When was the best time to be living in America?

Now that we are coming out of the pandemic and when the economy goes on another upswing.

Boomers always acting like society peaked for everyone because they personally had a good time in 1977 or something. Lame.

That I’m gonna go with Comiskey Park on July 12, 1979.

Based on shoe technology, probably around 2002.

There were some drawbacks, like everyone smoking, but watching Mad Men made me think that era was pretty awesome. Less PC and lots of fun.

Yeah, the early 40's when my grandparents had 5 sons fighting in WWII.

The 50's if you were a white middle/upper class male with no morals, ethics or knowledge of how horrible it was outside of your cocoon of existence.

Then you could work your butt off, retire at 62 and die sitting in your rocking chair at 70.

Give me 10 cent beer night instead. I would have loved to have been in my 20s in the 70s or 80s.

en.wikipedia.org

Ten Cent Beer Night

Ten Cent Beer Night was a promotion held by Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians during a game against the Texas Rangers at Cleveland Stadium on Tuesday, June 4, 1974. The idea behind the promotion was to attract more fa...

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Commercial air travel was not "available to the masses" in practical terms. Only the wealthy were flying in those days or those flying only for business and even then companies were tight with it.

If white and middle/ upper middle class, then 1890 to 1910 would have been interesting. I'm thinking Thornton Wilder's "Our Town."

I've reflected on this since the early posts and now it's hard not to conclude that there has been no "best" time in America. From before we became a country the founders were utterly steeped in industrialized slavery and desired completely unfettered capitalism. The whole thing is tainted from the outset, something most Americans have been trained to gloss over.

So, we can claim triumphs, including helping the allies win The Great War and WWII. We projected the bulk of power that blunted the Soviets thereafter. However, we also supported many dictators and overthrew elected leaders in multiple countries. Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan proved disastrous. The citizenry has never fully equalized power with capitalist oligarchs, nor modernized our political systems, such that in 2022 we are the only industrialized western country without universal healthcare and our social safety net is the most meager in the western world. We've also never even begun to come to terms with slavery or quelled the traitorous southern (and now midwestern) states.

I think the best thing we can say about the US is that it has proven to be a dynamic place, a country of extremes. Extreme progress coupled with abject poverty. Extreme systemic racism targeting freedmen and their descendants, while proving extremely good at absorbing white people from around the world. Extreme income disparities. Large landmass that features multiple climates and geographies. Diversity driven by waves of mass immigration. The US has always been a country of "I'll get mine and you can go f-ck yourself." Now, if you actually get yours the US can be a land of dreams come true. Otherwise, it is a place and culture that will be happy to watch you drop dead in a ditch.

easy. A woman born before 1930.

don't have to serve in the military, so the men went and died overseas and you could stay home and party with GIs about to leave (and with ones returning).

don't have to work once married (men were expected to be sole providers). no annoying bosses, no stupid emails to respond to, no powerpoints to make, etc

hadn't yet been brainwashed by third wave feminists that taught them raising kids and staying home was not noble or a worthy goal of a woman. thus, had several beautiful children that they raised directly in their own home developing a lifelong strong mother child bond (vs having the kids spend 10 hours a day in daycare).

If i could be reborn, I'd be born as a woman in 1920.

And those born in 1944 were eligible for the 1969 draft.

en.m.wikipedia.org

Draft lottery (1969)

On December 1, 1969, the Selective Service System of the United States conducted two lotteries to determine the order of call to military service in the Vietnam War in the year 1970, for men born from January 1, 1944 to Decem...

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November 8, 2016

How many of you have actually lived thru any of the periods you’ve opined about?

right now