America peaked in the 50's

[endersblade]

The 50s were great because we didn't have the internet, so instead of whining and bitching incessantly and being fucking offended about everything, people actually dealt with their issues.

[Wikiy]

However we could always install a robot tax and slow technology so people can still have manufacturing jobs. Just like people transferred from arm factories to civilian factories after ww2 we can do the same now.

Trying to "save" jobs in dying industries (or those getting automated/robotized), just so everyone can have one, is misguided. That leads to no progress whatsoever. Sure, a bunch of people may be unemployed, but seeing them unemployed will show those just getting educated that these are bad fields to go in to. They'll choose more intellectual disciplines, and that's a good thing.

[Teraparte]

I think that it's more like that favourite uncle who got a little too fond of the bottle and now you are trying to get him to shape up.

That's actually a funny way of looking at it. I agree with it, LOL.

Edit:

I was in a BG and quickly wrote ^that^ response. But yeah, I agree with you. TBH, I see much of Europe, Asia, and Aus/Canada as much more "civilized" or socially advanced than the USA. Socially, the south holds our nation back. Don't get me wrong, I love the people of my country ...even those damn republicans... like if bomb went off somewhere in the South and killed a lot of them I'd be just as upset as if one went off up here in Washington, DC and killed many people here. Yet on another level I really don't like many of them. We'll catch up to other more progressive nations of the developed world... *whispers* hopefully.

[nomorepriest]

Wow look an American bashing thread. This is new and exciting

[rhorle]

You don't need TV, you don't need cell phones or the internet to have a higher quality of life.

I never said they were a requirement to have a higher quality of life. But they do raise the quality of life. I can't believe you are honestly arguing that a smart cell phone doesn't provide a higher quality of life then a corded rotary phone.

http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-...telephones/17/ is a 1950's phone. And a cell phone doesn't provide a higher quality of life then that? The problem as I see it is you have an agenda and are trying to push that agenda with out saying it outright because you would likely get infracted. Every time you are given concrete proof of a higher quality of life you respond back with basically "Nope not higher cause I say so".

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I think that some Americans were very afraid of nuclear war but the majority just shrugged it off and continued with their lives.

Then you don't know American History very well. Bomb Shelters, Air raid drills, etc were a common thing. Schools even practiced them. While people were not petrified in fear of them it was still a threat that had its place in the era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_and_cover#Background
https://hubpages.com/education/Remem...nd-Early-1960s

There are more but I'm not going to do your homework for you. If you aren't willing to educate yourself on the 1950's then you shouldn't be attempting to make an argument involving them.

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Why shouldn't America be as great as it was in the past? If that past is the 80's, 70's, 60's or the 50's really doesn't matter so why settle for 'America is still greater than those countries we fought'? Why settle for being good when you can be great?

The Irony is that America is still great enough that you are trying to show why it isn't so great anymore. The reasons have changed but so has the world as a whole. The other amusing part is your link to Credit Rating shows that the USA is still a AA+ rated country even though your original post has you stating that you feel it is an A country. So don't try to claim you are using credit ratings as a grade system when you are using personal feels.

[Osmeric]

America peaked in the 50's as an AAAA grade country, dropping down to AAA grade in the 70's and further down to AA in the 90's... I consider now America to be an A grade country with prediction that it will drop down to B grade sometime during the 2030's.

So what are your thoughts? Am I being full of bullshit or do you agree with me?

Having most of the rest of the developed world devastated by world war (and subsequent loss of colonial income) will put one on top, yes.

After that, it would be amazing is the US hadn't fallen back relative to other countries, as they recovered from these handicaps. All the military spending didn't help, of course.

[Independent voter]

This is the S&P 500, the top 500 US companies. I don't know if it includes the DOW which is a list of the biggest companies in the US.

This is from 1950 to present.

[Deletedaccount1]

Technology alone makes living now as an American better than in the 50s. Life expectancy is another major reason. Men back then would commonly die at 65 which is the age most people work until now and it isn't hard to live into your mid to late 80s now if you take reasonable care of yourself.

[Dequanacus]

American made porn that existed in the 50s compared to today

I rest my case

[Amalaric]

I never said they were a requirement to have a higher quality of life. But they do raise the quality of life. I can't believe you are honestly arguing that a smart cell phone doesn't provide a higher quality of life then a corded rotary phone.

http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-...telephones/17/ is a 1950's phone. And a cell phone doesn't provide a higher quality of life then that? The problem as I see it is you have an agenda and are trying to push that agenda with out saying it outright because you would likely get infracted. Every time you are given concrete proof of a higher quality of life you respond back with basically "Nope not higher cause I say so".

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Then you don't know American History very well. Bomb Shelters, Air raid drills, etc were a common thing. Schools even practiced them. While people were not petrified in fear of them it was still a threat that had its place in the era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_and_cover#Background
https://hubpages.com/education/Remem...nd-Early-1960s

There are more but I'm not going to do your homework for you. If you aren't willing to educate yourself on the 1950's then you shouldn't be attempting to make an argument involving them.

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The Irony is that America is still great enough that you are trying to show why it isn't so great anymore. The reasons have changed but so has the world as a whole. The other amusing part is your link to Credit Rating shows that the USA is still a AA+ rated country even though your original post has you stating that you feel it is an A country. So don't try to claim you are using credit ratings as a grade system when you are using personal feels.

China who has lended the most money to America rates the credit rating as A-.

[rhorle]

China who has lended the most money to America rates the credit rating as A-.

Source? And does it matter what another country rates your credit at when other financial institutions rate it at AA+? The financial institutions that a lot of the world relies on for such information. China itself has had a change in credit rating from one of the 3 CRA (credit rating agencies). http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40024503

You seem to keep trying to apply anything you think, hear, or see to put the USA in a negative light. Even when it doesn't match up. First you say it is your personal opinion that they are an A, and now when confronted about it you bring out the information that China rates it even lower as a way to justify your unfounded rating. Why didn't you lead with China's rating for the USA in your original post if it is so low?

You have shown you don't know much about 1950's USA. You have shown that you don't know what quality of life is and think a Cell phone is a lower quality of life then a rotary corded phone. You are using a credit rating to judge a country as a whole (since you've ranged from living in the past not looking to the future, to quality of life, to demographics, to financial health).

You don't know what you are talking about and felt the need to try and be some USA expert. Why kind of financial training do you have to even give a country a credit rating? That you know better then professional CRA that do it for a living?

[Theodarzna]

Trying to "save" jobs in dying industries (or those getting automated/robotized), just so everyone can have one, is misguided. That leads to no progress whatsoever. Sure, a bunch of people may be unemployed, but seeing them unemployed will show those just getting educated that these are bad fields to go in to. They'll choose more intellectual disciplines, and that's a good thing.

Progress is a meaningless thing, progress to what?

[Thage]

i love the style and design of everything back then. those cute dresses and classic hairdos. the cars. all of it was so cool.

today's social situation with the 50's style and class, oh yes. i want that.

I get the feeling a lot of the 50s fetishists just really dig racism, or they really dig the Americana aesthetic (which is totally fair, because it's a very distinctive aesthetic). But the fact remains that the 1950s were the peak only for upper-middle and upper-class whites, and it was just as grim for everyone else--minorities, homosexuals, and the poor--as today if not substantially worse.

[zebreck]

OP arguing, via the internet, that the world was better before the invention of the transistor.

[Wikiy]

Progress is a meaningless thing

Progress is a meaningless thing? Is this the same policy you have in your own life? You stagnate on everything? Nothing drives you forward?

,progress to what?

A higher state of knowledge, development, happiness, you name it.

What you're saying is absolutely absurd. You're claiming we shouldn't be aiming to improve these things? Should people in poor countries - so poor that they don't have basic necessities like food, water, shelter - also just give up and accept their fates? You are aware that if everyone did that, we'd literally still be living in caves?

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OP arguing, via the internet, that the world was better before the invention of the transistor.

90% of society are useless fucks who use the internet for nothing but to jerk off and play video games. It's no wonder they don't value the internet for the good reasons (or at all). The remaining 10%, the ones who actually drive this world forward, use the internet the way it was originally used (by physicists) - to share knowledge, which is then used by others in the same 10% as a foundation for their own projects.

[derpkitteh]

I get the feeling a lot of the 50s fetishists just really dig racism, or they really dig the Americana aesthetic (which is totally fair, because it's a very distinctive aesthetic). But the fact remains that the 1950s were the peak only for upper-middle and upper-class whites, and it was just as grim for everyone else--minorities, homosexuals, and the poor--as today if not substantially worse.

well, i've played like 1,500 hours worth of fallout in my life, and it had an effect.

i want a fallout style america(without the hideously evil government). race and sexuality doesn't seem to matter in fallout.

[rhorle]

90% of society are useless fucks who use the internet for nothing but to jerk off and play video games. It's no wonder they don't value the internet for the good reasons (or at all). The remaining 10%, the ones who actually drive this world forward, use the internet the way it was originally used (by physicists) - to share knowledge, which is then used by others in the same 10% as a foundation for their own projects.

You forget the 82% of idiots who make up statistics to make their argument sound more important.

[Draco-Onis]

Technology alone makes living now as an American better than in the 50s. Life expectancy is another major reason. Men back then would commonly die at 65 which is the age most people work until now and it isn't hard to live into your mid to late 80s now if you take reasonable care of yourself.

Technological advances are not the same thing as income mobility, standard of living etc. If you are going by technological advances then the future will always be better than the past in all situations and that is definitely not the case.

[Wikiy]

You forget the 82% of idiots who make up statistics to make their argument sound more important.

You missed 100% of the format of my post, which is obviously an opinion, and not an argument.

By the way, why would I even try to argue a point to the general populace if a part of it claims that most people are useless when it comes to the progress of society? The argument itself would be offensive and would thus fail at convincing those people.

[Theodarzna]

Progress is a meaningless thing? Is this the same policy you have in your own life? You stagnate on everything? Nothing drives you forward?

A higher state of knowledge, development, happiness, you name it.

What you're saying is absolutely absurd. You're claiming we shouldn't be aiming to improve these things? Should people in poor countries - so poor that they don't have basic necessities like food, water, shelter - also just give up and accept their fates? You are aware that if everyone did that, we'd literally still be living in caves?

Change happens, but progress is applying a very subjective evaluation.

All of it is ultimately subjective.