NationStates Jolt Archive

What was America like in the 1970s?
Was the crime much worse?
Were welfare benefits a lot more generous?
Was abortion a lot more common?
Was there a lot more drug taking?
Was there more family breakdown?
What were things like healthcare and education like?
Was the criminal justice system more lenient?
Did trade unions have more influence?
Were taxes much higher?

To see where my question arises, read the article given by the link.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-1733906_1,00.html

What was America like in the 1970s?
Was the crime much worse?
Were welfare benefits a lot more generous?
Was abortion a lot more common?
Was there a lot more drug taking?
Was there more family breakdown?
What were things like healthcare and education like?
Was the criminal justice system more lenient?
Did trade unions have more influence?
Were taxes much higher?

To see where my question arises, read the article given by the link.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-1733906_2,00.html

Probably not.

What was America like in the 1970s?

Great, but not great politically.

Was the crime much worse?

Nope, about the same, if not a little better.

Were welfare benefits a lot more generous?

No.

Was abortion a lot more common?

No.

Was there a lot more drug taking?

Probably about the same, maybe a bit more.

Was there more family breakdown?

No

What were things like healthcare and education like?

Pretty bad

Was the criminal justice system more lenient?

Yes for some things, no for others. It also depends on what state you lived in I think.

What was America like in the 1970s?

Great, but not great politically.

Wasn't great economically either. Those were the good old stagflation days...not to mention the stock market sucked too.

I seem to recall wide ties and bell-bottoms and ironing your hair to straighten it. I think all the men were required to have mustaches, too, unless they were elected officials. Oh, and I think I burned a bra somewhere in there, too.

Dude, whaaat? http://www.section.at/img/smiley/peace.gif

I only remember that the music was great. That and free love.

Depends on which bit of the country you are talking about. NYC was a lot worse in the 70s. People were literally just abandoning their houses.

On the other hand people have told me that So Cal was much nicer back then than now.

Wasn't great economically either. Those were the good old stagflation days...not to mention the stock market sucked too.

I had friends with 14% mortgages. I can't even imagine that. Of course, in the early '70s I bought gas for a quarter per gallon. I can't imagine that again, either.

Depends on which bit of the country you are talking about. NYC was a lot worse in the 70s. People were literally just abandoning their houses.

On the other hand people have told me that So Cal was much nicer back then than now.

That was when the City pretty much went bankrupt. NYC's appeal to the Us government for help got the cold shoulder and gave the Daily News one of its great headlines: FORD TO NY: DROP DEAD. That's Gerry Ford, for you younglings, by the way.

I had friends with 14% mortgages. I can't even imagine that. Of course, in the early '70s I bought gas for a quarter per gallon. I can't imagine that again, either.

Yeah, I remember my one economics teacher talking about that; he bought a house in the early 70's with a 30-year mortgage right before the embargo and saved a ton of money because he had a 5 or 6% mortgage that was less than inflation.

Of course, during the late 90's gas was actually cheaper in real terms than at any time in the history of gasoline; the stuff was so cheap that people were predicting $5 oil in to the next few decades. And then look what happened...just my luck, I got my license right when oil prices started to take off several years ago.

That was when the City pretty much went bankrupt. NYC's appeal to the Us government for help got the cold shoulder and gave the Daily News one of its great headlines: FORD TO NY: DROP DEAD. That's Gerry Ford, for you younglings, by the way.

Well it was more than just the bankruptcy. And the government did bail out NYC anyway. (Wrongly so in my opinion, moral hazzard and all that).

Well it was more than just the bankruptcy. And the government did bail out NYC anyway. (Wrongly so in my opinion, moral hazzard and all that).

It was the age of the huge federally subsidized ghettoes, from which sprang an entire generation of indolent youth who grew into the 90s to be the crack gangs, etc - the wave of violence that people still think is the symbol of American culture (even though that wave has long passed, and the government buildings torn down).

There were no PCs, no cell phones. Hand calculators were popular (although I was faster for most calculations with a slide rule).

Music was definitely better.

On the other hand people have told me that So Cal was much nicer back then than now.

But according to the article the pollution in LA was so bad that you couldn’t see the skyline.

But according to the article the pollution in LA was so bad that you couldn’t see the skyline.

I've seen photos of people having to walk around in gas masks.

Depends on which bit of the country you are talking about. NYC was a lot worse in the 70s. People were literally just abandoning their houses.

That sounds like Detroit right now. Of course, Detroit's population in 1970 was 1,514,063 compared to 951,270 in 2000, so there are a lot of empty houses down there.