The good old days really were the good old days
Everyone enjoys some benefits of current technological advances, but many of us old-timers also fondly recall the good old days.
Our school days featured opportunities, not violence and disrespect — the sweet innocence of young love as opposed to the licentiousness now socially accepted from youth.
Graduation from Duke in 1942 debt-free cost less than $1,000 annually. Today, it’s $40,000, often paid with large student loans.
World War II was dreaded but unavoidable. Yet 16 million of us, with excellent support, won a terrible conflict in 3 3/4 years, and with rationing and sacrifice. Taxes did not greatly aggravate the national debt. Contrast that with the futility, and relative casualties and costs of Vietnam and Iraq.
Then the Greatest Generation came home and returned to work. Entertainment, movies and music were far superior to most of today’s fare, with its scurrilous language, gratuitous violence and little real romance. What passes for music today is unworthy of the name.
Read Gibbons’ “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” and note the parallels. Will “Rise and Fall of the America Dream” soon appear?
Dan W. Maddox
Greensboro
Comments (10)
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"Read Gibbons’ “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” ... maybe the cliff notes version .. I've only about 50 more years on Earth.
Posted on May 8, 2008 6:37 AM
Out of control government entitlements, frivolous litigation, and people living beyond their means will be the fiscal causes of this nation's downfall.
Posted on May 8, 2008 7:42 AM
Hugh,
You are partly correct, but your naivete is palpable.
While litigation can be a nuisance, it is not what the AMA, the GOP or the insurance industry make it out to be.
Based on your thoughts (above) why are you such a defender of a man who created the LARGEST BUREACRACY in the history of the United States?
Why do you support a President and the congress he had at the time, who ran up government spending higher than all the previous administrations?
You see Hugh, the GOP can win elections, but it cannot govern. They can throw out all the drivel, true or not, about the opposition.
But when the rubber hit the road, those rascally "conservatives" took the cake in runaway spending. Facts, Hugh. Not from Limbaugh or Hannity.
Add to that, going to war with a country that had zero to do with 9/11 and you've got one heck of a clusterf_ck.
So Hugh, you've got all the lingo down, but not all the facts.
Posted on May 8, 2008 8:47 AM
Yes, the forties-fifties were the good old days. Jim Crow segregation, blatant racism both in the South and the North, women excluded from major universities, and a witch-hunt for "communists" during the "red scare." Did I miss anything else "wholesome" ?
Posted on May 8, 2008 10:00 AM
$3160 in 1942 equals about $40,000 of today's dollars.
Contrast the casualties of US Soldiers in WW2 with Iraq?
Are you being serious?
Posted on May 8, 2008 1:30 PM
Winning World War II was a cause worth sacrificing for, which is why President Roosevelt could ask Americans to pay higher taxes to fund the effort. Tax rates of that time were over 90% at the highest brackets.
When a president calls for war, but doesn't ask for any sacrifice from the general population, there are two possible explanations. First, the president is a coward lacking the courage to make such a request. Second, the war isn't necessary and the expense simply cannot be justified.
The ultimate act of cowardice is to start an unnecessary war but pass the sacrifice to future generations. Can you imagine America sinking to such depths during Roosevelt & Truman's time?
Posted on May 8, 2008 3:05 PM
Kornbluth:
Despite the high tax rates, the U.S. ran up its highest deficits (at least as a percentage of GNP) ever during WWII. So, the "greatest generation" did pass the sacrifice to future generations.
Posted on May 8, 2008 3:43 PM
Ribar,
The largest single expansion of government came under our current President, George "W" Bush.
--------------------------------------
Kornbluth,
AMEN!
Posted on May 8, 2008 4:59 PM
Oh Ribar, you did know that those deficits were wiped out by a post war economy? Gosh, I hope you read that in middle school.
Posted on May 8, 2008 5:04 PM
Dan,
You sound like the Grumpy Old Man from the Saturday Night Live skits in the 80's....'That's the way it was and we liked it'!
Geesh!
Posted on May 8, 2008 6:19 PM