And for curiosity's sake, it would be interesting if you were to mention your political party affiliation.
2007-09-26 10:52:02 · 21 answers · asked by Steve 6 in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
Much better now, and i am an independent conservative!~!
2007-09-26 10:55:24 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
On the downside, You used to do "duck and cover" drills at school because we were afraid of being bombed by the soviets. Your TV had 3 channels, they were in black and white, and the tubes burned out alot. Typists used carbon paper. Accountants had no calculators. Records became scratched and unusable and even telephones and transistor radios were expensive. Air travel was expensive and there were no interstate highways so it took four days to get from Chicago to Florida. Worst of all - no credit cards, cellphones, computers or internet or dvds. You had to actually go out to the movies.
On the upside, you didn't have to lock your doors at night. Women with husbands didn't have to work. Kids could roam the neighborhood and accept milk and cookies from anyone. There was no pornography or random shootings. No panhandlers. Interest rates were capped at 7% (charge more and you were arrested as a loan shark). Wages were high in relationship to home costs, so you could afford a big house (in 1952 my dad bought one for $20,000 on a lot worth $400,000 today). Cars were built like tanks and were safe. Three martini lunches were common. Managers left work at 2 to play golf.
There was less upside for some though: Coloreds had to go to separate schools, use separate washrooms and drinking fountains and sit in the back of restaurants and buses and call whites "sir". There was less freedom of speech. If you disagreed with the government, you were called a Communist and arrested. Gambling was illegal. Abortion was a capital offense. Homeless people were sent to mental hospitals. Police routinely coerced bribes for minor offenses and beat confessions out of criminals.
So it depends on who you are. I'm an old moderate without party affiliation and I believe things have been slowly improving since time began.
2007-09-26 11:45:27 · answer #2 · answered by BruceN 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wooden baseball bats, indeed! And atheletes looked like fit persons, not monsters, in the 1950s. That's about all I can say for the 1950s.
Much better now. My sister survived colon cancer, which would have killed her in the 1950s.
Scientifically and medically, we are way ahead of that era. We have no Joe McCarthy actually wielding autocratic powers.
There were child abductions in the 1950s- the reporting of them is higher today than before because people considered it shameful to reveal their child was abused.
Being an alcoholic was considered a weakness, not a disease. Thanks to Betty Ford, the stigma was erased.
No legal segregation. No government mandated religion in schools.
Things are much better.
I have no party but have been identified in an online poll as Libertarian Left.
Whatever that means.
2007-09-26 10:57:12 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
The 50's were good times, but today is better. We have more opportunities. We are better able to get a higher education, and go further in a career. We have advanced technology. We can afford to do much more and our lives are easier.
Of course this is a woman's point of view, but I am sure there are a lot of the guys who feel we also have more freedom for women and minorities than those days gone by. Believe it or not even our poor are much richer than in the 50's
Conservative / Republican
2007-09-26 11:12:29 · answer #4 · answered by Moody Red 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Powerful and Rich White men did and are doing everything to go back to that 1950s and before. The Democrats and Republicans today are two sides of the same coin that had more differences in the 1950s. The Duck and Cover regarding atomic war was a joke. Women and different ethnics, nationalities, religions other than Protestant, Mormon, and Catholic had no rights. People were forced to Anglicize their names; Kirk Douglas Issur Danielovitch Demsky was born and Martin Sheen was born Ramon Antonio Gerard Estevez
Women are just as excellent as men!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000018/bio
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La Cosecha: Harvesting Contemporary United States Hispanic ... - Google Books Result
by Eduardo C. Fernández - 2000 - Religion - 206 pages
And, once again, it may be that this perspective will prove useful not only to us but ... in ways that are oppressive to minorities and to powerless groups, ...
http://books.google.com/books?id=OAGZ1_Ux9gcC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=proof+the+us+is+oppressive+to+minorities&source=web&ots=QFZ5boCeS0&sig=M-HwOUyhRZfIn3KRoEIwqRz3dE8
2007-09-26 11:13:34 · answer #5 · answered by MIE 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
...and oh, I have to admit my age, born in the 1950's....so after I was born, in a family of 5 children....I was taken care with love, probably better than what I did for my kids as I had a stay home mom, and I had 3 that had a 12 hour day for me to make a living....
...all grown,,,,,,but my guess is that parents still have a hard time...
as far as party = republican or libertarian sort!
2007-09-26 10:57:53 · answer #6 · answered by Rada S 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I don't remember the 50s. I know how it's been depicted, though, and I know what people who lived through those times have to say about those depictions.
I think the only thing that's changed is what it's fashionable to talk about. In the 50s, it was OK to talk about how great America was or to voice opposition to it's enemies and potential enemies, while it was not OK to talk frankly about the seamier side of life. Today, the reverse is true.
2007-09-26 10:57:59 · answer #7 · answered by B.Kevorkian 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Blacks were being lynched, we had Jim Crow laws, segregation, the KKK had power. They weren't even allowed to sit at the front of the bus!
Women had no power whatsoever in the business and political world, they basically could only be teachers, nurses, or secretaries.
Gays had no rights, we had the so-called "sodomy laws"., they were considered mentally ill and the govt. had it's own propaganda against them (Boys Beware)
Technology was almost a new phenomenon in of itself; no home computers, no cell phones, no video games, no internet, etc. (Well, that actually might be a good thing lol.)
Medical tech. was a lot less than it was today, we still had polio and smallpox.
That pesky USSR and them pointing nukes at us.
On the plus side we weren't as fat and we were an industrial giant.
I'd say it's better now.
Oh and I don't belong to a political party.
2007-09-26 11:07:48 · answer #8 · answered by Liberals love America! 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Life was not as complicated in the 1950's. As a child, I went trick or treating at Halloween without any worries. We slept outside and not afraid someone would come and take us. We did not lock our doors because we were not afraid of being robbed. There were no ratings on movies and we could watch anything because there was no sex, nudity, or foul language.
I am Republican. I do not think it is a matter of who was or was not in control of the White House or Congress, but rather a reflection of society as a whole.
2007-09-26 11:03:38 · answer #9 · answered by debrawashburn 2 · 2⤊ 2⤋
The 1950s weren't just one big episode of "I Love Lucy". Remember that we had the Korean War, and many people were building underground shelters in the event that the USSR nuked the USA. The 1950s were a time of fear.
2007-09-26 10:57:27 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 2⤋
If you are talking about racial issues I would say today is much better. Why? Because blacks can now go to college, might have parents that have gone to college, can drink out of whatever water fountain they choose, and their schools might get new books (as opposed to the 50s when black schools got used books from the white schools).
I am a moderately conservative liberal.
2007-09-26 10:55:57 · answer #11 · answered by E M 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋