I thought it would be interesting just to see what people think. Discussion isn't necessary on this poll (unless you really want to) You can merely respond with "1959" or "2009".
Poll:- life better now or in 1959?
- Thread starter JLM
- Start date
In Canada, much better now.
1. Better health care
2. Better treatment of minorities
3. Less sexism
4. Tech advances
etc
1. Better health care
2. Better treatment of minorities
3. Less sexism
4. Tech advances
etc
If I knew then what I know now, I would be a whole lot better off. Today we don't have all the worries of the cold war and we have computers so we can bitch to the world.
In 1959 I was in Germany in the RCAF. At that time, with flying pay and overseas allowance, I was making over $600.00 per month which was pretty decent money in those days. There were other perks like tax and duty free cigarettes and booze, inexpensive gas for our cars, so we lived very well.
Generally though, we are most likely better off now. The situation in Germany was unique and not likely to be repeated.
Generally though, we are most likely better off now. The situation in Germany was unique and not likely to be repeated.
I hear you #Juan. If there was a better decade in the 20th century than the 50s I'd like to hear which one one it was.
If that's the criteria you want to use then the 40s wins hands down. :lol::lol::lol:
AnnaG, you make a very good point.
Manners; that is what made life a bit better back in the fifties and is so sadly lacking in society today. What makes me laugh as I write that is, that there are those among us who will read that and think, 'she's (just) old fashioned.'
What, I ask, is 'old fashioned' about good manners?
Are we any happier today for being able to cuss out each other in public, using language that would make a sailor blush. Is there some vicarious pleasure found in barging to the fore and elbowing others aside in our rush to get a bargain, truly? Since when did frowning rather than smiling at someone we meet our travels, stop being pleasurable?
Yes, 2009 is better in many ways, but in getting here we sacrificed common decency as an accepted norm.
But then, that's just my opinion. ;-)
Yep, 1959! There were still multi-generational Canadians who couldn't vote! Ahhh, the good-old days of common decency!!
Your opinion is fairly close to the mark, MOwich, one of the things I find the most lacking today is gratitude. Not by everyone but the majority.
You have a point, Spade. Perhaps, I should have said, ‘but in getting here we sacrificed gentility/courtesy/graciousness – take your pick.
Lacking gratitude does not mean that we were better off in 1959, JLM. In my opinion, we are much better off today compared to 50 years ago.
Indeed, they had rather strange ideas of what is and isn’t polite in those days. A man may be polite to a lady, but he would be positively rude to somebody he knew to be homosexual (if he did not beat him up in the first instance). A man may open car door for a woman, but if he is a dean of admissions, he would have no problem denying admission to a woman in a supposedly male discipline such as engineering.
A business owner may serve a white man politely, but he may tell a black man rather rudely to get lost, beat it before he picks up a baseball bat. He saw nothing wrong with that.
Now, you may call that politeness, I call that rudeness. They had rater strange sense of morality 50 years ago something I totally cannot relate to.
Common decency indeed. I remember reading, they had a referendum in a small town in Ontario, Dresden in the 50s, as to whether local business should be permitted to discriminate against blacks, whether they should be permitted to deny service to blacks. The referendum was approved by a margin of 4 or 5 to 1. By a margin of 4 or 5 to 1, people said it was OK for local businesses to discriminate against blacks, to turn away blacks without serving them.
I wonder, does this quality for politeness, gratitude, decency in the eyes of JLM?
There may be examples of what you mention but that sure wasn't the dominant behaviour. In the mid 50s I went to a school which taught a lot of East Indians, Native Indians and Chinese- we all got along and were all treated equally. I think you've been watching too much "Alabama T.V." There were of course isolated cases as you mention but decent people didn't treat anyone that way. Voting and liquor sales were a different proposition. When I look back on it, I don't think denying anyone liquor did them any lasting harm. How important was the voting issue- per se? In most elections these days you are lucky to see a 20% turnout and even in Federal elections the # is around 50%