• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

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
CanadaJohn said:
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.
Click to expand...

My parents always said they would never forget where they were when Kennedy was shot. I know I'll never forget where I was on 9/11. I was on a conference call with my boss and a prospective customer. I even remember who that prospect was. The people who worked for me were running around outside of my office. I was pissed because they knew it was an important call. When I was finished I whipped open my door and they were crying.
 
Zinthaniel said:
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 in 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.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wasn't really around then so I can't say, but I can't think of any major sweeping legislation or anything that has occurred since 1985 that has really done anything to change race relations or make minorities any better/worse off relatively speaking.

All the problems minorities have today, they had back in 1985 too. I can't think of any that they had in '85 that you could say are solved today.

I guess you could say that there are more minorities today, so there is strength in numbers. Certainly, you see it in cultural areas - look at TV from the 80's and everyone was white except the Cosby family. Today, everyone is a minority except Miley Cyrus.
 
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...

Either we have redefined poverty, or trickle down hasn't worked too well. I suspect a little of both.

But a couple of things that has always stood out to me are our cars and homes.

During the '70's most every little town had at least one terribly run down and impoverished section, with houses that were wrapped with what his basically "roll roofing" with a brick or stone design on it. Few of those houses had central HVAC, most were so rotted that they literally had holes in the sides of the house and buckets inside to catch rainwater from the leaks in the roof. We still have run down areas today, but the housing is generally much better.

Same with cars. In the '70's it seems like about half the cars on the road were junkers with rust holes in the body and poring black smoke from the tailpipe. Now, most cars are fairly nice, and I rarely see rust holes or black fumes.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Yeah, I wasn't really around then so I can't say, but I can't think of any major sweeping legislation or anything that has occurred since 1985 that has really done anything to change race relations or make minorities any better/worse off relatively speaking.



I guess you could say that there are more minorities today, so there is strength in numbers. Certainly, you see it in cultural areas - look at TV from the 80's and everyone was white except the Cosby family. Today, everyone is a minority except Miley Cyrus.
Click to expand...

I wasn't speaking in terms of legislation. but in terms of a minorities living in a country comprised of a majority race who rather recently resented any race other than that of the majority. As time has pushed forward the relations with whites existing with minorities has improved greatly. So, for instance, being black today is easier than being black back then.

All the problems minorities have today, they had back in 1985 too. I can't think of any that they had in '85 that you could say are solved today.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say anything is solved, it's just improved. Again more so in regards to racial relations - not legislation.
 
tres borrachos said:
My parents always said they would never forget where they were when Kennedy was shot. I know I'll never forget where I was on 9/11. I was on a conference call with my boss and a prospective customer. I even remember who that prospect was. The people who worked for me were running around outside of my office. I was pissed because they knew it was an important call. When I was finished I whipped open my door and they were crying.
Click to expand...

I remember picking up my kid from school, and him asking "did something bad happen today?" He was in elementary school, and the school decided not to tell the students, but somehow he knew that things weren't OK.

I pretty much sat at work all day watching the news on the internet, I don't think I accomplished a thing.
 
imagep said:
I remember picking up my kid from school, and him asking "did something bad happen today?" He was in elementary school, and the school decided not to tell the students, but somehow he knew that things weren't OK.

I pretty much sat at work all day watching the news on the internet, I don't think I accomplished a thing.
Click to expand...

My kids' school didn't tell them either. My middle one was in preschool and my eldest was in Kindergarten. The schools felt it was best for the parents to say what happened but my kindergartner told me his teacher came back from lunch and her eyes were red. The youngest had just come out of the hospital and he was home with my husband.

Yup, for me, nothing happened the rest of the day.
 
Can't wait until my husband gets home. I want to ask him this same question - although I know what his answer will be. Same as mine. 1985 baby!

Fun thread Grimm, thanks for the walk down memory lane.
 
tres borrachos said:
My kids' school didn't tell them either. My middle one was in preschool and my eldest was in Kindergarten. The schools felt it was best for the parents to say what happened but my kindergartner told me his teacher came back from lunch and her eyes were red. The youngest had just come out of the hospital and he was home with my husband.

Yup, for me, nothing happened the rest of the day.
Click to expand...

I was in 5th grade when that happened. They didn't tell us either; they just sent us home with a note that the PTA meeting was cancelled that night due to the day's events. When we asked questions about what happened they didn't tell us anything except that our parents would know what happened. Then of course, some kids asked what if their parents didn't know and the teacher just said they would.

I'm kind of glad I was so young. I didn't really understand what was happening, but I did have a small bit of fear; though, that was quelled pretty quickly. I didn't get a realization of the horrific nature of what happened that day until a few years ago. It must have been completely terrifying at the time.
 
tres borrachos said:
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.
Click to expand...

I was in high school in '85. My point was that kids spell just fine... they read books A LOT... they don't waste their days texting... we played video games then just as they do now... the same few that were "losers" or those who couldn't spell back them would be the same percentage now.
 
Some things are better and some things are worse.
 
Your Star said:
I was in 5th grade when that happened. They didn't tell us either; they just sent us home with a note that the PTA meeting was cancelled that night due to the day's events. When we asked questions about what happened they didn't tell us anything except that our parents would know what happened. Then of course, some kids asked what if their parents didn't know and the teacher just said they would.

I'm kind of glad I was so young. I didn't really understand what was happening, but I did have a small bit of fear; though, that was quelled pretty quickly. I didn't get a realization of the horrific nature of what happened that day until a few years ago. It must have been completely terrifying at the time.
Click to expand...

That sounds like the teacher did a good job of not setting off the alarm with the kids. I often think it would have been better if I was so young that I didn't understand what was happening as it was happening. It was horrific to see. I grew up in NJ, not far and due west from lower Manhattan. I remember when they began to build the Towers, and seeing them rise from my bedroom window. It was like watching part of my childhood fall.

My kids were too young to understand even when we told the oldest two. I think in retrospect that was probably better.
 
tres borrachos said:
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.
Click to expand...

Computers are a definite benefit!!!

In 1985 I had to type the daily blotter on a selectric. It was great that it had the autocorrect backspace thingy but it didn't do me a lick of good since I was typing on 4 part carbon copies! Somewhere in the rain forest there is a whole bunch of trees thanking their lucky stars that I don't have to type any more.:lol:
 
Bodhisattva said:
I was in high school in '85. My point was that kids spell just fine... they read books A LOT... they don't waste their days texting... we played video games then just as they do now... the same few that were "losers" or those who couldn't spell back them would be the same percentage now.
Click to expand...

That's good. You must be around perfect kids.

You must have lived in an interesting place in 1985 considering most houses didn't have home consoles then, and Atari and Sega weren't available in North America until after 1986.
 
tres borrachos said:
My parents always said they would never forget where they were when Kennedy was shot. I know I'll never forget where I was on 9/11. I was on a conference call with my boss and a prospective customer. I even remember who that prospect was. The people who worked for me were running around outside of my office. I was pissed because they knew it was an important call. When I was finished I whipped open my door and they were crying.
Click to expand...

My late husband and I were shopping for groceries, and we couldn't figure out why no one was at the registers. The Store Manager made the announcement over the PA system that jet-liners had crashed into buildings in NYC, and people were running for their lives. We put the groceries back, and immediately left for home, where we spent the rest of the day, and many days after that, glued to the TV! Horrible memory! :shock:
 
Lutherf said:
Computers are a definite benefit!!!

In 1985 I had to type the daily blotter on a selectric. It was great that it had the autocorrect backspace thingy but it didn't do me a lick of good since I was typing on 4 part carbon copies! Somewhere in the rain forest there is a whole bunch of trees thanking their lucky stars that I don't have to type any more.:lol:
Click to expand...

My honors thesis was on Geoffrey Chaucer. It took me months to research and write it (draft on paper), then I finally had to sit down and start typing it. I couldn't afford the $1 per page that the college secretaries charged, and I didn't want to deplete the remainder of my social money, so I did it myself. While proofreading it I realized I missed a whole damn paragraph on something like page 26 (of 100 plus pages) and I had to go back and retype everything after that. It was a lesson too - I was typing too fast and not being careful about my work. I didn't make that same mistake on another important project for many years. It wasn't until I got access to my first slave computer at work that I wasn't so careful anymore.

I still have that IBM Selectric 2 in my basement. Old dinosaur.
 
tres borrachos said:
My kids' school didn't tell them either. My middle one was in preschool and my eldest was in Kindergarten. The schools felt it was best for the parents to say what happened but my kindergartner told me his teacher came back from lunch and her eyes were red. The youngest had just come out of the hospital and he was home with my husband.

Yup, for me, nothing happened the rest of the day.
Click to expand...

Is it bad that I slept until two in the afternoon on 9/11? :D
 
1985 had some ugly fashions. I wouldn't mind forgetting Peter Pan collars on my work blouses, leggings, football player shoulder pads under my dresses, and feathered hair - on men and women.

But I did wear a lot of Calvin Klein jeans and jean skirts, and my Frye Boots were awesome.
 
tres borrachos said:
1985 had some ugly fashions. I wouldn't mind forgetting Peter Pan collars on my work blouses, leggings, football player shoulder pads under my dresses, and feathered hair - on men and women.

But I did wear a lot of Calvin Klein jeans and jean skirts, and my Frye Boots were awesome.
Click to expand...

Hey, leggings are awesome! :2razz:
 
tres borrachos said:
My honors thesis was on Geoffrey Chaucer. It took me months to research and write it (draft on paper), then I finally had to sit down and start typing it. I couldn't afford the $1 per page that the college secretaries charged, and I didn't want to deplete the remainder of my social money, so I did it myself. While proofreading it I realized I missed a whole damn paragraph on something like page 26 (of 100 plus pages) and I had to go back and retype everything after that. It was a lesson too - I was typing too fast and not being careful about my work. I didn't make that same mistake on another important project for many years. It wasn't until I got access to my first slave computer at work that I wasn't so careful anymore.

I still have that IBM Selectric 2 in my basement. Old dinosaur.
Click to expand...

I'm so glad I'm in school during the age of the internet. :lol:
 
Your Star said:
Hey, leggings are awesome! :2razz:
Click to expand...

:mrgreen:

heatherlockyear.jpg
 
Technology is certainly better. The availability of cheap things. Things that have gotten worse include the economy (progressively have gotten worse since the 80s due to a shift to neoliberalism) individual risks including job security, individual debt, retirement...., childhood poverty.
 
rabbitcaebannog said:
Technology is certainly better. The availability of cheap things. Things that have gotten worse include the economy (progressively have gotten worse since the 80s due to a shift to neoliberalism) individual risks including job security, individual debt, retirement...., childhood poverty.
Click to expand...

I don't see how that is possible. It just seems to me to be political rhetoric made up by liberals to shift blame.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom