 24 2017 @ 02:23 PM
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These are the good old days, you just don't realise it yet.




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