Were we better off 40 years ago?

[seagullsovergrimsby]

The fish and chips fried up in a Grimsby/Cleethorpes chippy are saturated in beef dripping to lower life expectancy. Local GP's when assessing a patients BMI also estimate the percentage of body fat which is actually lard.

 

[Seagull kimchi]

The fish and chips fried up in a Grimsby/Cleethorpes chippy are saturated in beef dripping to lower life expectancy. Local GP's when assessing a patients BMI also estimate the percentage of body fat which is actually lard.

Well blow me! I knew there was a reason I turned veggie in the 90ies. Chips cooked in lard gravy......yikes

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

People under 30 would not even begin to contemplate just what it was to live life back then-are we better of now?
yes
Are we happy now?
i am & after this life degree when i get my results upon my death i might just come back again for another go.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

People are - in more of a hurry.

Good call. This I find quite depressing. The two biggest offenders, the groups who seem most impatient, are car drivers and rail commuters.

 

[cannedheat]

Did we have the arseoleinjecteddeathsentance 40 years ago.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

arseoleinjecteddeathsentance.

Would this be injecting you with some deadly substance?

 

[Goldstone-Ghost]

I remember as kid my typical Saturday was playing footie in the morning (if I hadn't gone to the cinema to watch Tom & Jerry cartoons, or a Western) Heinz Tomato soup (identical taste to now) for lunch, with 4 slices of white bread (thick cut) and then settling down to watch Grandstand - horse racing, ice skating, scrambling (remember Vic Eastwood and John Banks), gymnastics, table tennis and of course wrestling - Jackie Pallo and Mick McManus!

I truely couldn't have been happier. Expectations were so much lower back then. Being told off for tearing the net curtains because they'd stuck to the ice on the inside of my bedroom window...it was another world, and I loved it!

 

[Beach Hut]

There is more choice and technology moves a frightening rate.

I think we are far better off now but the culture has changed and everyone wants everything now as opposed to saving which has brought on this terrible recession.

 

[shingle]

On his anti-immigrant rant Goldstone says "Surely most people on here who are old enough to remember will agree that Britain was a much nicer place to live 40 years ago ..."

Is that true? While there are definitely things I miss about the UK in 1971 (local shops, proper cinemas, a 17-team County Championship, reasonably priced football and a competitive Div 1 etc) the good far outweighs the bad.

Just off the top of my head then, 10 ways in which life has improved.

The Internet/web - no more waiting until Sunday to find out the score if you missed Grandstand
Health - we live longer
Smoking - I remember the horror of top floors on buses, cinemas and public places generally. We breathe much better air
Music - I can listen to music from all over the world just by pressing a computer key. Music over 40 years was totally crap
Sundays - they were like hell: nothing open. When I became old enough to drink, that 5-hour gap between lunch and evening was murder
Food - Small selection of vegetables and fruit. Garlic was seen as exotic. Restaurants were generally poor. Nothing like the range and quality we have now
Racism - There will always be hard-core racists but the casual racism has all but disappeared.
Homophobia - Ditto.
Education - Kids leave schools far better educated. In 1971, 80% of kids went to secondary moderns and were treated like second-class citizens, large numbers left with no qualifications. Illiteracy levels were higher than than they are today
Cheap flights - Apart from package holidays, only the rich went abroad. Millions of us have travelled to other parts of the world

I'm sure there other things to mention but the general impression is that things have got a lot better over the last 40 years. Anyone but Goldstone disagree?

Agree with most of the above except the underlined bit, to which I ask... SO MOTOWN, KINKS, MOODY BLUES, ROLLING STONES, BEATLES etc WERE CRAP.

 

[Screaming J]

Don't you remember the 1971 postal strike? It lasted for SEVEN WEEKS. And there were no alternatives available for many people - most households didn't have a phone.

Funnily enough; no - and I'm well old enough. So presumably we got through it without much fuss. Unlike the three day week and the power cuts - in contrast I remember them vividly.

 

[simonsimon]

Forty years ago we had Edward Heath as Prime Minister, now we have Dave Cocaine Cameron.

Historically both of them will be seen as dim witted IRISH BRIGANDS whose time had passed well before they were finally rejected at the POLLS.

 

[Beach Hut]

Yes we should all promote Derek Hatton to save our sins

 

[Seagull on the wing]

I don't know where you live but I still get milk delivered to my doorsteps in the morning. hardly any of my food is wrapped in plastic, I can make an appointment for a doctor for later in the day and I can get coffee ice cream - I had some last summer.

But, yes, some things were better, I said that at the start but over all, we're much better off.

Wow!Utopia...you can get coffee ice cream,wish I could have tried for ages,can get lots of unusual ones...but not Coffee...have'nt seen a milkman for about two years.Even an emergency visit to the docs at 9 in the morning I was told I could'nt see him till 7pm that night....another postcode lottery methinks...good luck fella.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Agree with most of the above except the underlined bit, to which I ask... SO MOTOWN, KINKS, MOODY BLUES, ROLLING STONES, BEATLES etc WERE CRAP.

I thought this was a strange comment to make as well. Discounting anything by Dylan, Joplin, Hendrix, The Who, Eric Clapton (although he came into his heyday post 1971) and any rock & roll.

 

[RexCathedra]

I'll ask the question I ask my debaters and mock-triallers when they're preparing their cross-examinations.

Lovely question. Presuming you get an answer, what are you then going to do with it?

(Because if you don't know, you don't ask the question.)

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Wow!Utopia...you can get coffee ice cream,wish I could have tried for ages,can get lots of unusual ones...but not Coffee...have'nt seen a milkman for about two years.Even an emergency visit to the docs at 9 in the morning I was told I could'nt see him till 7pm that night....another postcode lottery methinks...good luck fella.

You can get coffee ice cream at the end of my road in Hove.

 

[Seagull on the wing]

Looked at this thread and saw 55 replies and last poster Herr Tubthumper...for a second it looked SS Herr Thubthumper...thought Hello,Hello....thanks for info on Coffee ice cream sure I will find it over Eastbourne way somewhere

 

[bhaexpress]

Did we have the arseoleinjecteddeathsentance 40 years ago.

Yes but we didn't know what it was then.

 

[bhaexpress]

Wow!Utopia...you can get coffee ice cream,wish I could have tried for ages,can get lots of unusual ones...but not Coffee...have'nt seen a milkman for about two years.Even an emergency visit to the docs at 9 in the morning I was told I could'nt see him till 7pm that night....another postcode lottery methinks...good luck fella.

Oddly enough I saw some a few days ago. You can buy it in Waitrose but you can buy Carte D'Or's Lavazza Latte Macchiatto at most supermarkets. Unlike forty years ago they are open seven days a week and quite often overnight. There are milk deliveries but most people find it cheaper from a store. It's also cheaper if you order your groceries online, something else you couldn't do forty years ago.

I can't say I find driving any better or worse than forty years ago although the roads are now safer with traffic management (sleeping policeman and speed cameras). Also, fewer people crawling around trying to find their destination thanks to Sat Nav (which tells you the location of Speed Cameras). Vehicles are a hell of a lot safer and unlike forty years ago seat belts are now compulsory. Are people in more of a hurry these days ? It's a moot point but things move much faster for a number of reasons, computerisation and improved methods of transport are a couple of them. We have better medication (queuing for a doctor's appointment is not new but thankfully we don't seem to have busybody medical secretaries nowadays). We have a lot less homophobia, racism (I don't miss you Bernard Manning) and yes we still have crime but we have far better ways of detecting it, DNA wasn't used for detection then and we didn't have Automatic Number Plate Recognition which is now doing a find job of getting uninsured, untaxed and unsafe (no MOT) off the roads.

It's called progress, if we kept harping back to times gone by we'd still be enjoying Ricketts, Smog, Palace being a top League side.

 

[Tony Towner's Fridge]

40 Years ago had its good points.....Milk delivered to door. A reliable postal servive. Roads less congested.You could ring someone up and get answered by a human instead of "Press2"...you now have four options...end up speaking to someone in India.You could tell jokes without someone taking umbrage. Much less political correctness. Petrol and football were cheap.There were plenty of jobs.Nurses were far more caring and did'nt have to reach targets,they were there to care for the patient and did so. There were far fewer faceless unelected committees giving out diktats..."You can'trt do this...can't do that. You could make an appointment with your GP and see him that day instead of next week sometime. Most food was homegrown and fresh,not wrapped up in plastic for a couple of days.Shopkeepers were more attentive, "Can I help you sir!" instead of the usual grunt. Yes there are better things about todays living,as mentioned dentistry.surgical and medical advances,computers and television,cars (dont' have to change the oil after 1000 miles).World communications like Skype there's others as well,there is good and bad points for both,all in all,we have to accept life as it is and try and move on.

Bring back Coffee ice cream!

Interesting counter list but having seen the two sides I tend to go with Gwylan on this one.


TNBA

TTF