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.

The 90s were a good time because we had a government that actually cared about services like the NHS and education. By 2010 the NHS was declared the best health system in the world.

You don't actually believe that a whole generation were responsible for mismanaging money so that they were the only ones that benefitted do you? A lot of elderly people born and lived and are still in poverty - and a lot also probably benefitted from decent pensions and house prices rises - but were neither managers or politicians with any responsibility for economic management .

The 90s were brilliant for me

enjoyed school

went to uni and had a great time

arsed around in a few jobs for a couple of years and partied like mad

joined the armed forced and had a successful career until my hormones changed my mind (obvs post 90s but joined 99)

never had any dodgy bad experiences so the 90s were great and the music/festivals/gigs were epic

Surely now?

And in the nineties Britain's art scene and music scene was flourishing. As a country we seemed to be on the ascendency. Things were not perfect, but they were more perfect than I realised at the time.

Baby boomer generation. They got very very lucky.

I had a happy childhood in the 60s/70s and loved being a teen in the 70s. The music was great, the fashions were fun, and that continued into the 80s. I started work in the mid-70s, and have found that since we all had a computer on our desk I have been bored silly with work (administration). I liked it much better when we had to use our brains a bit more. While SM has its good points it also causes an awful lot of harm. I was happy enough before it, and no doubt would still be happy if it wasn't there. Life somehow seems less colourful now.

Then the Tories got in. 2010. It's been downhill ever since....

There's a phenomenon called declinism where we think the old days were better and now is so much worse. It's easy to look back at the 90s (or any other era) with rose-tinted specs and see the good - and some things were better - but for example, bullying is dealt with far, far more now at schools (not perfectly but not ignored), racism, sexism at work is not tolerated as much etc. Social media has its issues but then we have the wonder of so much information at our fingertips. British food is infinitely better too.
Just some examples.

Not now that's for sure the worlds a shambles

I'm definitely a 90s child

I was born in the 60s and definitely think that the mid 80s early 90s were definitely a great time for many people…if not I didn’t actually notice!

but for example, bullying is dealt with far, far more now at schools (not perfectly but not ignored), racism, sexism at work is not tolerated as much etc

I'm not sure I agree with this. There seems to be far more bullying now, and kids can't get a break from it with social media, and schools don't all seem to be dealing with it well. I can't think of any racism or sexism at work in my time - nothing worth bothering about anyway. People certainly made comments which possibly wouldn't be tolerated these days, but people weren't as easily offended when I was young. I've not worked anywhere with any racism (not saying it didn't exist - but then it still does exist now).

@Themeaningofthings

for example, bullying is dealt with far, far more now at schools (not perfectly but not ignored), racism, sexism at work is not tolerated as much etc.

Maybe more awareness, but I'm not convinced things are much better in reality.

My son's school had all the "anti bullying" policies and posters, but in reality, didn't actually deal any better with bullying than my school back in the 70s! You really havn't a chance if the bullies are the popular kids, friendly with the teachers, in the sports teams or other school "events" such as school plays, choir, etc. It makes them untouchable because the teachers will always side with them and find excuses to blame the victim!

In the last day or two, there's been a highly critical report of bullying, racism and sexism in the London fire service! It turns out that some fire fighters (and some entire watches) are the same knuckle dragging neanderthals of the 70s after all!

Peter Duffy (NHS consultant) was bullied out of his job for whistle blowing, after being accused of racism whereas the reality was that he was whistle blowing incompetent colleagues who happened to be black (he was proved right in subsequent misconduct hearings!).

So, no, I don't think we're actually "dealing" with bullying, racism and sexist a lot better. It's still happening on an epic proportion, and what's worse, I think sometimes the victims are portrayed as the villains. Organisations/employers seem to be falling over themselves to claim they're tackling these things, but it's smoke and mirrors because they don't have the balls to tackle it properly, hence "anti bullying posters", workplace policies, etc., which makes them look like they dealing with it, but really, really, they aren't!

The tories have ruined Britain.
I remember the 1990s - early 2000s as a time of great optimism and was proud to be British, we were respected around the world. NHS hadn't been systematically dismantled (yes Tony Blair started it).
Women now have much fewer rights, not even able to try on clothes in M&S without men being allowed to enter the changing room!

I also think the 90s were quite good. Housing was more affordable and available, benefits were more generous in that they covered the basics, the NHS had targets they often met(!), they introduced a law making marital rape illegal, they lowered the homosexual age of consent...

There was still a way to go to achieve equality in the sexes and sexualities so it wasn't perfect. I'm going for 10 years from now will be the best time to live. I'm an optimist!

1990s. A bit simpler than now but washing machines were still the norm. I couldn't live in an era without washing machines

I think Labour also played a part especially Tony Blair. It wa

Agreed @woodhill - it's in my post if you read it?

Housing wasn't affordable in the 90s - a lot of people ended up in negative equity as they over stretched trying to get in the ladder

I do not look at the past with rose-tinted spectacle. The late 70s and early 80s were a really tough time for the country. Poverty was very high.
It is simply true that the 19090s was better for most people.

Yes I did read it😀

So much more affordable than now. We bought our first house in 1991

Sone people are buying their first house this week

I’m a sixties baby too and I think this is true, though the seventies and parts of the eighties had their low points. We were certainly less materially well off. Food could be boring. Schools could be harsh places in the 1960s, with corporal punishment for minor infringements such as forgetting to bring in a book or making a small error.

But I went to university in 1982 with no fees and a small maintenance grant, so my parents only had to pay a small amount to help me pay expenses in a tax-advantageous way via a covenant.

When I graduated it was easy to get a job. I bought a flat when I was 24.

So yes, a good time to be born in many ways if you had a degree (and far, far fewer people did), and I know I was fortunate. But not everyone had a good time. Some old industrial towns had it very hard in the 1980s.

But we had much better music in the 1980s. No question.