Quote:
Originally Posted by topfiverecords
I’d be content in the 1960s.
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I sometimes think so too. Strong economy. Lots of good, secure jobs, especially if you go to university. Housing is affordable. You can look forward to a secure pension. Pretty chill pace of life. Less crowded. Interesting things going on culturally.
On the other hand, unless you're a weirdo, you're getting married at 20-24 and then immediately having 2-4 kids over the next few years. So that interim between reaching adulthood and being locked into a mortgage and raising kids is about 2-5 years, instead of the 10-20 years it is today.
Your house is much smaller (kitchens, in particular, are tiny compared with today), and more people live in it. Children often share a bedroom. You probably don't have a dishwasher. Drip coffee makers and microwaves haven't been invented yet.
If you're a woman, you either have a job or kids - extremely difficult to do both since kids are sent home for lunch every day and employers make zero allowances for school schedules or parenting needs.
You work to the clock. If your company starts at 7:30 am (which many white-collar businesses in Calgary did up until the 90s because we needed to be in sync with Toronto bankers hours), that means your ass has to be sitting at your desk at 7:30 every morning. Or you're fired. You probably get two weeks vacation a year. Taking more than a handful of sick days a year marks you out as a malingerer and shirker.
You're not flying anywhere on a vacation unless you're rich. And even then it's something you might do once or twice in your life, and the most exotic destination is Hawaii or Acapulco. If live across the country from family, you might only see them again a couple times before they die. If you have family overseas, you may never see them again.
You better like meat and potatoes, because the Calgary restaurant scene consists of a bunch of burger joints, a few pizza places, and handful of Chinese restaurants. For bars you have a dozen or so grungy hotel lounges and taverns, most of which women aren't allowed to enter. Everything is closed on Sundays.
Speaking of bars, the roads on a Friday or Saturday night are thick with dudes driving hammered. And you're regarded as a freak if you wear a seat-belt.
Most people, including teenagers and high school students, smoke. Everywhere.
Life, especially for children and youths, is much more violent. It's not at all uncommon for boys to come home from school with bloody noses or broken teeth. Fights and bullying are rampant and largely shrugged off as part of life.
Pot is hard to find and you run a real risk of criminal prosecution if you buy or posses it. Porn consist of magazines, and reel-to-reel movies purchased from shady sources for stags. And of course video games, movie rentals, the internet, streaming TV, forums like this don't exist. If you're chilling at home you're reading a book, playing cards, watching Gunsmoke, or maybe assembling a model plane.
That's all just if you're a white dude. Things were obviously worse in many ways for women, racial minorities, non heteros, etc.
And of course this is all assuming we're talking about being a typical Canadian in the 60s. If we're talking global, you'd have to be deranged to chose the life of a typical person on the planet in the 60s vs today.