this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2026
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Still easier than people born 100 years ago.
You're not wrong, but it was easier for people born 60 years ago
Nah. If you were born in 1966, by the time you turned 30 you lived through Vietnam, the AIDS epidemic, the civil rights movement, Desert Storm, and you spent your entire life with nuclear apocalypse hanging over you in the form of the cold war. And the US economy wasn't doing great either until the 90s.
But in America, you could afford groceries most of that time.
No, they couldn't afford groceries then either. Goodness. Like do people forget the oil crisis in the 70's? Wonder why so many receipes came out about Jello and microwaves?
In fairness, microwaves went mainstream in the 1980s. Most people didn't have them in the ten years prior.
There's a joke in the movie "American Hustle", taking place in 1978, about the lead character getting a $3,000 "Science Oven" as a bribe.
Aids and nuclear war I agree but for someone born in 1966, they would be too young to be personally affected by Vietnam and the oil shocks of the 70s and by the time the Cold War ended and the 90s came about they'd be earning well . The Simpsons broadcast in 1989 and Homer was a blue collar worker who owned a house on one income with a stay-at-home wife and three kids. That was possible at the time.
If you were born in 66, you were 8 when Vietnam ended. The civil rights movement was pretty much done by 74 as well. You might have fought in Desert Storm, but that was so small and quick the odds of you being there are pretty small. The AIDS epidemic was bad, but if you didn't live in a major city you likely wouldn't have known anyone with AIDS. The Cold War pretty was winding down by the time you were born and the threat of nuclear apocalypse was mostly bit really worth worrying about by the 80s.
*If you were white and American
True -- but it is seemingly less so today for white americans (an exeedingly large demographic) to be able to afford basic lifestyles.
It does suggest a major shift in affordability if your main christian white majority can't buy groceries
Shhh, chronically online white youth don't want to talk about that. Hell if you were a woman you couldn't even have a bank account on your own until 1974.
That’s not actually true though. The banks were not required to allow women to open bank accounts but plenty did anyway.
So if the bank manager of your town felt slighted that you didn't go with him to prom he could deny you a next step in life? Yeah. That's not so bad.
Edit: I'm not saying you are wrong.
Oh for sure, it’s not a sensible way to run things.
There’s advantages and disadvantages of allowing local/personal discretion.
Was it? Measles and AIDS. Vietnam and Stagflation and Segregation. Nixon and leaded gasoline and crack cocaine. The height of the Cold War. The forty-year run of de-industrialization. Some of the darkest days of the Civil Rights Movement.
It only seems easy because you didn't have to live through it.
Unfortunately that isn't even true either.