To ask whether we could ever go back to what it was like in the 50s-70s?

[myblueheav3n]

I mean in a financial sense more than anything, although I know it wasn’t perfect. I only have a very superficial understanding of it all, but as far as I can tell:

• Affordable housing, and a lot of social housing for those who couldn’t buy.

• Liveable wages for unskilled jobs and good opportunity to work your way up in whatever your profession was. Plenty of work available for young people.

• Education was worth a lot more, e.g. now a university degree is minimum for a ‘decent’ job, and not even that is really guaranteed either.

I had more but after thinking about it for a while they’ve slipped my mind In general it seems like it was better, and people who grew up during these periods generally did well for themselves.

There was a run of five Prime Ministers from 1964 to 1997, none of whom went to private school.

Some things then were better, like grammar schools and free university education. However, I am filled with dread thinking how my life and my children's life would be in that system. I am a single parent. I have a career and am paid the same as male colleagues, I can provide my children with a lovely home. I can take them out on trips, feed them well, take them on holidays. They are vaccinated against horrible diseases that were prevalent then. I am free financially and not dependent on any man. As a single woman in those times, I doubt we would be in this situation.

Rose-tinted glasses for sure. As many PP have said, social and economic factors are so interlinked that you cannot analyse one without the other. This year, surely, has highlighted that interrelationship to anyone who hadn't thought it through previously?

I can see what you mean @myblueheav3n

I think that if people could have a good life on one income life would be better for many families. Whether or not it’s the woman or the man bringing in a wage.

Nowadays we have such little time for everything.

And yes, a steady income, affordable housing and a better sense of community. I think the community thing also links back to both parents working and having no time.

Nowadays we have such little time for everything...the community thing also links back to both parents working and having no time @Baycob

Are you seriously suggesting two employed parents leads to community deterioration?
You know actually both men and women worked in traditionally factories, agriculture,industrial. Housewife is a recent affectation . Most Communities are traditionally comprised of working folk

I do agree that things would be much easier if the childcare bill wasn't £2k per month and the mortgage similar, it does make it very difficult as a single parent. But at least it is possible to be allowed to own my home on my own, to have my own finances etc and not to be judged for my husband abandoning us or have my children judged for it. And to earn a decent income after years of studying etc not just be told "you are a woman so your options are secretary or teacher" like my mother was.

I think things need to get much better but in most areas there has certainly been progress: healthcare, rights, and certainly in the basic standard of living regarding housing, heating, hot water, cheaper food etc. But many countries managed the changes of the 20th century much better (in terms of the interests of the majority of their population) than the UK. And we have little time now to catch up because the second industrial revolution is fast approaching, which will be even more challenging in terms of creating inequalities. As a PP said, we need a competent Government and for people to stop voting to stupid shit that will make it all worse (Brexit, Tories etc).

I feel rude not replying so I just want to say I am reading and appreciating all answers to my question!

@tanguero these sorts of things I really do think are irrelevant. Do you not think there are massive abuses going on now that we’ll only realise once it’s too late? Of course they were terrible but they hardly made a difference on the life of an average person.

@myblueheav3n

I feel rude not replying so I just want to say I am reading and appreciating all answers to my question!

@tanguero these sorts of things I really do think are irrelevant. Do you not think there are massive abuses going on now that we’ll only realise once it’s too late? Of course they were terrible but they hardly made a difference on the life of an average person.

This happened to very many "average people" though OP. I think that comment was a bit heartless. Life at the times you are talking about was brutal and cruel in a way that people today often don't seem to grasp, even though it wasn't that long ago. We are so, so lucky to live now.

@PolkadotGiraffe

On rereading I agree it seems horrible, I didn’t mean it that way I agree that today’s society, particularly how we treat children, is infinitely better.

Abuses happed to average folk though. Child abuse was rife, it was very common for uncles, brothers, step peers, etc to abuse girls in such a casual way it went unnoticed. Children didn't have a voice and if they did say something weren't believed or hushed up.

Interesting I just watch the documentary on the writer if Bridget Jones. What she experienced then was just the norm in the work place.

I thought you didn't mean it to come across that way. I can see why you are attracted to some aspects of the past but the problem is they only come with all of the baggage as well.

Yes I agree, absolutely, about how we treat children. Even in the last couple of decades. As an abused teenager I was told by police it was a domestic issue and to call if there was more violence. That was in the late '90s. And parenting in the '80s/ '90s was the wild west! All about the parents. Not much thought at all in many cases for the impact on children. Awful.

I think a lot of this is about frame of reference. If my grandmother, for example, was alive to see my house she wouldn't believe it. The heating, appliances, she would have considered us rich beyond her dreams. But standards of living change and people's expectations change alongside and they forget how lucky they are to have what we have. Even in terms of our own time we are so, so lucky. Many people in this country struggle (I have been there years ago with no electricity, no money for food etc) BUT our idea of poverty is nothing compared to what many people in the world live through now every day. To be born now, and in Europe, we are incredibly fortunate (it is far from perfect, obviously, but I do think we often forget how lucky we are).

Abuses happed to average folk though. Child abuse was rife, it was very common for uncles, brothers, step peers, etc to abuse girls in such a casual way it went unnoticed. Children didn't have a voice and if they did say something weren't believed or hushed up

But that's what happens now.

Child abuse still happens now yes, but no way are children as silenced as they were then. Thank goodness.

I grew up in the 70s (so not quite the era you are looking at)but had a lovely, happy childhood. My mum was a SAHM and my dad had a good job, we had our own house and I was very lucky. However, money was never splashed around. Holidays were in the UK. Things were mended and not thrown out. I remember power cuts, the miners strikes, IRA threat, rioting and as I got older the awareness of the threat of nuclear annihaltion, AIDS. Technology, education and medicine now are incomparable! Teachers actually seem to like children now, which I don't think many did back in the day. I didn't start my first proper job till 1990, but sexism was still rife. I was in a very male dominated industry and I remember visiting an office where a secretary actually shook her head that they had sent a woman and another where a customer actually slapped me on the behind! I honestly don't think it ever does anyone any favours to look back and wish for the past. Yes, there are problems now (climate change, Brexit, Covid) but always look forward with an eye on a fairer society not back with rose tinted glasses.

I loved the 70s, because I was a child and pretty much protected from politics and the news.

My mum did a great job of treating everything as an adventure; baths by candlelight (power cuts); standpipes in the street (drought).

I’m grateful for that; I was too young to have understood.

I'm a woman, so fuck that.

There's a reason so many mums did the 50s and 60s heavily sedated.

Fuck. That.

I started work in 1972. Wages were low, but what I really remember from that time was the rampant inflation. Honestly, prices went up weekly for just about everything, and remember that everything was more expensive relatively then, especially food. I think inflation was running at about 10%, but of course wages didn't keep up with the price rises so every week your hard earned money bought less. I was living at home and the rising costs were a constant source of horrified amazement to my mother, who was trying to feed us on a shrinking budget. Times were very hard indeed for many people.

Having run a sheep station successfully while her husband was at war my nanas mother resented having her husband come home and expect her to get back in the kitchen and do the women’s work.

I think the taste of freedom and being in control of aspects of their lives they weren’t prior then having the men folk come home and your told to get back in your box frustrating and a sore point of a lot of women in the late 1940-1950’s.

My Granny had a career and she was married from the 1930s to the 1970s, she was a Hospital Consultant, you certainly did not have to leave work when you married automatically, i think that was some, but not all branches of the civil service. All my Dads older sisters worked too and DHs Grannies. My teachers were married women. I think that's exaggerated.
I think the OP has a point, social mobility was greater in the 1950s to 1970s, i have looked into this, and the gap between rich and poor was narrower, people spent a smaller proportion of their income on housing, lots of positives.
Yes, food and clothes and cars were dearer and peoples health not so good (smoking), some people were a bit racist etc but some of you seem to be confusing it with the depression or Dickensian London. I was at primary school in the 1970s in a lovely brand new school in an area planned with pedestrian safety in mind, it did not feel the dark ages (dark ages of fashion maybe)

Uni? Less than 10% went to uni it was denied and unattainable for vast majority and certainly working class

No it wasn't denied to the working classes, the grammar schools ensured that those whose skills were towards the more academic life were able to go to University and a degree had value, the range of subjects available was narrower and more useful. How many students now go to university to read something vague then wonder why the world isn't falling over itself to employ them on £100k?

If you must quote me,and then you paraphrase do get it right
The key words are vast majority
And vast majority didn’t get to go to grammar school or progress to uni. They were discouraged, told it wasn’t for like of them, and the system then as now favoured the middle classes

My Dad was working class, he went to uni on a full grant, he was able to send some money home to help his mother out!
Full employment helped social mobility too, people moved between jobs if they weren't happy and people received meaningful on the job training and could be promoted to management without a degree.

@Wbeezer Evidently your father is a smart man who over came social obstacles to go to uni, back in the day that was most certainly not the norm

No way would I want to be a woman in the 50s-70s. It wasn't much fun being a woman at work in the 2000s. Groped, harassed, other people around you in positions of authority might be apologising for and if you were lucky trying to distract the harasser or stay with you so that you weren't alone with them, but they didn't get disciplined, let alone sacked. God, people have short memories.

I remember some tough times too, three day weeks, IRA bombings, inflation, oil prices but I don't think people felt as precarious as they do now.
I will say that the early fifties were very different from the late 60s early 70s, there was still a post war housing shortage etc.

There were completely different societal norms that made it work, but most were potentially detrimental to women's careers. Where I lived, in the 60s it was unusual to leave the parental home until you got married, so at the start of their careers many young earners weren't spending on rent or mortgage. None or very little of a wife's income was taken into account when a married couple applied for a mortgage. There was some nursery and childcare provision, but nowhere near as much as today, so many women took a longish career break while their children were small.
One thing that happened to me that I still fume about was that my employer, a local authority, refused to let me leave my final salary pension benefits in the fund when I left work to have my first child.