When was the best time to be alive?

[ohfook]

If right through history you had to pick a point somewhere in between say the Stone Age where there was no technology at all, life was exceptionally tough and people didn't have any rights right up to now where we have every convenience known to man but we live so out of tune with nature and we're watching the planet burn in slow motion. Where do you think the sweet spot was? The point where we had enough to make our lives easier but we weren't producing so much that it was actively destroying our planet?

Feel free to take other factors like wars or disease into account too if you like, but you don't have to!

I don't have an answer, I just posted this because I was reading about the Ancient Maya and thought it seemed like quite a nice life until I heard they sacrificed children.

When I look back at the country we were in 2012, I want to weep. We were looked up to, respected and admired across the world. World leaders socially, economically & culturally. Now look at us. A basket case and a laughing stock with a government so useless & dysfunctional it would shame a Central American dictatorship.

Fifties had a major shortage of housing. It is why all those tower blocks were built in the sixties.

I agree. 2010 NHS was judged the best health service in the world. Now we are sold the lie that a functioning NHS is unrealistic.

First of all, there were 15million fewer people in the Uk back in the 60s which meant significantly less stress on housing and healthcare. Only 5% went onto higher education and usually only those who attended a Grammar school. As for starting in the mailroom and ending up the MD, if it was a small firm maybe but large corporations were run exclusively by men of a certain age and connection.

And then you had the asset-stripping likes of Goldsmith, Lonrho and of course the delightful Maxwell. Not to mention the likes of Peter Rachman, Charlie Richardson and the Grays. The unions were still on the Jarrow march and acting as a drag chain on traditional industries that were unable to modernise in the face of growing innovations and the threat from the far east. Industrial relations were a millstone around the neck of just about every senior management team and the Labour Government stood by and watched our balance of payments gurgle down the drain. Yes you had the Beatles and free love, as well as Thalidomide and the Moor Murders. You could get a mortgage but not if you worked in the Mail Room.

I think the general sense of progress and optimism came from several key post-war developments in technology and medicine but then high-rise flats were part of that too, not such a good idea.

Personally, I think every age has it's attractions, certainly if you have enough money, and its detractions, but then nothing was ever perfect. Today is good enough for me, even with its challenges.

Sorry, the Crays

Me Too movement counts for me. Not 50s, 60s due to sexism but 70s depressing in U.K. too, 80s ok but a bit harsh. Being a young adult in 90s was good. Things will improve again post war. Just get through demographic hump and be better on climate issues.

I’m generally optimistic and feeling good though

I was born in 1944 and feel that I have lived through the best of times. Things have gone steadily downhill since about 2018. The NHS is broken, the economy is broken the Government is quietly eroding the standard of living for all but the very rich. I fear for my grandchildren and hope that somehow their generation will haul us back from the brink.

Probably anytime after dentistry and antibiotics were widely available. Otherwise, the Mesolithic, somewhere in Southern Europe, rather appeals.

Sensible answer- now. I’d like to have been in London in the late 16th C though!

Before the Fall.

@RosaGallica Yep, with you right there!

Based purely on a horrific dental abscess I’ve recently had reading the thread about causes of death in the 1600s, I thank my lucky stars I wasn’t around then!!

The 1980s

As a woman there is no other choice than now. The planet may not have been burning but your husband could rape you, throw you in an asylum. And that's as a white woman let alone a black or brown woman.

The eighties,it was fucking boss.

But if I was rich, sane, healthy etc I'd have liked to have been in the 1850s ish. Of course if my husband chosen was a kind and young man - would be unlikely though.

The 80s without a doubt. Great music, great fashions 🥰🤣, no social media, what happened on a night out stayed on a night out. Very little mental health/drug problems. Never heard of people taking their own lives, a general air of positivity.
Shame it all went to shit

I’m a woman and Black, so years from now.

Interesting
i was a child in the 80s and definitely remember drugs, mental health issues, suicides.

For me 1998-2004 just turned 18 and had the best group of friends

As a milennial I think my mum was born during a great era and she agrees! The 60s.

She was a proper punk, in a band, and saw loads of amazing rock bands. My favourite bands are mostly the ones she has seen and loves to remind me!

He also lived through poll tax and strikes/was very active so she saw it as a mixed bag.

i was a child in the 80s and definitely remember drugs, mental health issues, suicides.

Surely it's unusual to exposed to all that as I child?

Being young in the 90s & early 00s was great but @janeseymour78 would love to have been around in the 60s

I'm both a woman and black so if not now then the future.

As a woman there is no other choice than now. The planet may not have been burning but your husband could rape you

Tbf that still happens here & in other parts of the world.