I haven’t read the whole thread so this might have been mentioned before.
In ye olden days before email when you left the office, the work day was done. Now we have smartphones and emails can be sent 24 hours per day. In IT, we have inexpensive offshore workers so the emails and overnight support calls never end. It is truly miserable.
I can’t argue with much of that. I would like to point out to whoever said the rivers were cleaner – when I was a kid just outside of Washington DC, the Potomac was a polluted mess. Today it’s running pretty clean and you can the eat the fish out of it. Nowadays I live near the Nashua River in Mass. It used to run in day-glo colors. Nowadays we kayak and swim there.
“Well, aren’t the XYZs special with their new color TV? Wish we could afford one. And the ABCs are going out to eat again? Why can’t they just cook at home? That has to cost a fortune…” etc. etc.
Children benefited from much more freedom. It seems that nowadays they can’t do anything without close supervision. In fact, in many places, it would now be a crime to leave a kid unsupervised until a quite advanced age. As a child (living in a rural area on top of it) my obligations on days without school amounted to be at home for the main meals and after a certain hour in the evening. Nobody would have had a clue where I was or what I was doing the rest of the time if I didn’t elect to stay home.
Mundane Superhero, the world you describe never existed either. :dubious:
Highly annoying and pedantic nitpick, not relevant to the actual content of an interesting post: but, that was the White Queen. The Red Queen was an exasperating know-all; and she (and you if you were in her company) had to run as hard and as quickly as possible, just to stay in the one place and not go backwards.
"Were the any ways in which “the olden days” were better than today? "
Here is at least one example.
In “the olden days” people paid much more attention to the usage of correct spelling and grammar.
They would have typed this thread question as "Are there any ways in which “the olden days” were better than today? "
To say “were”, as in the leading word of the question, implies that the state is no longer valid. Surely the person who asked the question did not intend to ask for only thing that WERE better, but not longer are better?
To say “Were the any ways” makes no sense. I assume that the person intended to ask “Were **there **any ways”?
Traffic. Good lord, it’s almost unbelievable how much less of a colossal, constant headache driving was in those days. The freeways were ALWAYS fast and clear; my mother routinely broke 60 on the commute home at the height of afternoon rush. The only place it ever got heavy was downtown during peak hours; everywhere else was a breeze. Whenever there was an accident, it would be kinda slow half a mile or so up to the point of the accident…which was always in plain sight…and once we were past it, we could IMMEDIATELY get back up to speed. I remember three or four times my family would take a one-day around-the-island trip, and it was fun and relaxing from start to finish. I can’t even conceive of something like that today. (I remember the time, not that very long ago, where it was possible to turn from Waimano Home Road onto Kuala Street and reach Sam’s Club in five minutes…nothing but grass, trees, and the open air. It was downright soothing.)
Shopping. The Internet is fantastic, but the way it’s crippled entire brick and mortar industries is frustrating. I find it perverse that Wrangler.com is now my only option for work pants in my size. And nothing compared to walking through row after row of Blockbuster Video titles and being awestruck and the sheer breath of cinema. Found some real gems I never would’ve known about otherwise, too.
Books. Time was when I had a public library with long, easy-to-remember hours and two bookstores within biking distance. And then Borders Books and Music came along, which had a phenomenal selection, allowed me to stay and read as much as I wanted before buying (which I did), and had a convenient place to buy coffee and snacks. To this day I count Borders as one of the truly awesome things about the 00’s.
Console video games. Let me put it this way: I didn’t need to make a thread recommending NES games that I wouldn’t despise after 15 minutes. Sure, the animation wasn’t nearly as crisp and the colors weren’t nearly as sharp, but those consoles seemed to have so much more…possibility. More genres, more styles, more companies, no limits, no shame. Oh, and cheat devices. They made a huge difference.
I’m not surprised. I was born in mid state NY. Many years later I went back to visit relatives and the school I went to was having work done. The doors were open so I wandered in and looked at my kindergarten room. It hadn’t changed in 30 years right down to the piano in the corner. Someone called out to me and I thought I was going to be in trouble for trespassing. Turned out it was the principal who proceeded to give me a tour.
Oh yeah, traffic. I completely forgot about that. when they first put in major 4 lane highways it was standard practice to only drive in the right lane unless passing someone. You coudn’t do that on a 6 or 8 lane highway today because of traffic density.
The 60’s saw a major change in hp in cars. My mother found herself driving 100 mph once without realizing it. It was an early 70’s family sedan with the smallest engine the car company made. Traffic was that sparse. My dad installed cruise control after that.
While the rate were higher there were many more tax loopholes, and in the end people ended up paying about the same percentage as they do today. The top 1% had an effective tax rate of about 42% in 2014 the top 1% had an effective tax rate of about 36%. Of course it varies year to year. But on average we are paying an effective tax rate of the 1950’s
Traffic was lighter.
Also even though health care wasn’t as good, it was very affordable.
Plus globalization hadn’t caught on so yiu weren’t competing with the world for jobs.
Whoops, sorry! Thanks for correction.
I dion’t know where you grew up, but I grew up a few blocks from the Long Island Distressway, which was never a free and open road - except maybe late at night. On the other hand I’m around Indianapolis now, and those highways are absurdly uncrowded.
Interstates were being build. My family drove from New York to DC in the early '60s, and taking US 1 all the way was a nightmare of traffic lights and congested cities. Some congestion on the Beltway may be annoying, but the trip is far, far better now than back then.
Ever heard of this program?
Even during rush hour the traffic in indy isn’t terrible. But the 65/70 split and the northeast side can get bad. But usually just gridlock.
By comparison Chicago traffic is a nightmare. I avoid going there unless I’m driving on nights or weekends.
Which isn’t surprising, the population in Chicago is around 8x more and they don’t seem to have more interstate than indy does.
Technically a game show.
Oh my God. I watched that once or twice. If it hadn’t really been on, the concept would have been suitable for the TV network in Network.
And the poor women who lost and got nothing for their sob stories.
I’ve driven through IND quite a few times. There’s no comparison between I-70 today and the 50’s and 60’s. You couldn’t put all traffic in one lane today.
Once in a while, an episode will find its way onto You Tube, and gets pulled as soon as TPTB finds out about it.
No, they got stuff.* Not so much,* true.