# Was it really better "Back in the day?" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 6, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-better-back-in-the-day/675668 "2013-12-06T13:55:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-better-back-in-the-day/675668/121 "2013-12-12T04:49:54Z")
When my dad was in college, he worked at an iron foundry during the summer, because it paid a LOT of money by early 1950s standards. He later became a firefighter, and he was in greater danger from that foundry job than he ever faced putting out fires. Those job conditions must have been horrific. ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-better-back-in-the-day/675668/122 "2013-12-12T12:15:27Z")
> [@monavis](#): > > Many people died of Pneumonia , few even get it now! That is not viral pneumonia, and there is a shot for Pneumonia to prevent it. back before antibiotics almost every one who got pneumonia dies, at least the one’s i knew! ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-better-back-in-the-day/675668/123 "2013-12-12T12:18:57Z")
> [@j666](#): > > I loved that show. > > (But I thought it was longer ago that that … not much, it was 1999) It was not unusual for a couple to lose a child or even a woman years ago. My mother lost 2, and some of my relatives (and neighbors) also lost a child and many women died in Childbirth. ---
**Author:** ![jrsone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jrsone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrsone)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-better-back-in-the-day/675668/124 "2013-12-12T15:21:22Z")
There was lots of factories (also coal mines which is hard work but always pays wells) around here 30-40 years ago. Coke works, glass plants, all kinds of jobs ready for when you graduated high school, all jobs that you could make a good living off of. All of those jobs are gone. I’m sure the landscape is not limited to just my town. It’s unfortunate that those oppurtunities aren’t available anymore. The importance of a college education has never been more important, even then it’s not always a guarantee that your going to find that job. And paying for college, that’s another story all together. It’s not impossible but I have to laugh when people can eaily say to others, “Why don’t you just get an education and better yourself and get a better job!” But that is a whole different story, another tangent all together. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-better-back-in-the-day/675668/125 "2013-12-12T17:22:31Z")
I worked in a factory for a year and that was enough for me. Thankfully, I found my current job or I might still be there. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-better-back-in-the-day/675668/126 "2013-12-12T17:30:54Z")
Yes, it was better. Except having to pay for drink refills. ---
**Author:** ![Doggo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/87869e/32.png) [@Doggo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doggo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-better-back-in-the-day/675668/127 "2013-12-13T08:51:54Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > There are a number of reasons people overrate the past. > > As stated above, there’s selective memory, which seems to be tied to the general optimism of the human race. And also noted above, people who were not in groups denied things sometimes fail to acknowledge the plight of people in those groups. > > Also, it’s hard to account for some types of improvements. Today, you can watch any movie or TV show, on demand, for a fraction of the minimum hourly wage. In 1970, you had to be rich to do that, and even then, it often was not possible. How much is that improvement worth? Hard to say objectively. > > One thing that I believe really warps people’s perspectives on the past: _when we’re young, we see depictions of the past which remove much of the unpleasantness._ We’re exposed to schoolbook illustrations and Disney movies about the past in which streets weren’t full of manure, lynchings were unheard of, and nobody had polio or smallpox (and adults had all their teeth). > > And, a person who isn’t curious enough to learn the whole truth about the past as they grow older can harbor these images as an adult. > > Yes, cars pollute. But imagine if we all rode horses instead. Yes, we have more government in our lives. But our children aren’t routinely losing limbs in factories. > > One thing that I think was better when I was young (I was born in 1959): the chance to rise up in socioeconomic class (or even stay at the same level as your parents) was available to a larger fraction of the population. In my day, a person of average ability and ambition could get a middle-class job right out of high school. A college degree was much cheaper than it is now, and pretty much guaranteed success. Kids today have to be smarter and/or harder-working to succeed. > > But even that benefit was a relatively short-lived aberration, made possible by the U.S.'s position as the only unscathed superpower following WW2. Financial security and social mobility were more widespread when I was a kid than fifty years earlier. You seem to be classing tv and films on demand as a"good thing" when everyone is far too dependent on machines now. When I grew up there were no tvs and it was a far better life style than being constantly glued to the tv/ computer/ mobile phone. Yes I use the internet, but it is an addiction and I’m really glad I didn’t have to face that addiction as a child. When I left school ( university was for a very small minority of people ) it wasn’t a case of “could I get a job, any job” but a choice of what job I wanted to do. Unemployment was virtually zero then, and no, it wasn’t in the US. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-better-back-in-the-day/675668.md?page=6)