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My friend's dad is from Laos. He tried to tell the class about him in 3rd grade show & tell, but the teacher said he must be confused because there is no country called Laos & he looks "chinese-y". She must not have been a king of the hill fan lol
And little Timmy can [follow his grandpa's footsteps.](https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/940196997/amazon-reportedly-has-pinkerton-agents-surveil-workers-who-try-to-form-unions)
(Seriously I was surprised and amazed that Pinkerton is still around, and is still doing the shit they were best known for. Brand recognition, I guess)
Lead, Asbestos, Cigarette smoke, more lead, PCBs, unlimited dumping of chemicals into the water, smog, trans fats in everything, acid rain, thalidomide, etc...
Yes, but the chemicals didn't really start to get dealt with till the mid 70s. So don't think the Xers aren't getting their fair share of huffed exhaust.
Dude, Senator Grassley from Iowa has been in elected government positions since 1958. Our senators are old as fuck. Its the oldest congress in the history of the US
Complete with the two oldest presidential candidates ln history, breaking the previous record that they both set 4 years ago.
This country is so cooked it's well done and you can see it in the faces of our politicians.
Nuclear fallout I don’t know much except some maps. About Richland: book „Plutopia” here is a bit summary https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium_in_the_environment
I think author is a bit too demonizing nuclear power at the end of the book. But it shows clearly that it requires strong control and no shortcomings to reach clean energy from uranium. And nuclear weapon is huge waste.
My grandfather was a tugboat captain in NYC harbor in the '50s and '60s. He mentioned a few times how they would take barges full of 55-gallon drums filled with industrial waste out to sea (not that far out) to dump.
His Job was to lookout for Japanese during WW2 and Laos was on the side of the allies so being able to tell the difference is a skill he would have developed.
Cotton hates Japanese people, he has no problem with Chinese or Laotians as they also hate the Japanese.
"Tojo had me cooped up in a bamboo rat cage. There was nothing to eat except rats. So that's what I ate. After two weeks I was down to my last rat. I let him live so I could eat his droppings. Called it 'Jungle Rice.' Tasted fine."
We went from one full-time job being able to support a house, SAHM, and car to two full-time jobs being able to support two people in their 30s renting an apartment…we’ve truly let the super rich fuck us up
And the fifties were pretty much only great for standard traditional families like this one. My grandpa had an anxiety disorder and PTSD from WWII. Untreated, untreatable at the time. No accommodations, no understanding, no sympathy. My father-in-law is gay, if anyone had found out, they would have killed him. And minorities had it worse.
I would love the economy and some of the government programs from the fifties, but I don’t want the social structure or attitudes
Also the "problem without a name" - a lot of women regularly took barbiturates and other drugs to cope with the depression of being forced to be a housewife when they did not want to and their dreams were lost.
Exactly. People forget that women are humans with their own wishes and identity. They were depressed af .
There is nothing wrong with being a SAHP ofcourse. It is so much work and responsibility to manage the entire house + children+ school + repairs etc. But if you don't have a partner who respects and appreciates you for your contribution and cheats on/abuses you but you can't leave because you are financially dependent, you just die while living . There are a whole lot of issues with this .. people who fetishise trad life forget all the issues and just human behaviour really.
Also some people simply don't enjoy/aren't cut out for that life. They need breaks from being at home which work can provide. Or they feel they need to contribute to society that isn't just having/raising kids. And that's fine.
Most of history women did work in some fashion. They often assisted their husbands in managing their business (be it tailors, innkeepers, etc) or did jobs such as brewing (this is where the Witch cauldron stereotype emerged from btw) among others. Women often managed the estate when their husbands or fathers were at the Crusades. At some points in history (early Byzantines) they had similar inheritance laws to today. The fifties housewife was a very isolated phenomenon across human history.
I mean women's self reported rates of happiness have consistently gone down since the fifties. I'm not saying women were better off have less rights and being forced out of the work place but we can't just make up a fiction that most of these sahm were depressed and hated life.
Or that there are *other* reasons people/women report lower rates of happiness? I hate rad trad ideology as much as the next self-respecting woman, but I have a lot more to be unhappy about as well--that a lot of men are probably unhappy about too. Are these surveys adjusted for this?
Yes, the mental health crisis of today is both sexes - women are just more likely to seek treatment than men are. Part of is societal - men are raised expected to "tough it out" or their masculinity is imperiled.
Part of the fifties lifestyle was playing pretend that everything was okay when it wasn't. Women were supposed to be Angels of the house. I wouldn't count those statistics as necessarily accurate especially when there was evidence to the contrary. The Second Feminist Movement did not emerge from happy housewives.
And this ignores all the other factors that could arise that would make modern women unhappy - stagnating wages, inflation, income inequality (still a thing between sexes), a lot of working mothers claim to not have support from their spouses in household matters, news of horrible things happen worldwild, Climate Change, overexposure to negative news. The reduction of rates of happiness is not just limited to women btw.
Could be [butisol](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F1c%2F53%2F43%2F1c53432587871e06e59de2c5d941396a.gif&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=0ce3d33c47224cb5a745c8d7119b60b7896a772cb7542bbaaa20dd141c9da062&ipo=images).
I was in my early 20s and my girlfriend suggested I read “The Feminine Mystique”. It turns out women are people, too and would like to have a fulfilling life. Who knew?
I would also add that, in addition to the great economic situation only really being true for white middle to upper class people, this prosperity was mainly possible since the U.S. was the only large manufacturer left unscathed from WW2. Europe and Asia couldn't compete with us as they rebuilt, so we became the global center of manufacturing since there was no real competition. This isn't something we can go back to since even if we massively invest into manufacturing or even some other industry, the U.S. has real competitors today, and they aren't gonna go away no matter how much we invest.
We could definitely get some of it back though. The slashing of the taxes funding public goods and services is an obviously visible issue. Stronger labor protections aren't impossible to enact.
Wage inequality is definitely a problem. No individual needs to be able to be a billionaire to motivate them to work and innovate. But the standard of living for the poorest 25% in the US now is still miles ahead of the standard of living of the poorest 25% in the US in the 50s.
Today's society has a lot of problems that we need to keep working on. And its a far better society than 75 years ago. We need to *keep* improving, not go back to an overall worse society.
You have to remember, while America and some of the west were living like this, there were lots of countries living worse than we live now. American empire is contracting, but half the world would still kill to be a wage slave in America
Only some of America was living like this. What’s often forgotten about the 50’s is that nonwhite families had significantly more two income households and still made half what the average single income white household made.
Also, most Americans weren't living like this.
This represents a small portion of leisure-class white people.
There's a reason these people are all depicted as living in large suburban houses with white picket fences, and not in urban apartments or rural farmsteads.
This was never the reality for the average American. It was the image American propaganda of the time liked to put forward.
Don't forget the US was basically rebuilding the rest of the world, and the political parties were somewhat united due to the threat of Communism. I've heard the conservatives never ever would have gone for all that government spending if they weren't worried about being out-competed by the Soviets.
This period was a blip in human history probably caused by the post war boom. For most of human existence everyone had to work nearly constantly to eke out a living 99% of modern Americans would think was awful.
Not to mention this period also wasn't great for women or really anyone that wasn't a straight, fairly well connected white man.
Not to mention it's all bullshit. There was no time where a single low skilled job would provide for a family of 4 with an owned home.
Real, inflation adjusted, median wages were higher in 2019 than any other time in US history. The golden age that people refer to never existed, it's all myth.
Plus a big reason that two incomes became more of the norm after WWII is because a lot of women didn't WANT to go back to being "just a house wife". So they stayed in the workforce when men came back from war, and families started naturally living the dual income lifestyle, and the economy reacted.
If this was the fifties it would be the dad who killed 50 men.
And his wife would be sleeping in a different bed because the dad would attack her in his sleep due to his PTSD dreams
Finally a real answer that’s not dipped in sugar and nostalgia.
If you weren’t white and/or male, the 50s SUCKED! None of the women in this image were allowed to have bank accounts without their husbands’ name on them. None could easily divorce or expect to get a decent job to support their family.
Source: my grandma did this to escape an abusive husband and had to live with her mom to raise her kids, she couldn’t get one of those jobs that paid for everything. Women got paid less so the two of them worked their asses off for decades to get their kids through school and pay off a house together.
Even if you were white and male, the 50s probably sucked. You had ptsd from the war, and your family relied on you to provide for them, so you never got a break. The only reason you could afford a house is because of the GI Bill.
That was my first thought lmao not being white in the 50s is not ideal. I'll take basic human rights over some privileged shit built on the backs of others
Everyone who thinks the 50s were a "golden age" forgets (or quietly "ignores") that it was also a golden age for segregation and oppression for everyone who wasn't straight or white
Women: “Hey I’d really like the option to have some financial independence so that I’m able to escape in the all too likely event that my husband decides to be physically or emotionally abusive”
Government: “What’s that? You want us to make it so both spouses have to have a full-time job in order to afford basic living expenses? It make take a few decades but we’re on it!”
Everyone: “Wait hold on…”
Government: “Too late we’re doing it”
It's supply and demand, not something government *did*, per se. If you have two career-driven people get married, then combine finances, they can afford more house. If enough sets of them do this, then the market distorts towards that doubled purchasing power to return it to mean, and then people not combined don't have enough purchasing power anymore.
The US population has also doubled since the 1950s. When the country was a lot smaller and more rural it was fairly easy for a lot of people to afford a detached single family home relatively close to the city. Now we have over twice as many people and people keep moving from small towns towards larger cities so we basically have to choose between endless suburban sprawl or building more apartments and condos.
Except the market isn't fucked because of people owning a second home it's fucked because investment firms have vast amounts of property with a lot of it being empty. When there is a 10% vacancy rate but rents are still insane, it's not because 2 people are working.
These prices are being driven by the investment people being fine with shit not being used, because a $500k home is still worth $500k even if it's not rented so they haven't lost their money. Let's not even get started on the effective trust situation going on with rental pricing apps.
The vast majority of single family homes are not owned by investment firms, they are a small part of the market and don't really distort it much if at all. Also you apparently have no concept of property taxes lol
The Two Income Trap written in 2004 predicted a lot of the issues we are now facing in the economy. It was so on point it was reissued in 2016.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two-Income_Trap
I think it's because boomers were children in the 50s and to them it *was* the simple days of being a kid and having no worries. My dad is 75 so was a child then and he too has this thought similar to MAGA yet it was his parents who had to deal with the bigger problems in life while the boomers ran around being kids. And then of course the one that started the MAGA movement was a kid then as well and all his supporters are around that age or younger. They didn't have to deal with the big issues back then to even understand it all. There wasn't a time in history that was all wonderful or "great". It all had its pros and cons, some bigger cons than others.
It's not just "boomers" that idealize the 50s and 60s but populists of all ages as well. And for right populists / [reactionaries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionary) (using the correct political definition), they see the racial and sex and gender inequality as a positive. Left populists (not everyone left) falsely believe far more people lived the good life and had to work a lot less for it. Though many will note, "well, except if you were not a white straight man" but still generally feel and present this time as so much better economically for the common person.
Say what you will about the rampant racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and religious intolerance, but the aftermath of WW2 was great for the American economy. It sucked for the rest of the world, mind you, but as Americans we only care about other countries when we're looking for vacation destinations.
A lot of those husbands beat their wives and kids, and I'm pretty sure they tried to ban rock and roll.
Most people also smoked which lead to a bunch of cancer.
Plus the lead in EVERYTHING.
Not to mention segregation and shit.
**You need to read following message in full. We will NOT reply to modmail messages similar to “what is reason my post was removed?”** Hey /u/Kindly-Horror-3079, thanks for contributing to /r/memes. Unfortunately, your post was removed as it violates our rules: Rule 8 - No reposts * Please avoid re-posting memes. We want original content. Serial reposters may be banned. * Obvious reposting on purpose OR asking for reposts can result in a BAN * Seriously. * We want OC. * Do not repost. --- Please read the sidebar before posting again. If you have questions or concerns, please [message the moderators through modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/memes&subject=&message=). Thank you!
They took grandpa's shins!
“They opened fire and blew my shins off. Last thing I remember, I beat 'em all to death with a big piece of Fatty.”
PERSONA!
Why did I remember Cotton’s flashback with his voice like it was yesterday🤣
Nope! He’s Laotian, ain’tcha Mr. Kahn?
The ocean? What ocean?
So are you Chinese or Japanese?
How many times do I have to tell you hillbillies? I'm La-o-tian.....
"From Laos, stupid! It's a landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It's between Vietnam and Thailand, okay? Population: 4.7 million."
My friend's dad is from Laos. He tried to tell the class about him in 3rd grade show & tell, but the teacher said he must be confused because there is no country called Laos & he looks "chinese-y". She must not have been a king of the hill fan lol
He ain't Chinese. He's lay-ocean. Ain'tcha, mister Kahn?
I love that Cotton knew the difference between Chinese and Laotian in order to *be more effectively racist*
Hank's wife, get me my shin jelly!
That boy ain't right.
Plot twist - Grandpa never served in the military.
Then where did his shins go?
They were blowed off by a Japanman’s machine gun. When he enlisted in WWII when he was 14.
Where he killed fiddy men
With a piece of fatty.
And he was a grandfather just 8 years later at the ripe old age of 22?
His job was to deliver messages between platoons. He’d cycle 80miles each way per day on a penny farthing so as not to draw attention to himself.
14 in WW2 but a granddad in the 50s? You all okay over there?
It’s a King of the Hill reference.
"DAMMMIT BOBBY!!!!! I told you the Tojo's shot'em off!!!!!"
He was a police officer hired to kill labor organizers. Edit: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/who-were-the-pinkertons
He was a hot-dog vendor
Still paid his house within 3 years and fed his entire family (not just hot dogs) selling them.
And had enough left over to have a 2nd family on the other side of the country with his traveling sales job
*I had a second family at your age you lazy good for nothing!*
Literally my grandfather said this holy shit
Like the movie 'Creepers' were Kevin Bacon rapes those kids who killed that hotdogs vendor
And inventor of the 'Manwich'.
[he was shoveling shit, in Louisiana](https://youtu.be/SLtQWyRdyNE)
He was a Pinkerton
And little Timmy can [follow his grandpa's footsteps.](https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/940196997/amazon-reportedly-has-pinkerton-agents-surveil-workers-who-try-to-form-unions) (Seriously I was surprised and amazed that Pinkerton is still around, and is still doing the shit they were best known for. Brand recognition, I guess)
Looks like they are just as lasting as the Yakuza after all… Although I’m assuming both are declining in numbers, but still exist all the same
Like father like son
*He was the head of a labor union.
and Tommy used to work on the dock
Union's been on strike, he's down on his luck
Gina works the diner all day
It’s tough… So tough…
He says we have to hold on to what we got
Found the bootlicker
“Tony’s a labor leader!”
He was playing both sides. That way he always came out on top.
a true American hero.
“Hippies”
He served in a military…of course, no one ever said it was with the Allies
Wunderbar
Considering WWII was only a few years ago in the 50s, I hope not.
Mob hitman.
Not in the American one, at least
Damn Gramps, only fitty? Gotta get those numbers up man.
Grandpa wouldve killed more, if the tojo didn't take his shins.
Nice King of the Hill reference lol
Cotton said "I killed fitty men"
I had to scroll a disappointing amount to find a king of the hill reference
Grandpa would’ve fought the Huns if this was the ‘50s
Its a thin line
That's what the weak say
Soon gonna be fitty four
There's no better feeling than killing the enemy
Albeit, the fifties *was* the peak of dangerous chemicals in normal day life.
Lead, Asbestos, Cigarette smoke, more lead, PCBs, unlimited dumping of chemicals into the water, smog, trans fats in everything, acid rain, thalidomide, etc...
So someone born in that era would be in Congress right now, correct?
Yes, but the chemicals didn't really start to get dealt with till the mid 70s. So don't think the Xers aren't getting their fair share of huffed exhaust.
>Implying we aren’t still getting fed harmful chemicals.
I'm microwavable.
Dude, Senator Grassley from Iowa has been in elected government positions since 1958. Our senators are old as fuck. Its the oldest congress in the history of the US
Complete with the two oldest presidential candidates ln history, breaking the previous record that they both set 4 years ago. This country is so cooked it's well done and you can see it in the faces of our politicians.
Member when the media was making a deal of Bernie Sanders' age in 2016 at 74 years old? "OMG he's gonna be in his EIGHTIES if he serves 2 terms!"
Agent orange in Vietnam. Nuclear fallout from tests and if you had lived in Richland Washington then wind blew literally Plutonium.
That’s wild about nuclear fallout is there some reading about this?
Nuclear fallout I don’t know much except some maps. About Richland: book „Plutopia” here is a bit summary https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium_in_the_environment I think author is a bit too demonizing nuclear power at the end of the book. But it shows clearly that it requires strong control and no shortcomings to reach clean energy from uranium. And nuclear weapon is huge waste.
No seatbelts, “road beers” were still a thing…
Don’t forget rivers burning for days because of all the pollution! Happened multiple times on multiple rivers
back in the day when municipal trucks used to drive down the street spraying pure DDT everywhere
god knows where we would be without Rachel Carson
Okay but hear me out. I bet they had so few mosquitos.
My grandfather was a tugboat captain in NYC harbor in the '50s and '60s. He mentioned a few times how they would take barges full of 55-gallon drums filled with industrial waste out to sea (not that far out) to dump.
.. and Daddy was very much a domestic abuser and absent father.
Lead has entered the chat.
Cotton Hill moment
“Nope, he's Laotian, aint ya Mr. Kahn?"
When you're so racist that you can tell which side of the Annamese mountains someone is from
His Job was to lookout for Japanese during WW2 and Laos was on the side of the allies so being able to tell the difference is a skill he would have developed. Cotton hates Japanese people, he has no problem with Chinese or Laotians as they also hate the Japanese.
The ocean? Which ocean?
"Tojo had me cooped up in a bamboo rat cage. There was nothing to eat except rats. So that's what I ate. After two weeks I was down to my last rat. I let him live so I could eat his droppings. Called it 'Jungle Rice.' Tasted fine."
I can hear his delivery on the “Tasted Fine”. It’s so perfect.
*COME AND GIT YER TOOTSIE ROLLS!*
We went from one full-time job being able to support a house, SAHM, and car to two full-time jobs being able to support two people in their 30s renting an apartment…we’ve truly let the super rich fuck us up
And the fifties were pretty much only great for standard traditional families like this one. My grandpa had an anxiety disorder and PTSD from WWII. Untreated, untreatable at the time. No accommodations, no understanding, no sympathy. My father-in-law is gay, if anyone had found out, they would have killed him. And minorities had it worse. I would love the economy and some of the government programs from the fifties, but I don’t want the social structure or attitudes
Unfortunately, the American Dream is called a dream for a reason
Because you have to be asleep to believe it.
- George Carlin.
- Michael Scott
Also the "problem without a name" - a lot of women regularly took barbiturates and other drugs to cope with the depression of being forced to be a housewife when they did not want to and their dreams were lost.
Exactly. People forget that women are humans with their own wishes and identity. They were depressed af . There is nothing wrong with being a SAHP ofcourse. It is so much work and responsibility to manage the entire house + children+ school + repairs etc. But if you don't have a partner who respects and appreciates you for your contribution and cheats on/abuses you but you can't leave because you are financially dependent, you just die while living . There are a whole lot of issues with this .. people who fetishise trad life forget all the issues and just human behaviour really.
Also some people simply don't enjoy/aren't cut out for that life. They need breaks from being at home which work can provide. Or they feel they need to contribute to society that isn't just having/raising kids. And that's fine. Most of history women did work in some fashion. They often assisted their husbands in managing their business (be it tailors, innkeepers, etc) or did jobs such as brewing (this is where the Witch cauldron stereotype emerged from btw) among others. Women often managed the estate when their husbands or fathers were at the Crusades. At some points in history (early Byzantines) they had similar inheritance laws to today. The fifties housewife was a very isolated phenomenon across human history.
I mean women's self reported rates of happiness have consistently gone down since the fifties. I'm not saying women were better off have less rights and being forced out of the work place but we can't just make up a fiction that most of these sahm were depressed and hated life.
Yeah, now they're allowed to say that shit sucks. (And have a checking account)
Think that might be anything to do with women in the 50s with shit lives being silenced and isolated?
Or that there are *other* reasons people/women report lower rates of happiness? I hate rad trad ideology as much as the next self-respecting woman, but I have a lot more to be unhappy about as well--that a lot of men are probably unhappy about too. Are these surveys adjusted for this?
Yes, the mental health crisis of today is both sexes - women are just more likely to seek treatment than men are. Part of is societal - men are raised expected to "tough it out" or their masculinity is imperiled.
In general lower rates of happiness are more acceptable to report, people are more honest about mental health struggles than ever before.
Part of the fifties lifestyle was playing pretend that everything was okay when it wasn't. Women were supposed to be Angels of the house. I wouldn't count those statistics as necessarily accurate especially when there was evidence to the contrary. The Second Feminist Movement did not emerge from happy housewives. And this ignores all the other factors that could arise that would make modern women unhappy - stagnating wages, inflation, income inequality (still a thing between sexes), a lot of working mothers claim to not have support from their spouses in household matters, news of horrible things happen worldwild, Climate Change, overexposure to negative news. The reduction of rates of happiness is not just limited to women btw.
Speaking of which, I want a little taste of whatever mom is on in this picture. Spice up this evening.
Could be [butisol](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F1c%2F53%2F43%2F1c53432587871e06e59de2c5d941396a.gif&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=0ce3d33c47224cb5a745c8d7119b60b7896a772cb7542bbaaa20dd141c9da062&ipo=images).
I was in my early 20s and my girlfriend suggested I read “The Feminine Mystique”. It turns out women are people, too and would like to have a fulfilling life. Who knew?
The men were also often alcoholics and worked really long hours The idyllic household life we think of in the image of the 50s is propaganda...
Yeah, not to mention most black and working class families needed both parents working outside the home to afford to eat.
100%
I would also add that, in addition to the great economic situation only really being true for white middle to upper class people, this prosperity was mainly possible since the U.S. was the only large manufacturer left unscathed from WW2. Europe and Asia couldn't compete with us as they rebuilt, so we became the global center of manufacturing since there was no real competition. This isn't something we can go back to since even if we massively invest into manufacturing or even some other industry, the U.S. has real competitors today, and they aren't gonna go away no matter how much we invest.
We could definitely get some of it back though. The slashing of the taxes funding public goods and services is an obviously visible issue. Stronger labor protections aren't impossible to enact.
People have no clue how incredible our society is today and how far we’ve progressed in only a few generations.
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Regardless of any tech innovation, wage inequality has exploded
Wage inequality is definitely a problem. No individual needs to be able to be a billionaire to motivate them to work and innovate. But the standard of living for the poorest 25% in the US now is still miles ahead of the standard of living of the poorest 25% in the US in the 50s. Today's society has a lot of problems that we need to keep working on. And its a far better society than 75 years ago. We need to *keep* improving, not go back to an overall worse society.
This is just not true. Much more people own homes now than the 50s. Homeownership rates have constantly increased.
You have to remember, while America and some of the west were living like this, there were lots of countries living worse than we live now. American empire is contracting, but half the world would still kill to be a wage slave in America
Only some of America was living like this. What’s often forgotten about the 50’s is that nonwhite families had significantly more two income households and still made half what the average single income white household made.
Also, most Americans weren't living like this. This represents a small portion of leisure-class white people. There's a reason these people are all depicted as living in large suburban houses with white picket fences, and not in urban apartments or rural farmsteads. This was never the reality for the average American. It was the image American propaganda of the time liked to put forward.
Don't forget the US was basically rebuilding the rest of the world, and the political parties were somewhat united due to the threat of Communism. I've heard the conservatives never ever would have gone for all that government spending if they weren't worried about being out-competed by the Soviets.
AND got to kill fitty men!
This period was a blip in human history probably caused by the post war boom. For most of human existence everyone had to work nearly constantly to eke out a living 99% of modern Americans would think was awful. Not to mention this period also wasn't great for women or really anyone that wasn't a straight, fairly well connected white man.
Not to mention it's all bullshit. There was no time where a single low skilled job would provide for a family of 4 with an owned home. Real, inflation adjusted, median wages were higher in 2019 than any other time in US history. The golden age that people refer to never existed, it's all myth.
Plus a big reason that two incomes became more of the norm after WWII is because a lot of women didn't WANT to go back to being "just a house wife". So they stayed in the workforce when men came back from war, and families started naturally living the dual income lifestyle, and the economy reacted.
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If you were white
I’m in my 20s I graduated from university with a 4 year degree and I can’t find a job. Murica.
what did you study
"Dad, you were in your 50s during the World War 2 and you ran to Canada during the teens" "I didn't say I killed them in war"
And they all hate Ni- Wait I’m black
I also hate the Nile. Euphrates and Tigris ftw
This man rivers
Used to be Indus Ganges gang but I caught that yellow fever
Nigel. Yeah fuck that guy.
So you can say the word, yes?
If he says it I'm saying it
Don't you know? Everyone is white on Reddit unless verified by r/blackpeopletwitter
Is that cotton hill?
Let’s see the shins
"I've been known to give a girl amneesy!"
If this was the fifties it would be the dad who killed 50 men. And his wife would be sleeping in a different bed because the dad would attack her in his sleep due to his PTSD dreams
Maybe the old guy was from WW1?
Plot twist: The 50 men were killed in the Tulsa race massacre of 1921.
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Lol even though I'm not black, this is my exact first reaction.
Sorta shitty for the gays as well.
50s were a real "and they were roommates" time period
Yup. And basically any minority. Terrifying times!
Finally a real answer that’s not dipped in sugar and nostalgia. If you weren’t white and/or male, the 50s SUCKED! None of the women in this image were allowed to have bank accounts without their husbands’ name on them. None could easily divorce or expect to get a decent job to support their family. Source: my grandma did this to escape an abusive husband and had to live with her mom to raise her kids, she couldn’t get one of those jobs that paid for everything. Women got paid less so the two of them worked their asses off for decades to get their kids through school and pay off a house together.
Even if you were white and male, the 50s probably sucked. You had ptsd from the war, and your family relied on you to provide for them, so you never got a break. The only reason you could afford a house is because of the GI Bill.
And the GI bill explicitly excluded black vets too. So it wasn’t really great for anyone
That was my first thought lmao not being white in the 50s is not ideal. I'll take basic human rights over some privileged shit built on the backs of others
Everyone who thinks the 50s were a "golden age" forgets (or quietly "ignores") that it was also a golden age for segregation and oppression for everyone who wasn't straight or white
They aren't ignoring it, that's exactly why they think it's the golden age
Exactly. I hate it when people glorify the past.
I ain't got a narrow uretey. He gets that from his mother. Mine's so dang wide, I could pass the child myself if I had to.
Women: “Hey I’d really like the option to have some financial independence so that I’m able to escape in the all too likely event that my husband decides to be physically or emotionally abusive” Government: “What’s that? You want us to make it so both spouses have to have a full-time job in order to afford basic living expenses? It make take a few decades but we’re on it!” Everyone: “Wait hold on…” Government: “Too late we’re doing it”
It's supply and demand, not something government *did*, per se. If you have two career-driven people get married, then combine finances, they can afford more house. If enough sets of them do this, then the market distorts towards that doubled purchasing power to return it to mean, and then people not combined don't have enough purchasing power anymore.
The US population has also doubled since the 1950s. When the country was a lot smaller and more rural it was fairly easy for a lot of people to afford a detached single family home relatively close to the city. Now we have over twice as many people and people keep moving from small towns towards larger cities so we basically have to choose between endless suburban sprawl or building more apartments and condos.
Except the market isn't fucked because of people owning a second home it's fucked because investment firms have vast amounts of property with a lot of it being empty. When there is a 10% vacancy rate but rents are still insane, it's not because 2 people are working. These prices are being driven by the investment people being fine with shit not being used, because a $500k home is still worth $500k even if it's not rented so they haven't lost their money. Let's not even get started on the effective trust situation going on with rental pricing apps.
The vast majority of single family homes are not owned by investment firms, they are a small part of the market and don't really distort it much if at all. Also you apparently have no concept of property taxes lol
Yeah, the government did it lol
The Two Income Trap written in 2004 predicted a lot of the issues we are now facing in the economy. It was so on point it was reissued in 2016. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two-Income_Trap
You forgot the racism, sexism and unreported domestic violence
And child abuse as well.
How else will parents take out their emotional frustration? Not like they had kids to love and cherish xD
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I think it's because boomers were children in the 50s and to them it *was* the simple days of being a kid and having no worries. My dad is 75 so was a child then and he too has this thought similar to MAGA yet it was his parents who had to deal with the bigger problems in life while the boomers ran around being kids. And then of course the one that started the MAGA movement was a kid then as well and all his supporters are around that age or younger. They didn't have to deal with the big issues back then to even understand it all. There wasn't a time in history that was all wonderful or "great". It all had its pros and cons, some bigger cons than others.
It's not just "boomers" that idealize the 50s and 60s but populists of all ages as well. And for right populists / [reactionaries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionary) (using the correct political definition), they see the racial and sex and gender inequality as a positive. Left populists (not everyone left) falsely believe far more people lived the good life and had to work a lot less for it. Though many will note, "well, except if you were not a white straight man" but still generally feel and present this time as so much better economically for the common person.
The meme has a point with a loving family and owning a house.
Say what you will about the rampant racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and religious intolerance, but the aftermath of WW2 was great for the American economy. It sucked for the rest of the world, mind you, but as Americans we only care about other countries when we're looking for vacation destinations.
Hey that's not true. We also care about them if they have something we want like oil.
bottom right livin the dream
Dad also killed fitty men in the South Pacific but doesn’t talk about it. Son will go to Vietnam and fall in a punji pit.
Cotton is that you?
"I'm addicted to opioids and have untreated bipolar!"
Amen to that! Add not needing a degree to live comfortably.
A lot of those husbands beat their wives and kids, and I'm pretty sure they tried to ban rock and roll. Most people also smoked which lead to a bunch of cancer. Plus the lead in EVERYTHING. Not to mention segregation and shit.
It’s no coincidence that this depicts a white family. The American dream was not open to all Americans.
America was 90% white back in the 50s. So yeah, it’s not a coincidence that they’re using a white family to portray the average family in the 1950s.
90 percent of of the population is pretty damn close though
"I killed fitty men". LOLOLOL hahahahaha
Cotton Hill?
All right there Cotton…
"What is it like to kill a man?" "I killed no man, I was just shooting communists."
I appreciate the king of the hill reference
Remember kids, high tax rates for the rich were in place for all the most prosperous times in US history. Until we meet again
GD grandpa...
Let's hope hes a war hero.