# What would you do if you had to live in 1950s America? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 1, 2014, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053 "2014-04-01T05:40:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/181 "2014-04-08T15:25:11Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’d also be born 4 years after I got there, so I’m not sure what to do in regard to that. What would happen if I did something to influence my own life? Maybe that’s exactly what has been happening. Maybe you’re out there somewhere influencing your life and have been doing so all along. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/182 "2014-04-08T15:27:49Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > If I had to go back to 1952 and live from then on, I’d take back the formula for Viagra. Make the 1960’s start a decade earlier and first take back the formula for the Pill and then introduce Viagra four years later while women are burning there bras. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/183 "2014-04-08T15:31:32Z")
I could also clear up all [doubts as to the origins of the smiley face](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/961/who-invented-the-smiley-face) by coming up with it first and copyrighting it. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/184 "2014-04-08T18:45:20Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Make the 1960’s start a decade earlier and first take back the formula for the Pill and then introduce Viagra four years later while women are burning there bras. 🆒 The Pill was invented in 1954, so you’ll be jump starting things by (counts fingers and toes) 2 whole years. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/185 "2014-04-08T20:28:07Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > The Pill was invented in 1954, so you’ll be jump starting things by (counts fingers and toes) 2 whole years. 😉 But birth control was not universally legal until [Griswold v. Connecticut](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut) in 1965, so be prepared to spend some time in jail. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/186 "2014-04-08T20:35:56Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > But birth control was not universally legal until [Griswold v. Connecticut](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut) in 1965, so be prepared to spend some time in jail. So that’s what my mom was hinting at when she told me that those pills weren’t candy and that I was lucky to have been born in 1961. ☹ Small things you recall from early childhood; somebody hold me please. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![opossum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2bfe46/32.png) [@opossum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/opossum)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/187 "2014-04-09T02:30:43Z")
I’d echo all the others who have said the Biff model would be a quick ticket to broken legs or worse. And for more legitimate means of making money, I don’t think you’d need a raft of data to do pretty well as an investor who knows how things turn out in 2014. The time traveler who is shopping around for investment opportunities in stocks or land would probably do very well on general knowledge, without bringing back a single stock chart. Marriott went public in 1953. It was a small chain of root beer stands and motels in the DC area at the time. Someone with 2014 experience would know it was a good investment (100 shares for $1025 would have been worth $5.5 million by 2012, according to their website). I don’t know how much real estate in Silicon Valley or New York or Vegas or central Florida (before Disney World) or suburban Atlanta would have been in 1952, but I imagine it would look pretty cheap to anyone with experience in 2014. I’d get a good broker and a good real estate lawyer, never let on how I decide on investments, and leave a massive trust to the wife and children ROB made me abandon. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/188 "2014-04-09T12:57:55Z")
> [@](#): > > The time traveler who is shopping around for investment opportunities in stocks or land would probably do very well on general knowledge, without bringing back a single stock chart. Exactly. Just do a once-a-year search on companies that joined the NYSE or NASDAQ within the past 365 days, buy the ones that are still around in 2014. Merely by doing _that_ you’ll have enough money by, say, 1980 to do some real game-changing stuff - like funding genetics, spaceflight research, materials research, buying vast amounts of Brazil that you know will be deforested by 2014, etc. Real estate would work well for the long haul, but will take time to bring in cash and will eat up cash to begin with. But your appreciations - wow! A $50k tract of land selling for 30 years later for $5m… not bad. 😉 You have one way of getting money that can end up with you dead. The other makes you Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year.” There really is no contest here which route is the better, safer, and leads to far greater wealth and influence. Like I mentioned before, _you will become famous if you do either one_: have an uncanny knack for picking sports events or stocks, people will notice this and you will be watched. Me? I prefer taking on the SEC than the Mob, but that’s just me, I guess. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/189 "2014-04-09T19:59:28Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > [“Replay” by Ken Grimwood.](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/341735.Replay) Yeah. It’s a great book. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/190 "2014-04-10T03:29:53Z")
I wonder if we overrate how liberal and progressive this decade is compared to the 50s. After all, aren’t there more black people in jail now than any time in our nation’s history? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053/191 "2014-04-10T03:37:48Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Yeah. It’s a great book. Hey you made it to the thread! Looks like you have competition in the ‘Name That Book’ game. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-had-to-live-in-1950s-america/685053.md?page=9)