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1985 vs 2015

Was America better off in 1985, or are we better off today in 2015?

  • 1985 was better overall

    Votes: 25 50.0%

  • 2015 is better overall

    Votes: 25 50.0%
  • Total voters
    50
If I had to choose I would say 2015. My pick is based on emotion. In 1985 I was goofing off with friends and having a great time, but I had just started dating my future wife and my daughter obviously wasn't born yet. Based off of those two things I pick 2015 because I wouldn't give up those two things for anything.

Additionally, the mistakes I made along the way made me who I am today. That said I have to say I turned out better than I thought and better than others thought I would.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Pretty simple question for discussion: Is the United States better off today, or were we better off 30 years ago in 1985?

There are a number of angles you can approach this from, and I'll leave it up to you to decide what's important to you.

Culturally? Geo-politically? Economically? In which era were people more optimistic about the future?

Which era was a better time to be an American?
Click to expand...

For me the biggest difference is the sense of opportunity I felt in the 80's. Maybe it was just my youth but at that point there was no sense that we couldn't or shouldn't overcome any adversity that was thrown at us. I think the Challenger incident happened right around then and while it was devastating for everyone there was STILL a sense that we'd get past it and make sure that the lives of the astronauts wouldn't have been lost in vain. There was a real sense that we would lead the world to freedom and prosperity. Hell, after years of pushing small, weenie cars on the public Chevrolet put out a Monte Carlo that actually made us believe that muscle cars were going to make a comeback.
 
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Peter Grimm said:
Pretty simple question for discussion: Is the United States better off today, or were we better off 30 years ago in 1985?

There are a number of angles you can approach this from, and I'll leave it up to you to decide what's important to you.

Culturally? Geo-politically? Economically? In which era were people more optimistic about the future?

Which era was a better time to be an American?
Click to expand...

Personally, as an old man, I'd say things are always better if you're progressing and improving. I'd say there's much in 2015 that is incredibly beneficial to life as we know it, even if a lot of "new" things drive me crazy. Medicine is vastly improved, but communications technology irritates me greatly. The internet is why we're here, but a lot of it is sick and depraved. Cars are better made, but the technology is a repair pain. You take the good with the bad.
 
tres borrachos said:
Not in the United States is poverty down. In 1985 it was 14%. In 2013 it was 14.5%.
Click to expand...

Not worldwide. Which is what really matters.

Also, music in the 80's better? :lamo
 
Lutherf said:
For me the biggest difference is the sense of opportunity I felt in the 80's. Maybe it was just my youth but at that point there was no sense that we couldn't or shouldn't overcome any adversity that was thrown at us. I think the Challenger incident happened right around then and while it was devastating for everyone there was STILL a sense that we'd get past it and make sure that the lives of the astronauts wouldn't have been lost in vain. There was a real sense that we would lead the world to freedom and prosperity. Hell, after years of pushing small, weenie cars on the public Chevrolet put out a Monte Carlo that actually made us believe that muscle cars were going to make a comeback.
Click to expand...

I'd forgotten about the Challenger accident - that's a good point. Seems like that was when America stopped thinking big, national things and the end of the space program as we'd known it up to then began. You only get that kind of national enthusiasm around Olympics time now.
 
I think the Nation has gone downhill since Bush 1 was allowed to pardon most of his sitting cabinet members.
That was a tough pill because I knew all about Iran/Contra and much more. Then came the Patriot Act to screw
up anything that wasn't already screwed up and put the gov't up your bunghole. Now the biggest and crookedest
Banks run the Nation and Corporations are allowed to buy politicians legally. Since Vietnam, I have hated the
"war is good business" mentality that runs this Nation, 1985 and now, and that has gotten exponentially worse.
 
2015 and on are the better years. Times are getting better.

I honestly believe the only Americans who will claim anytime prior as being the Best time to live are most likely Caucasian. And well why wouldn't it be - when the further you go back the more things are stacked in their favor.
 
All in one's perspective.

I loved the 80's. Sometimes I miss it. I was in my 20's living life. I had a great time.

2015? My daughter has been out of the house for a year and loves her life, even if she is has much less than living at home. I think she'll look back and find this time in her life just as awesome as I did my 20's. My sons will look back on the late part of the last decade as their fun in the sun.
 
CanadaJohn said:
I'd forgotten about the Challenger accident - that's a good point. Seems like that was when America stopped thinking big, national things and the end of the space program as we'd known it up to then began. You only get that kind of national enthusiasm around Olympics time now.
Click to expand...

The Challenger was January of 1986. I remember the day it happened - my mother was watching it at her house and saw it happen, and called me at work. It was so sad, but it became a rallying thing for Americans.

Why do I get the idea that if that happened in January of 2016, it would be a partisan finger pointing fest? "Republicans are determined to do universe building and see what happens!" "Obama wanted to kill a teacher!" "The Koch Brothers own a company that supplies to the suppliers of the suppliers of the manufacturers of the O-Rings!"
 
Zinthaniel said:
2015 and on are the better years. Times are getting better.

I honestly believe the only Americans who will claim anytime prior as being the Best time to live are most likely Caucasian. And well why wouldn't it be - when the further you go back the more things are stacked in their favor.
Click to expand...

Well, Caucasians are entitled to opinions just as you are.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Well, Caucasians are entitled to opinions just as you are.
Click to expand...

At no point ever, in this thread or this forum, did ever say they weren't.

I'm entitled to add perspective to your thread. It is public and it is my opinion.
 
Zinthaniel said:
At no point ever, in this thread or this forum, did ever say they weren't.

I'm entitled to add perspective to your thread. It is public and it is my opinion.
Click to expand...

You dismissed their opinion because "things were stacked in their favor."
 
tres borrachos said:
...

Kids knew how to spell because we didn't have spell check....
Click to expand...

I'm about your same age, but I'm speeling chalanged and also handwriting challenged. I remember being in grade school just wishing that there was something that I could just talk or think into, and my thoughts would somehow be transferred to paper.

Since I can type much faster and more legibly than I can hand-write, I'm thrilled to be able to communicate on a keyboard. It's a huge improvement, but probably more so for me, than for most people. If I had been a college student in 2015 instead of 1985, I would have made much better grades.

I'm not particularly fond of having this little tracking device in my pocket all the time though. Sometimes, I would prefer to simply be out of touch with others. I got a call from my alarm system company last summer, my alarm had been activated, and I was thinking "what the heck am I supposed to do about it" - I was on vacation, 800 miles away, in a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. Fortunately, it turned out it was my pet sitter who forgot to deactivate the alarm.
 
Peter Grimm said:
You dismissed their opinion because "things were stacked in their favor."
Click to expand...

Well things were stacked in the favor of the majority race. That's factual. But me noting that was not a dismissal of anybody's opinion. I'm still not seeing how you came to that concluison.
 
tres borrachos said:
The OP asked if America was better off in 1985, not the world.
Click to expand...

Limiting OP, you need to look at the world, IMO.

But still, we are much better off today in America then we were in '85.
 
imagep said:
I'm about your same age, but I'm speeling chalanged and also handwriting challenged. I remember being in grade school just wishing that there was something that I could just talk or think into, and my thoughts would somehow be transferred to paper.

Since I can type much faster and more legibly than I can hand-write, I'm thrilled to be able to communicate on a keyboard. It's a huge improvement, but probably more so for me, than for most people. If I had been a college student in 2015 instead of 1985, I would have made much better grades.

I'm not particularly fond of having this little tracking device in my pocket all the time though. Sometimes, I would prefer to simply be out of touch with others. I got a call from my alarm system company last summer, my alarm had been activated, and I was thinking "what the heck am I supposed to do about it" - I was on vacation, 800 miles away, in a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. Fortunately, it turned out it was my pet sitter who forgot to deactivate the alarm.
Click to expand...

My cousin (50) has dyslexia. He always says that computers are a Godsend to him.

Last week I was in the kitchen rooting through the pantries and fridge to make a shopping list. I was calling out things to my 15 year old to write down. Kid gets straight 8s in school. You should have seen the list. Not only illegible, but I felt like he had just finished Hooked on Phonics as a 2nd grader.
 
tres borrachos said:
Kids knew how to spell because we didn't have spell check. We all read. We knew how to actually talk because we didn't text all day long. We played outdoors instead of sitting on Xbox.
Click to expand...

As a teacher I see very little evidence of this being accurate....
 
Zinthaniel said:
Well things were stacked in the favor of the majority race. That's factual. But me noting that was not a dismissal of anybody's opinion. I'm still not seeing how you came to that concluison.
Click to expand...

That's what it sounded like to me, but if you're saying you aren't dismissing anybody's opinion, then you aren't.

Anyway, what was stacked in favor of Caucasians in 1985?
 
Your Star said:
Limiting OP, you need to look at the world, IMO.

But still, we are much better off today in America then we were in '85.
Click to expand...

Start your own thread, then.

I wanted to limit the discussion to the United States, because the particular point that the United States' relative position in the world has changed since 1985 is interesting to me.
 
tres borrachos said:
The Challenger was January of 1986. I remember the day it happened - my mother was watching it at her house and saw it happen, and called me at work. It was so sad, but it became a rallying thing for Americans.

Why do I get the idea that if that happened in January of 2016, it would be a partisan finger pointing fest? "Republicans are determined to do universe building and see what happens!" "Obama wanted to kill a teacher!" "The Koch Brothers own a company that supplies to the suppliers of the suppliers of the manufacturers of the O-Rings!"
Click to expand...

I have two memories like that - I was at home, after school, watching TV when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was 7. The second was being at the office and watching the 9/11 attacks and feeling very uneasy, watching the second plane go into the second tower, watching people jump and not realizing it right away and then being sick thinking about it - it was a scary day.
 
Bodhisattva said:
As a teacher I see very little evidence of this being accurate....
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't have access to a time machine to send you back to 1985 to compare.

We didn't have smart phones and Xbox in 1985. We didn't have spell check either. I had to type my senior college honors thesis on an IBM Selectric 2 typewriter. It wasn't checking my words usage or my spelling.
 
Peter Grimm said:
That's what it sounded like to me, but if you're saying you aren't dismissing anybody's opinion, then you aren't.

Anyway, what was stacked in favor of Caucasians in 1985?
Click to expand...

Well not just Caucasians. We can throw gay rights in as well.

However, even today, minorities get a lot of flack for being here. For living in impoverished areas and acting like impoverished people do. Black and Hispanics are still overwhelming incarcerated and profiled. However in this day and age cops can't get away with it as easily as they could in 1985.


Also the black rights movement was only a little over twenty years ago at 1985. So the racial animosity was still pretty fresh.
 
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