I was born in 1960.

[tecelote]

I was born in 1960.

When I started working, my wage was $3.75 hr. With substantial overtime, I made a bit less than $1,000 a month.

My first car was a 1965 Mustang I bought for $350.

Gas was around $0.70.

My first apartment was $650 a month, including utilities. I split it with two others. My share was around $220 a month.

College cost me around $3,000 for four years. I paid off the loans easily within a decade.

I could walk into an airport and go to the gate to meet friends or family.

I hitchhiked across the country... with my dog.

---

My kids would never hitchhike today. Everyone is scared of each other today.

I'm not smart enough to know all the reasons why all of this changed, but I'm smart enough to know that it's wrong. America is going in the wrong direction.

For decades, the economic strength of the average American has been in a slow decline, until recently. Now, I'm afraid we've gone off a cliff.

My heart aches for my kids and their generation.

[cayugafalls]

1. Cable Television, The Internet, The loss of FLESH based social interactions as main social format.

Probably some others, but those are the big 3.

The advertising algorithm that gave people BRANDS in the 50's and 60's was unleashed on a massive scale as advertisers, IT media outlets and others began to flood the social media landscape with their version of the algorithm to make you want to buy, use, or be like their marketable products.

We lost connection with each other and connected with a false entity designed to mold our thoughts to the desires of the seller.

There is a sucker born every minute...PT Barnum.

Welcome to the Circus.

[thesquanderer]

21. Also, talk radio (after Reagan ended the fairness doctrine), and 9/11 (which yielded paranoia) n/t

[popsdenver]

37. Reagan did much more than that.........

Reagan did un-fathomable destruction to most of the middle class in America........(Actually it was HWBush's CABAL, Reagan was merely a front man/pawn, exactly like WBush and to a big extent Mr. Poopy Pants)

[thesquanderer]

48. Yes. OP and 1st reply wer about economy and also safety/civility, I was talking about the latter.

But yes, on the economic side, the Reagen administration set a lot of bad things into motion.

[Cirsium]

2. The wrong direction indeed

Adjusted for inflation, the wages we made working the line in the auto factory in the 60s would be something like $150,000 now. Those jobs actually pay $28,000 today.

[llmart]

24. That's because you were in a union.

The GOP turned the word "union" into a dirty word and Reagan gutted the power of unions. The sad thing is that I know plenty of retired union line workers from that era who have pretty darned good retirements now but vote for Republicans. It's one more example of people who only care about their own little world. They can't see the big picture of how advocating and voting for people who come after you actually benefits everyone.

Bottom line - we are a selfish country, supposedly the richest country in the world and still we are never satisfied.

[biophile]

29. Correct

I cannot understand why so many union people vote R but as noted in other responses, it’s the long game of the RW 1% to bust unions and use religion plus conservative media to lead people to vote against their own interests.

[Cirsium]

44. Union or not

All of the jobs in Detroit paid well, because the employers had to match the competitive wages in non-union shops.

In any case, the new workers are in the same union we were in back then, and they are getting a fraction of what we were paid.

[llmart]

46. The unions today don't have the power that they used to have.

In negotiations they have to give quite a bit just to keep the union viable. Remember, Rick Snyder and the GOP made Michigan a right to work state. Comparatively, those in the UAW still make more than they would if they weren't in a union. The give backs started in the Reagan era.

I was briefly a UAW member when I worked in a public library. Our township workers are in various unions, but the people in charge are all GOP since I live in a small town north of Detroit and small towns seem to all be run by republicans.

[Cirsium]

47. We are losing

We have been losing for a long time.

[multigraincracker]

32. I hired in at the car factory in 1972. $3.75/ hr.

My one week pay check paid all of my bills for the month. By my second year I owned a brand new pickup truck and a Superglide Harley. Wife got a job as a medical transcriptions and made as much as me.
The company paid for my college degree, everything except books. I retired after 30 years at age 52 with mid six figures in the bank.
Life was good. Still is.

[LisaM]

38. Companies are a lot greedier than they used to be.

The MBAs got to them.

When I started college in 1975, half my friends didn't even have majors. When my sister started 3 years later, half of her friends were in business school (or as they called it, B, School). It was a sea change. And that was right around the time Reagan was elected.

[multigraincracker]

45. MBAs mess up everything.

Good book about the subject is When McKensey Comes to town. Their whole strategy are the three Ds Defend, Deny And Delay. NDAs(non disclosure agreements) should be outlawed along with monopolies. Bust the Trust. Labor is seen as cost to be cut, wages and benefits.
The most efficient business model is employ owned businesses.
Just my opinions.

[crud]

3. Nixon resigning with the fallout being the establishment of the billionaire funded right-wing think tanks

which concocted trickle down economics, the moral majority, family values and marketed hate and division in order to win power and not give it up like Nixon did. Heritage foundation, federalist society, etc.

[BurnDoubt]

4. Education should be a human right...

And made available to all for no charge.
The benefits to all mankind would be incalculable.
The current situation is elitist and backward.
Ego and greed let you off on the nearest stop, and don't take you uptown.
Dumbest plan ever.

[tecelote]

5. Yes!

Absolutely.

An educated population votes progressive - or, in other words, in their best interest.

[niyad]

27. The UN Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, to which US is a signatory,

lists educattion as one of those rights. As we know, honoured more in the breach than in the observance.

[BurnDoubt]

28. Yeah... we got this.

Capitalism is not our friend.
Why we can't have nice things.
Poo Tee Weet.

[multigraincracker]

34. John Adam's capitalism is great.

Neoliberal economics sucks.

[multigraincracker]

33. I never had kids, but vote for every school mileage.

Don’t want to live in a community with dumb kids.
Taxes are the price of civilization.

[BurnDoubt]

36. Yep! Yep! Yep!

And YEP!!!!!

[Typewitch]

6. Started driving 1969

Picked up hitchhikers and their dogs and cats.

Had my cat with me too.

Met some good people. Good times.

Stopped picking up hitchhikers when the kid arrived in 84.

[kimbutgar]

7. Reagan started our downward cycle and made it harder for us to get ahead

I share the same sentiments of how it was easier to get ahead financially and not be in debt. My first car was a 1966 mustang that I paid $700 for in 1974. I was talking with a woman today that wants to be a teacher but doesn’t want to go in debt because it costs about $30,000 minimum to go back to school for a teaching credential. Life was so much easier for our generation.

[Joinfortmill]

8. I'm with you. Costs are out of sight...

CEO salaries are thru the roof. The cost of higher education is almost insurmountable. People can't afford to buy a house. There are no affordable apartments. There are NO apartments. Healthcare costs are astronomical. Cost of groceries is climbing daily. Produce is rotting in the fields or in silos. Make America Great Again. Fuck Trump.

[whyzayker]

9. July'59

I’m searching for an appropriate apology and nothing even comes close.

[twodogsbarking]

10. I think capitalism might be at least a small amount of the problem.

[MadameButterfly]

19. That's why they had to make Socialism a dirty word

[pat_k]

43. Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century: the rate of return on capital historically exceeds the rate of economic growth

The destructive and vicious cycle of ever greater accumulation of capital has all the corrosive effects we are experiencing.

Generally, robust progressive taxation on income and inheritance, expansion of public services, serious investment in education, worker empowerment, and wealth redistribution are absolutely necessary to counter the corrupting effects of an ever-widening inequality in wealth.

Additional solutions:

Inheritance for All
Using tax revenues to provide a universal capital endowment to all young adults, such as a transfer of €120,000 (about $134,000) at age 25. This "inheritance for all" would provide a significant financial cushion to people from middle- and low-income backgrounds, giving them more leverage in the labor market and a better ability to start businesses.

Worker representation:
A system of "worker co-management," where employees hold significant representation—such as 50% of voting rights—on the boards of companies. This would shift the balance of power away from shareholders and towards a more collaborative, equitable system of corporate governance.

[phxjurist]

11. Almost twice the population.

Population in 1960 was a little less than 180 million. By 2024 the population was 340 million. Same amount of land but twice as many people. Compare it to a household. 1960 - 2 parents and 5 kids in one house. 2024 - 4 parents and 10 kids IN THE SAME house. An overcrowded house often leads to bedlam.
Land is the same way. Housing divisions going up with just a few feet between homes, and apartments skyrocketing with no place for young teenagers to blow off steam.
We have created a pressure cooker with no release valve.

[tecelote]

13. The world population increase is scary as well...

It took until the 1800s to hit one billion people on our planet. When I was born in 1960, there were three billion people. The world’s population doubled to six billion by the time I was 40. By 2050, when my kids are my age, there will be nearly nine billion people on our planet.

[MadameButterfly]

20. Actually, population may be going down and it's a crisis

for many economies because they depend on a model of growth.

[Torchlight]

12. In 85-89, I paid all tuition, books and fees at state college with a single, full time-summer job

With college prices these days, it seems a full-time job is needed just to entertain the prospect of going to college. The GI Bill opened up and higher education, college enrollment more than doubled 1940-1950. It helped establish college attendance as a mainstream expectation, not just an elite privilege. And I tend to think the 'privilege' of it is a goal for a wide-swath of of wide Americans.

[Evolve Dammit]

14. Amen to all.

[Maninacan]

15. Canada

I could drive across the Canadian border for lunch and look around there with no hassles. Just a drivers license.

[Tribetime]

16. Yeah I was making two thirty five an hour and I was born in nineteen sixty

[Layzeebeaver]

17. same here

1960... similar memories

[debsy]

18. You have two years on me but I relate to everything you said.

Things were so different when we were growing up. I think corporate greed, helicopter parenting and consumerism has driven us to where we are today. Marketing and PR (corporate propaganda) are hugely “important” in our nation today. Everybody has to have this, that, and the other thing. We also idolize the wealthy, which has helped lead us to the enormous inequality we see today.

[llmart]

25. Consumerism

We've been taught to believe that economic growth is the end all and be all of a country. There are countries who don't put so much emphasis on conspicuous consumption. They usually measure much higher on the degree of happiness too. Why is it that individuals in this country don't have a mind of their own? Not everyone gets sucked into the hamster wheel of buying things they don't need.

You don't have to live like an ascetic if you practice minimalism. In fact, one usually finds that they have a much calmer life without all the stuff and endless shopping. There are people out here who practice conscious consumerism.

[madinmaryland]

22. I was born in 1961 and have never hitchhiked nor would I ever done that. OTH, my Dad often hitchhiked

In the late 40’s and early 50’s. By the mid 50’s he had bought a car and never did that again. He said the safety of doing that between when he had done that to the mid 70’s had drastically changed.

[LittleGirl]

23. Born in October '59

I saw everything you saw but from a female perspective and from a different continent and visuals.

Reagan started this fall into fascism and Covid19 nearly finished us off. Crime went up during early covid lockdowns. People lost their frigging minds during covid shutdowns. The world was full of sickness, hopelessness, grief, too much time on their hands, too close to family and too far from family/friends...an actual online based world that became...

World wide trauma.

Who denied it?
Who shouted the loudest to open everything up before Warp Speed went out?

Warp Speed was a life changing moment for the whole world and he denied it worked. Even after taking it.
Suggested that no one else take it. (That must have been when RFK came into his ear).

Project 2025 is going to finish us off if we don't stop it NOW.

[misanthrope]

26. I was born just a handful of years later

And college was almost twice as expensive by then. And that was just tuition without books.

[pat_k]

30. Me too (born in 1960)

Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st describes the vicious cycle of capital accumulation and it's corrupting effects on society and general well-being.

He uses historical data from the 19th and 20th centuries to argue that wealth inequality is increasing in the 21st century, particularly because the rate of return on capital (r) historically exceeds the rate of economic growth (g), a trend observed over extended periods. The book's core argument is that this tendency leads to greater accumulation of wealth by capital owners and contributes to rising inequality, a pattern seen to be re-emerging after a post-World War II dip in inequality.

And his proposals for countering in that book, and subsequent books, are things we must work to make happen -- and should be loudly advocating NOW to actually address what so many in this nation are furious about. We will defeat the regime. We can (and must at least TRY to) build a bright future for those who come after us.

[PCB66]

31. I was 13 years old in 1960

I was born when Harry Truman was President.

It was great being a kid in the 1950s.

It was great being a teenager and young adult in the 1960s. Except for that Vietnam thingy. That pretty much sucked.

[Nigrum Cattus]

35. 57 for me

The biggest reason for the "change" is collective sacrifice.
In the post WW2 era most men were veterans and knew,
first hand, shared sacrifice. Today, that does not exist.
It's every one for themselves in the corporate system.

[Sparkly]

42. Me too

and I agree with you.

[BigmanPigman]

39. I was born in 1962

And I worked min wage jobs under Raygun. I was grateful to get a min wage job in 1980. No one was hiring. That was the beginning of the end for the USA!

Raygun allowed Fox News to be on TV a "news" show instead of entertainment. He lied about trickle down economics and the GOP has been pushing that BS ever since. He kicked mental health patients out of hospitals.

Raygun destroyed the USA almost single handedly. Every misery I have experienced in my lifetime goes right back to that fucker! When he was shot everyone on my floor in my art school apt was elated, just the opposite from when Lennon was killed. We were only 18 but we already knew Raygun was a piece of shit.

[c-rational]

40. I remember hitchking home every day from caddying in the late 60's and also hitchhiking to and

from Vermont from Long Island in the early 70's with full pack, skies boots and poles. Never today and what a loss.

[Joe Nation]

41. Not a problem

My kids are all moving overseas. I don't blame them one little bit.

[Progressive dog]

49. Can you provide statistics showing that slow

decline in economic strength?

[wolfie001]

50. It all went south when that idiot 'rayguns' was elected

I'm also a 1960 dood. 'rayguns' started the destruction of the Middle-Class that tRUMP is now finishing off. Religious leaders have played the biggest part with their divisive messaging. The billionaires just scoop up the leftovers at a 99% discount. The average voter in the US is a stupid, myopic sucker.

[Deep State Witch]

51. Nostalgia is fine, but...

Hitchhiking was great - if you were male. If you were female, well... One of my friends hitchhiked home from a frat party once and was SA'd.

Look, nostalgia for the past and past prices are fine. But there were a lot of things wrong in the 60's and 70's, too. Very few women worked outside the home, unless they were nurses or teachers. My mom had to leave her job when she was pregnant with me - and I think she subconsciously resented me for it. African-Americans had very few rights. Black women couldn't even vote until 1965. Hispanics? Asians? They were also discriminated against. We didn't have the medical breakthroughs that we have today. Back then, cancer was 100% a death sentence. Now, the cancer survival rates are much higher. Cars used leaded gasoline and polluted the environment. Industries polluted without any care for the environment. Where I grew up, in Pittsburgh, a lot of people had respiratory illnesses because of the pollution from the factories. And we didn't all get along. Just ask black people. Integrated schools were within our lifetimes. Ruby Bridges is still alive.

Society is always making progress. A lot of it may not be positive right now, but we're getting better. The other side wants us to go back to a supposed "Golden Age" that never was.
'

[LittleGirl]

52. Yes that too. nt

[Bengus81]

53. Prices and the cost of living skyrocketed after the end of WWII

But unions were strong as they've ever been and kept wages climbing even for those not in a union. My WWII vet dad bought a new home for us in 1959 that was around $19,000,two kids and my mom didn't work. He sold paint and managed a retail store for Sherwin-Williams and then PPG in 1965.

He had a new 1962 Falcon and later company cars. He also had this weird thing called health insurance provided by PPG and a PENSION that along with SS and Medicare let him and my mom a pretty comfortable life all the way to her and then his deaths.

Now......

[betsuni]

54. Sounds like a country music song.