Aggers' philosophical conundrum ....

[TheOstrich]

Taken from the Pakistan masacre thread, I thought this might be worthy of further reflection .....

[quote="KateLM"
The world is becoming "Hell on Earth"}

I sometimes wonder that, Kate.

Then, at times, I wonder whether it is my age that makes me think that.
Have aged people in the past often thought that?

Does the world that we were born into automatically become the norm for
us, so that we automatically resent the changes that have taken place in
our lifetime?

I don't know.

That's an interesting philosophical observation, Aggers, and one I'm inclined to agree with.

I find, increasingly in this day and age, I rant more about what I see around me ....

Is this a better age than the 1950's and 1960's? It's only folk of our generations who can judge that, and whereas there was a lot wrong with the 50's and 60's - poverty, bad environmental conditions, crime, the advent of promiscuity and drugs - the world we live in now is certainly no better. Poverty, promiscuity and drugs are still with us, bad environmental conditions whilst on the face of it "better" with the Clean Air Act and other measures are still with us in other manifestations, and crime has merely morphed into a police state.

I don't think our resentment is misplaced. But should our generations have done better?

[KateLMead]

Considering what we went through in the last war, we knew hunger, poverty, death, destruction and fear ,we cared for each other in our communities..we were alone fighting the enemy until the Americans "decided" to get involved following Pearl Harbourm" and the sacrifices the Russians made fighting alongside of used should never forget.
They talk about poverty today, they don't know the meaning of the word. Most of those we see on TV are generally overweight, single mothers (in their teens)smoking their cigarettes and a good majority have their weekly bingo jaunts.
The country is in a mess and all those who played their part in the last war are now considered an incumberence, costing the successive governments and tax payers too much. The corruption is rife in all areas of society from. Government, police, banks councils and those in high office.. We might have had it really rough in the last war but we survived and could hold up our heads with pride.. More than can said with respect to today's society where it's dog eat dog.

[moondancer]

I don't think very much has really changed apart from the fact that now we hear about absolutely every terrible thing via the media.

[Aggers]

Actually, a lot has changed. Probably the biggest change is the introduction of the computer and the Internet.

News now travels faster than ever, which in itself is not a bad thing. The downside is that it has changed almost every aspect of our lives. Family life has been affected, as there is now less interaction between parents and children, or between children and their peers. People don't interact face to face as much as they used to. This is what is wrong with society today, in my opinion.

As regards what the future holds, here again the universal dependence on computers could have a marked effect on our future.
Should there be another war, as is quite likely, we could be in for some nasty and painful shocks if our computerised systems are hacked. Future survivors of World War III may well curse their forefathers who invented and put their faith in computers.

[Kaz]

I agree with Moonie, the 24/7 news culture makes us feel the world is a far worse place, but actually it probably isn't.

I do think most people become more conservative, with a small cee, as they age, and inclined to feel that things are going to hell in a handcart as the next generations take over, as Aggers remarked - and I think that has probably always been the case.....I feel it in myself lately

[cromwell]

Some things are better, some worse (fence sitter!).

Cars are infinitely better, housing generally better. No more ice on the insides of the windows in winter!

In the early 70's there were still jobs to be had. You could still leave school on a Friday and start work on the Monday. You didn't have to go into debt to go to University. Houses were infinitely more affordable.

The biggest thing for me is that back then there was more give and take. Today our politicians brag about us being "tolerant" but imo society is much less tolerant now. If you work for the state now and say the wrong word, that's your career gone. Tolerant? I don't think so.

Plus, as a country we are just getting too overcrowded. Anybody who thinks differently has probably never tried to get around the country by car! Plus we are now being drawn inexorably into the EU superstate, like it or not, and England will shortly be "regionalised".

On balance if I had a time machine, it would be goodbye 2014 and hello 1972!

[Aggers]

Some things are better, some worse (fence sitter!).

On balance if I had a time machine, it would be goodbye 2014 and hello 1972!

And I'd be quite happy to join you.

[Kaz]

Life was certainly simpler!

Cars are infinitely better, housing generally better. No more ice on the insides of the windows in winter!

In the early 70's there were still jobs to be had. You could still leave school on a Friday and start work on the Monday. You didn't have to go into debt to go to University. Houses were infinitely more affordable.

I would agree with all of those points. I walked out of 6th form and straight into a job, at 17, on a full adult wage! My first house in 1978 (on a joint mortgage with my first husband) cost £19, 950! It was a five bed terraced cottage. I am sure you could times that by at least 20 now to buy the same I suspect my wage from that year you could times by 10, so in effect it would be at least twice as expensive

[TheOstrich]

That's interesting, Kaz. In our case, our first house, also in 1978, cost £12,000 (a 2 bed modern terrace in Birmingham). My salary was £2,000 per year; from memory, we put £2,000 down, so our mortgage/salary ratio was 5:1.

The going rate now (just checked on Zoopla), is around £120,000. Lloyds Bank, for example, currently limits mortgages to "x 4" of salary. So, given a £5,000 deposit, say, you'd have to have a salary pushing £29,000 to be able to get a mortgage of the required amount. I wonder how many young first-time home-buyers earn that much?

[KateLMead]

Some things are better, some worse (fence sitter!).

On balance if I had a time machine, it would be goodbye 2014 and hello 1972!

And I'd be quite happy to join you.

AND ME.