kane

While I think you make some valid points. I still disagree with some of them.

the numbers prove that crime is on the decline. It may not be in all areas, but right now violent crimes are at the lowest they have been since the late 60's. That is simple fact.

While the education system is not as great as it could be the opportunity is still there to get a good education. One of the major problems is parents apathy towards the system and not taking an interest in their kids education. I'm not saying the education system is perfect it seems illiteracy is actually on the decline. The numbers from this site show that in 1979 the illiteracy rate was 300 times lower than in 1950. According to wikipedia the rate of illiteracy in the US is now at around 1% while in 1950 it was around 3.2%. That seems like an improvement to me.

I still believe that if divorce were as readily available in the 50's as it is today and opportunities for women were the same back then as now the divorce rate would be just as high. A two parent house with parents that hate each other and are miserable is not better for a kid than a one parent house. I am a product of a single parent house (my parents divorced when I was 5) and I can tell you without question my life was much better without my dad in it than it would have been with him in it. But in the 50's I would have had no choice. I would have grown up in a house where my dad was a drunk and degenerate gambler and my mom just had to put up with it. Of course you can say that my case might be the exception, but I think the exception here is pretty common. The reality is that humans are not meant to be monogamous animals, yet we try to force ourselves to be just that and we end up miserable because of it.

I will agree with you that many people now have to have both parents in a household work to have a nice life, but this is at least an option that is available today and I feel is not really a statement about the economy. Part of the problem is that people got stupid and greedy. They decided they wanted the bigger house as opposed to the house that they could actually afford. Same with the car and the furnishings and so on. Credit became more readily available than it ever was before and many people made bad decisions. When more and more people bought these things more and more people wanted them and that caused their prices to go up. That said, families being in debt or living paycheck to paycheck is nothing new in this country. The difference is that back then you could have a decent life with one person working. You still can, I know several people who work and have stay at home wives who take care of their kids and they have nice lives. I also know a lot of people where both parents work and they are in debt up to their eyes because they spend more than they should. Does this mean the economy is on the decline? No. It means that people have made bad choices for themselves. Maybe you see this as the economy on the decline, I see it as a segment of the population choosing to live outside of their means.

I think the media today is often biased, but I think there is at least enough sources out there that a person can easily get around and find the heart of any matter they are looking into. That is something that didn't exist 40-50 years ago. Read a book called the Big Bam. It is about Babe Ruth, but there is a large section in it about how there were over 150 newspapers just in New York city and to keep selling papers they would flat out lie and make stuff up. Sure, many of them died off during the depression, but that lying has been around forever. Biased news is nothing new to this country. Let's not forget Edward R Murrow who is supposed to be the pinnacle of all journalists, got pissed off at his producers if they forced him to give equal time to people who disagreed with his point of view.

While I will agree that some things are worse off, I think there are a lot of things that are just as good if not better. sure, we could improve, but again I ask. If you had the choice of living in 1949 or 2009 which would you choose? Still, for me it is 2009 without question.