I do wish people would stop trying to compare life now as it was back in the 60s and 70s; it was a world that was so different that you'd be as well sending someone back to the 1800s and asking them to cope. In fact, the experiences of someone born at the beginning of that century will likely be very different to someone who was born at the end; it was also a time of huge technological and social change.
It was a very different world back in the 1960’s and 70’s when most people in working class communities lived far less materialistic lives than people do these days.
I don't think that people of that era were less materialistic. The desires and aspirations would have been similar to those of today but the goods were very much more expensive relative to peoples' earnings.
They did work hard but probably not working such long hours as some have to these days, and most women after having children, if they worked at all, only worked part time for a few hours in the middle of the day when the children were in school.
Different times. It's not just the number of hours that people work, but the range of hours that people are expected to work across. Unless you had a job that required shift working, most jobs would have been within the 8am-6pm range. Today's consumers expect goods and services to be available 24/7 and others have to work the hours to accommodate that.
When I look back now to how my parents and grandparents lived I realise just how little money they had and how difficult times were. If you were lucky enough to be able to own your own home it was usually furnished with second hand furniture handed down from parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Bathrooms and kitchens were very basic many people still didn’t have the central heating or luxuries such as fitted carpets. These days when people move into a new house they expect to be able to have everything new. I can remember the excitement when my parents were able afford to buy their first fridge!
How can you make a judgement about peoples' expectations? I've no doubt that many people setting up home would
like to have new things, but having to make do with second-hand furniture is still very much the reality for many people. When I had my first flat, I couldn't afford to buy anything new and was grateful to have friends and family who helped out with stuff they no longer needed.
We still had to walk into the village for many years to make phone calls from the phonebox.
Oh, come on! What's a phone box? I've still got one within a ten minute walk from my house, but they're few and far between and becoming increasingly rarer.
We were loved and well cared for but had none of the things which people today see as necessities. There were no mobile phones, computers, large televisions and home cinema and all the other electronic devices and gaming things which are part of young people’s lives today. We didn’t eat out because we couldn’t afford it and all the food we had at was very basic with lots of fresh vegetables and potatoes, certainly non of the ready meals and takeaway foods people have today.
Again, times have changed. Washing machines and vacuum cleaners would be seen as luxuries once but they're necessities now. Mobile phones are every bit as essential these days as it becomes progressively difficult to access services without them.
Regarding food, just because ready meals and takeaways are more widely available doesn't mean that everyone uses them, or can afford them. Sometimes people don't have time to cook a proper meal and others will lack the skills to do so. Workplaces don't have the same catering facilities these days, so people have to adapt.
When I look at old school photos of my primary school days in the 1960’s we all look as though we are from a workhouse with boys wearing homemade knitted jumpers and girls in homemade dresses which grandmothers had invariably made. There were none of the nice clothes children wear today including branded clothes and desirable sportswear. If we were lucky we were dressed in cheap basic clothes from Woolworths. Looking back at my old college photos from the 1970’s again we all looked quite poorly dressed in tatty jeans, basic t shirts and baggy jumpers. None of the designer clothes and expensive trainers which many students wear today.
That was a very different world. To begin with, clothes are much cheaper these days, mainly because we've outsourced their production to sweat shops in Asia. If clothes cost the same relative to peoples' income as they once did, we wouldn't have the same "fast fashion" mentality that we do today. We also don't have the same skills; my mum, grandmothers and aunties could all knit and my mum was a dab-hand with a sewing machine but how many of today's grandmothers have those same skills or the time to pass them on? What's the likelihood of grannie living nearby these days?
Once again, you're making a lot of assumptions. How do you
know that students are wearing designer clothes and expensive trainers?
I‘m not making this up. It is how it was. Today perhaps anyone living like that would be seen as being as living in poverty.When I went to college, even though my parents didn’t have much money I still didn’t get a full grant and my parents were expected to pay some money to supplement my grant. I never accepted anywhere near the full amount they were expected to pay as I knew they couldn’t afford it. At least we didn’t have have the dreadful student loans that todays youngsters are stuck with.
At least you still received a grant, and you wouldn't have had to pay for tuition fees. Students are expected to cover fees and living expenses these days, resulting in eye-watering amounts of debt at the end of it.
I know that many young people today are having a very difficult time and will probably never be able to afford their own home and so in the long run will not be as fortunate as I eventually was. It must be difficult for them to now see people like me as being wealthy pensioners.
You clearly have some understanding that it's no so easy for young people these days, but it doesn't help matters when you come out with all the silly assumptions about people wearing designer clothes and having big tellies. You're ignoring the fact that these things are much more affordable to begin with
Very well said, as a child of the 70s and 80s it was very similar to your experience. I do wonder how younger generations would cope if for some reason they found themselves in a situation where life was like those decades. I suspect it would be a hell of a shock to say the least.
You simply cannot compare today's world with the one that existed half a century ago, especially when our entire way of life has changed so rapidly. 6-year-old me would certainly have had a hell of a shock if I'd been asked to go back to 1930. My 6-year-old grandfather in 1930 would have had a similar shock if he'd been transported back 50 years further, and so on.
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