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Lots has to do with the politicians allowing the off shoring of our manufacturing base to lower the labor and complying with the pollution costs doing business in the U.S A entails.
This could be a component to it, but we can't get people to do the jobs we currently have.
I was born when Harry Truman was president. Life in America really was like a Rockwell painting then;
I grew up in the 60's and 70's
Life was different for sure, without question kids today are soft. Much of the fault of parents.
Life has never been easier for them but they think its hard.
They have no idea what its like to struggle, work hard to survive.
I started working when I was 12 delivering newspapers even though we grew up in a middle to upper middle income area, everyone pulled their own weight. Kids worked to buy their own cars, always used never new.
People interacted with EACH other, with NO electronic devices in-between them or to separate them.
It was a great time to grow up, many close friends, many good times, many games including board games, many outdoor activities.
Yeah, the young of today really do have it hard. They dont know how to survive, how to interact with each other, how to turn off social media and live life to the fullest. They ARE controlled by the media and by social media and they dont even know it.
Truly being programmed for profit they are human drones, mentally developed by social media for investor profits.
Oh, man, I already posted in here *LOL* time to log out ... ha ha
Life was different for sure, without question kids today are soft. Much of the fault of parents.
Life has never been easier for them but they think its hard.
They have no idea what its like to struggle, work hard to survive.
I started working when I was 12 delivering newspapers even though we grew up in a middle to upper middle income area, everyone pulled their own weight. Kids worked to buy their own cars, always used never new.
People interacted with EACH other, with NO electronic devices in-between them or to separate them.
It was a great time to grow up, many close friends, many good times, many games including board games, many outdoor activities.
Yeah, the young of today really do have it hard. They dont know how to survive, how to interact with each other, how to turn off social media and live life to the fullest. They ARE controlled by the media and by social media and they dont even know it.
Truly being programmed for profit they are human drones, mentally developed by social media for investor profits.
Oh, man, I already posted in here *LOL* time to log out ... ha ha
Yep, everyone was as hard as iron...
As a market economy, laws and regulations are designed to support business. The goal of a buisness is to maximize the wealth of the shareholders.
Nah man, bring back the Middle Ages. All these weak *** kids today with their access to clean drinking water, electricity, non-monarchal governments, and newfangled antibiotics. None of them could survive a good ol’ fashion plague, famine, or medieval bloodletting.Bring back the DRAFT.
Yessir, nothing like some leprosy or a full-on peasant revolt to hardened up ye people.
I was born in 1951. I grew up in a small town in Texas outside of Lubbock.
We were poor and lived next to the railroad tracks when I was pre-school. I still remember many of the experiences I had during this time.
I remember my tricycle. I remember going out to the cotton fields with my mom during cotton picking season. My mom had a full size cotton sack to put the cotton in. I had a small one.
When your sack was full, you would take it to the cotton trailer and they would empty it and pay you for each full sack. Mom did this for extra money. I think I got a Nickle for a sack full of cotton.
Mom always had a paper sack in the car, on the way home from the cotton fields she would stop along side of the road and pick some kind of plants that she would boil up. Lambsquarters, I think.
My dad was the parts manager for the local Ford dealership.
Our phone didn't even have a dial on it. Just pick up the receiver and press the button several times to get the operator.
She would ask "number please". I would call my dad at work when mom let me. I still remember his phone number - 54.
Life was simple back then.
We were poor and lived next to the railroad tracks when I was pre-school. I still remember many of the experiences I had during this time.
I remember my tricycle. I remember going out to the cotton fields with my mom during cotton picking season. My mom had a full size cotton sack to put the cotton in. I had a small one.
When your sack was full, you would take it to the cotton trailer and they would empty it and pay you for each full sack. Mom did this for extra money. I think I got a Nickle for a sack full of cotton.
Mom always had a paper sack in the car, on the way home from the cotton fields she would stop along side of the road and pick some kind of plants that she would boil up. Lambsquarters, I think.
My dad was the parts manager for the local Ford dealership.
Our phone didn't even have a dial on it. Just pick up the receiver and press the button several times to get the operator.
She would ask "number please". I would call my dad at work when mom let me. I still remember his phone number - 54.
Life was simple back then.
Those of us that grew up in the 50’s and 60’s will remember the things we did that nobody will do nowadays.
Drinking from a garden hose.
Riding a bike with no helmet or pads. If you fell and skinned yourself up you went home so mom could scrub the wound and apply mercurochrome on it. Then you went back out and showed off your badge of courage.
Buying rolls of caps at the five and dime and stacking them up and hitting them with a rock or a hammer. Sometimes the sound was so loud it brought the grownups out to see if anyone had lost a limb or something.
Being able to run around everywhere and play especially during summer vacation. The usual rule was that when the streetlights come on it’s time to come in.
Drinking from a garden hose.
Riding a bike with no helmet or pads. If you fell and skinned yourself up you went home so mom could scrub the wound and apply mercurochrome on it. Then you went back out and showed off your badge of courage.
Buying rolls of caps at the five and dime and stacking them up and hitting them with a rock or a hammer. Sometimes the sound was so loud it brought the grownups out to see if anyone had lost a limb or something.
Being able to run around everywhere and play especially during summer vacation. The usual rule was that when the streetlights come on it’s time to come in.
Shel_B
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Grew up in the 70's/80's (Gen Xer) and did many of those same things.
Played outside all day...drink from the water hose...if it was a special day...had a pitcher and ice and made Cool-Aid or the cheap equivalent at the time.
Would gather up coke bottles (remember, here in the South, everything is a 'coke') for the return deposit...would get enough for a coke and pop rocks.
Also rode bikes with no helmets or pad...rode in cars with no car seat and in back of pick ups.
Mom, dad, and grandpa all smoked and drink.
Cut, scratch, bug bite? Maybe a bandaid...most of time...rubbing alcohol.
Played out in the woods all day...spend the evening stripped down and looking for ticks...
How did we ever survive?
I agree with the OP and am blessed to be born and lived in the same era, which is probably the best singular period to have been raised in America. From the late 1970s until 9/2001, we were still quite free and free of monitoring, we weren't fighting major wars (e.g. I knew nobody that went off to war and died), we had enough medical technology to survive most ailments, we had enough but not too much entertainment where it did not intrude on living life, we could travel relatively easily and affordably, wages were pretty good, the economy was pretty good, people were generally pleasant, etc.
Humans are marching toward war whilst eagerly making ourselves obsolete with machines to replace us. It's a weird thing to observe as people eagerly march themselves toward the cliffs of Soylent Green!
Now it seems that America and the world have gone off the deep end in so many negative ways. But it will pass in a few generations of war and suffering. It's the way of the world. This is the well known "Tytler" cycle.
Humans are marching toward war whilst eagerly making ourselves obsolete with machines to replace us. It's a weird thing to observe as people eagerly march themselves toward the cliffs of Soylent Green!
Now it seems that America and the world have gone off the deep end in so many negative ways. But it will pass in a few generations of war and suffering. It's the way of the world. This is the well known "Tytler" cycle.
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Born in 76 here too.
Played outside until the streetlight came on. Parents didn’t have to worry because the whole neighborhood was full of kids and everyone watched over us.
No air conditioning. Even in the car, until the early 90’s.
Never ate out. Maybe once or twice a year at McDonalds because our grades were good. Some Sundays we went out as I got older and mom and dad made more money.
Waited a year for a movie to be available for rent after it left the theaters. Didn’t complain, but was excited as could be when it showed up.
Drooled over Christmas toy catalogs and read CARtoons.
There are a lot of conveniences that make life easier, but probably not better.
If you ask my Grandma, who grew up on a farm in the 30’s, she would say now is the best time ever. The Good old Days never existed.
Played outside until the streetlight came on. Parents didn’t have to worry because the whole neighborhood was full of kids and everyone watched over us.
No air conditioning. Even in the car, until the early 90’s.
Never ate out. Maybe once or twice a year at McDonalds because our grades were good. Some Sundays we went out as I got older and mom and dad made more money.
Waited a year for a movie to be available for rent after it left the theaters. Didn’t complain, but was excited as could be when it showed up.
Drooled over Christmas toy catalogs and read CARtoons.
There are a lot of conveniences that make life easier, but probably not better.
If you ask my Grandma, who grew up on a farm in the 30’s, she would say now is the best time ever. The Good old Days never existed.
I don't think the politicians had anything to do with it. They're usually reactionary, they pass laws when the horse has already left the barn. It was cheaper to have stuff made in other countries and that's how you increased profits. They were just doing their jobs.
4WD
$50 site donor 2023
I have gone decade after decade and never went without a job. So have worked with several gens …
We tend to hire in the 3.5 - 3.8 range for my staff - and about 80% of them work out fine. Those that don’t like working long days for good pay move on.
We tend to hire in the 3.5 - 3.8 range for my staff - and about 80% of them work out fine. Those that don’t like working long days for good pay move on.
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The 70s were pretty tough with oil embargos and high inflation. Half of the 70s was the Vietnam mess winding down (for us) as well as Nixon and his shenanigans.
There were certainly more manufacturing jobs available then compared to now. Not sure those would be called good jobs today.
I think the good jobs today are different jobs, and I certainly don't know how many of those are available as I've not been looking. I know the overall total of unfilled jobs is about 11 million. How many of those are good? I cannot say.
School was a bit cheaper as the costs have risen at a pace higher than inflation. Cars were largely crap. We get a lot more car for the same money adjusted for inflation. Some things are better, some worse, and some stay the same.
And then they hold onto it and don't spend it. "Velocity of a dollar" is an important economic measure. Look at how peoples homes are more and more being owned by REITs with people leasing for life. This sort of situation doesn't end well...
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