Opinions/Editorials
See other Opinions/Editorials Articles
Title: New York Times: America’s Best Days May Be Behind It
Source:
Breitbart
URL Source: http://www.breitbart.com/big-journa ... as-best-days-may-be-behind-it/
Published: Jan 20, 2016
Author: Breitbart News
Post Date: 2016-01-23 13:39:30 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 993
Comments: 4
Eduardo Porter of the New York Times writes that the United States saw a dramatic increase in its standard of living during the half century before the 1960s but hasn’t in the 50 years since.
From the New York Times:
Take a look back at some of the most popular TV programs of the mid-1960s — “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “Bewitched,” even “The Beverly Hillbillies” — and what do you see?
Like today, middle-class Americans typically had washing machines and air-conditioning, telephones and cars. The Internet and video games were not yet invented. But life, over all, did not look that different.
There were TVs and radios in most homes. Millions of people worked in downtown offices and lived in suburbs, connected by multilane highways. Americans’ average life expectancy at birth was 70, only eight years less than it is today.
But flash back 50 years earlier. Then, less than half the population lived in cities. Though Ford Model T’s were starting to roll off the assembly line, Americans typically moved around on horse-drawn buggies on dirt or cobblestone roads. Refrigerators or TVs? Most homes weren’t even wired for electricity. And average life expectancy was only 53.
Americans like to think they live in an era of rapid and unprecedented change, but this kind of comparison — pitting the momentous changes of the mid-20th century against the seemingly more modest progress of our present era — raises a critical question about the nation’s future prosperity.
What does this portend for our well-being over the next half century? Has technological progress slowed for good?
The idea that America’s best days are behind us sits in sharp tension with the high-tech optimism radiating from the offices of the technology start-ups and venture capital firms of Silicon Valley. But it lies at the heart of the current political unrest. And it is about to elbow its way forcefully into the national conversation.
Read the rest of the story here.(1 image)
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Merle Haggard -- 1983
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul#2. To: cranky (#0)
And gains in education, an important driver of productivity that expanded sharply in the 20th century, will contribute little.
Education is one of the major things that's killing us. People go to college and are educated to be incapable of doing anything, not to want to do anything, and too good to do anything except discuss social problems and politics. They graduate to become the social problems they wail about.
#3. To: rlk (#2)
will contribute little.
The only way they can get a college level job is to move to China or India thanks to the scumbags in Washington DC.
#4. To: rlk (#2)
Exactly. Show me someone that works their way through college and comes out with a degree in engineering, or just goes to become a nurse or welder, I will show you a real man or woman. Show me someone who goes in, takes out loans and comes out with a PhD in quantum basket weaving, with a minor in doobie rolling, I will show you a large percentage of those educated in todays world.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]