Quote:
Originally Posted by Nashe
I kind of agree, but with some qualifications... I think we tend to look at history sometimes with rose tinted glasses... I grew up amongst a widely varied set of families. Some had a lot, some had little. Some had big families, some had small families.
I think what has also changed, giving us maybe the illusion that perhaps our parents (grandparents?) were somehow more altruistic was that they just didn't have the opportunities for self-development that we do today. Example: Could my Acadian grandmother have seen Tokyo or Buenos Aires? Maybe TECHNICALLY, but practically: no. She wasn't just limited by lack of air travel, or money... but just knowledge; something we take for granted today. Could she have six kids and make bread and pie her whole life? Sure. Increasingly varied opportunities are going to create increasingly varied lifestyles. Grammy wasn't having her (9 actually) kids to somehow prop up Canada's birth rate after WWII in a fit of self-sacrifice. She just loved kids and taking care of them and never dreamed of anything else.
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International travel was very expensive until the 1980s. Airfare from Canada to Europe (London or Paris) in 1960 was about $700 return, that's $7,150 in today's dollars. I doubt many would be bombing off to Europe if airfares were that high. Plus there was very limited credit.
People dreamed of travel as much as now but international travel was almost exclusively for those who were affluent or those who had saved for many years (ie, retired). Regular middle class folk took driving trips to the Rockies or California to see Disneyland if you were lucky. Or just to the cottage Working class people went camping at the lake or took regional trips, like Buffalo. It was considered a big deal to go to Montreal for Expo 67, at least in Western Canada.
There were different social expectations too, women were considered old maids if unmarried at 30. It was "odd" if a married couple had no kids. Divorced women were shunned, at least in Canada, I think Americans were always more liberal in that respect. Very few married women worked until the 70s as REAL wages were higher for most blue-collar and many white-collar jobs, so families did quite well on one income. Most people had one car and one TV. There was FAR less inequality. People ate healthier, as in in less processed junk and soda, and anyone even slightly overweight by today's standards would be considered fat. People drank and smoked more, university was a few hundred dollars for a semester so no need to pay for your kid's college, they made enough at their summer job. We have more "stuff" now but I'm not so sure life is better even if there is far more choice and far less judgment.