> In terms of economics specifically, in what way have things "gotten better"?
50 years ago was 1974. Wasn’t USA just coming out of the Vietnam fiasco at the time? Were economic things really that good? I think there was an oil crisis and people at least in Yugoslavia (where my parents were kids at the time) could only fuel up at gas stations on alternative days based on license plate.
Oh and if I’m not mistaken that was when Japanese cars started flooding the US market and US car manufacturing began its downward spiral into oblivion. The beginning of the end for places like Detroit.
Also while people talk about partisan divide, that was the tail end of 15 years of domestic assasinations, bombings, and political kidnapping (e.g. the SLA).
My kids talk about how this is the worst the US has ever been, but I point out that there was a whole civil war and things were abysmal before that (overt genocide and slavery, child labor, political violence). And when the Baby Boomers were the “gen z” of the time, it was pretty selfish and shitty.
50 years ago was 1974. Wasn’t USA just coming out of the Vietnam fiasco at the time? Were economic things really that good? I think there was an oil crisis and people at least in Yugoslavia (where my parents were kids at the time) could only fuel up at gas stations on alternative days based on license plate.
Oh and if I’m not mistaken that was when Japanese cars started flooding the US market and US car manufacturing began its downward spiral into oblivion. The beginning of the end for places like Detroit.