MovieChat Forums > Politics > 1950s, Golden Age America

1950s, Golden Age America


So, a lot of people asking questions like, "when was America Great" or such shit.

So, I wanted to offer the 1950s, as the Golden Age of America.

Massive economic growth, massive growth of the middle class, massive growth of the nuclear family, rapid and major technology advances,

AND to put it in context, this was right after the terrors of WWII, and before that the dark time of the Great Depression.

The glorification of the nuclear family and the stereotype of the kind and wise Father figure, ie the trope of the wonderful, "Leave it to Beaver" idealized family, also there as a good aspect of a great time.

Discuss. What, looking backwards, is your favorite element of that timeperiod, cementing it as the Golden Age?

Or, alternatively, do you have an age you would like to offer as an even BETTER golden age for America?

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AS LONG AS YOU ARE A STRAIGHT WHITE MAN.

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You think women were sorry that the war was over and their loved ones were safe at home instead of fighting the nazis? Or that the great depression was over and they had food and shelter and wage earning husbands?

Mmm, yeah, I think you are incorrect.

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NO...THEY WERE NOT SORRY...OBVIOUSLY...HOWEVER...THEY STILL HAD A LOT OF ROAD TO TRAVEL.


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Yes, a road of increasing wealth and material comfort and technological wonders.

HOw would you feel if you were told that over the NEXT ten years, median family income would increase by 20%?

And that ten years after that, it would be nearly DOUBLED?



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Lets not forget that Kowalski's Wife is the breadwinner and she works three jobs so he can sit at home and watch movies, collect stray cats, and post on this message board all day/night. Going back to the 50s would destroy his reality.

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Kowalski is correct. There was no path to advancement for women or POC (you ever hear of Jim Crow?). Also it was the most hideous period ever for fashion, tv and movies sucked, cars sucked (in design and performance--deaths from motor vehicle accidents occurred at 6x the rate they do now), people were anxious over the "cold war," condoms were the only form of birth control, homosexuality could land you in jail or ruin your career, polio was destroying lives until the latter part of the decade...I could go on, but I think I have made my point.
Oh I forgot to mention the rampant pollution of the air and waterways.

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i've made a couple of points about the massive economic growth of the period, the massive growth of the middle class, the rapid advance of technology, ect.

Those are numbers that track real benefits in standard of living for US citizens as a whole.

Women and blacks certainly benefited from those improving numbers, as I already pointed out in earlier posts.



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"Women and blacks certainly benefited from those improving numbers"

You keep picking out the positive threads from the whole cloak of repression and bigotry and misogyny, and hold up these tiny threads and say "See, things weren't so bad!" Living is easy with eyes closed, as someone once said.

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The nation as a whole, was massively improving across the board.

That is what hte numbers show.

You are the one finding "tiny threads" and crying "see, things weren't so good".

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

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Said the man ignoring the numbers i cited.

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The comparison isn't the 1940s to the 1950s. But the 1950s to the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s etc.

And there's more to life being good for just straight white men. Life was worse in many ways for everyone not in that group then.

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You think women were sorry that the war was over and their loved ones were safe at home instead of fighting the nazis? Or that the great depression was over and they had food and shelter and wage earning husbands?


Theyve had all that stuff for the last 80 years , so why is the 50s the best bit ?

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Two prime reasons, imo.

1. The experience of the people living it, is in the context of the recent PAST, not the far future.

2. The 60s had too much internal strife and after that you had wage stagnation due to a number of policy decisions.

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Why do you assume that?

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I DID NOT ASSUME ANYTHING.

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I'm a little sad that you don't have your tagline with my username in bold anymore. But it shows growth on your part. Obsessing over anonymous users on a public message board is not healthy.

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Obsessing over anonymous users on a public message board is not healthy.


Says the one that cannot stop obsessing over me to the point you got yourself on a sig to highlight the fact. Everyone knows this, everyone knows your full of shit. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣

Stop replying to me for 1 week. I bet you can't last 1 hour.

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This is a public message board with anonymous users and the whole point of a message board is to post comments to other users. Are you really so stupid you don't know that? If you don't like my posts then be a pussy and put me on ignore. I couldn't care less about you while you obsess over me. If you DM your email address I'll send you a photo of me so you can obsess more. 🤣 Oh, you really should learn the difference between your and you're, retard.

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Fuck off, Stalker. (1)

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I'm not the one who followed me around here and then felt compelled to include a tagline with your user name in bold in every single post I create. That's you, Goober. Own it or go fuck yourself!

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Fuck off, Stalker. (2)

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I see I really triggered you. Stupid people like you get triggered over the tiniest things.

https://i.postimg.cc/rmBGDCGg/triggered.gif

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Fuck off, Stalker. (3)

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I see I broke your tiny little brain. Your stupidity and gullibility is astounding.

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Fuck off, Stalker. (5)

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It looks like you're stalking me, dumbass. 🤣

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Fuck off, Stalker. (7)

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BETTER WATCH YOURSELF...THIS SITE CONSIDERS THAT SPAMMING.

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Requesting the ceasing of harassment is not spamming.

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I SEE NO HARASSMENT...I DO SEE A BABY SPAMMING THOUGH.

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From the adult that speaks in caps like a yelling child...okay buddy. 🤣

Tell him to stop responding, and then the spamming will cease. I did not start the targeted harassment. I'm merely requesting the off-topic targeted harassment to cease.

Which most certainly is against site rules.

Just because you don't think it is, doesn't mean it's not, and I will report further infractions.

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NO...THIS IS A PUBLC FORUM...ANYONE CAN RESPOND ANWHERE THEY LIKE...YOU NOT LIKING SOMEONE RESPONDING TO YOU IS CHILDISH AND PATHETIC...REPORT AWAY...YOU WILL DO YOURSELF MORE DAMAGE THAN ANYONE ELSE.

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I see I really triggered you. Stupid people like you get triggered over the tiniest things.

https://i.postimg.cc/rmBGDCGg/triggered.gif

I can't believe how weak you are that instead of replying to me with proof of your insipid claims this reply is all you got.

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Please stop harassing me.

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Aw... Poor baby. Did mean me hurt your feelings? Here, have a tissue, cupcake. I hope you feel better after I destroyed you.

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Please stop harassing me.

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I'm not harassing you. I'm just replying to an anonymous user on a public message board. If you don't like then go somewhere else.

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These messages are off-topic and meant to be targeted harassment...which is also against site rules.

I told you to go away 7 times, and then asked politely several times.
From that point onward, it's harassment.

Further attempts to harass me off-topic will be reported.

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Keep crying, Cletus. I need your tears to salt my french fries! 🍿

It's funny! You acted like such a tough guy when you posted my name in bold in every single one of your comments here. Now you're sniveling because I called you on bullshit. Have a hug. Better now?

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He obviously hates: Straight. White. Men.

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It is a little weird the way they dismiss them immediately and then change the subject to "women" or "poc" as though their...perspectives are more important than "straight white men".

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25% poverty rate in the U S. during the 1950s. There were a significant number of Americans, including whites, still using outhouses because they had no indoor plumbing throughout rural areas.

Pres. Johnson proclaimed a war on poverty for a reason. The U.S. had a very serious problem with poverty.

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What was the poverty rate in 1950 copared to in 1959?

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Bad side of 1950s.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sGBFRVQI5ck&pp=ygUNMTk1MHMgcG92ZXJ0eQ%3D%3D

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Keeli, you made a point about poverty during the 50s.

YOu don't get to just make that point and change the subject when challenged on it.

you claimed a poverty rate of 25% during the 50s.

My point was never that the 50s were the WEALTHIEST period of time in US history but based more on RAPID IMPROVEMENT.

Thus, a simple point about there BEING poverty, is...barely relevant.

More important is was that poverty growing or DECLINING. in the context of my position and your attempt to debunk it.

So, you claim a poverty rate of 25% in the "50s".

What was it during 1950, and what did it increase or decline to, by 1960?

A massive increase would support your ANTI- golden age position,

while a massive DECREASE would support my PRO-golden age position.

Simply changing the subject, makes it look like your previous point was not a serious point, or that upon further investigation, you realize now that it was wrong, but you refuse to admit that.


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America was a lot better when there was STRAIGHT WHITE MAN

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WE STILL HAVE LOTS OF THOSE...I MYSELF AM ONE.

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... who were not indoctrinated and brainwashed to hate their own.

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I don't get it. You and other morons claim that the public school system is indoctrinating and brainwashing American children yet only about 20% of adults claim they are liberal. It looks like the indoctrinating and brainwashing isn't working very well. That should make you happy.

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20% lol

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Not being a white supremacist is not the same as hating your own

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The numbers on white libs having negative feelings towards their own race, has been showns in studies.

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White liberal virtue signaling is at an all time high. I think they mention race more than any other group of people by far. Gotta let everyone know how “ahead of the curve” they are 5 billion times a day.

Normal person: “Lovely day we’re having today.”

White liberals: “Not for women and POC. Your bigotry and misogyny will not be tolerated you racist.”

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Yeah, I think that is what is driving this. We can't have nice things, because we have to feel bad about ourselves.

Which is....so fucked in the head.

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Let's see... In the 50s America was at war with North Korea, Civil Rights were nonexistent, it would suck if you needed an organ transplant, women, people of color and homosexuals were treated as second class citizens, automobile safety was minimal, sexual crimes were not investigated, no cable TV or internet, pollution of all kinds that was ignored, drunk driving was tolerated, etc.

Those are some of the things off the top of my head. The 50s were not as wonderful as you think they were.

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Golden Age does not translate to Perfect or Utopia. Sure, the Korean War was a human tragedy for example, but that doesn't change the "Goldenness" of the period when compared to either the much of hte rest of America history, or god forbid, rest of HUMAN history.

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People were miserable in the 1950s which lead to their marching in the streets during the 1960s.

"Leave It To Beaver" was a fantasy.

BTW, adults in the 50s would never say that the 1950s were great. They would say the 1930s during the Great Depression were the Good Old Days.

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By that logic, since "people" weren't marcing in the streets during the 1950s, that means that htey were happy during wwii...

Seems unlikely.

And "Leave it to Beaver" was the kind story that our society of the time told it self, revealing where our heads and hearts were.


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People were marching in the streets during the 1950s. More joined in during the 60s.

Nobody in the 50s liked that period. Adults preferred the 30s.

No, Leave It to Beaver was a fantasy written by white men out of touch with reality including their own wives who were miserable popping Valium and slugging down alcohol to ward off depression.

Betty Freidan wrote a book about how miserable housewives were which ignited the Feminist Movement.

Mrs. Cleaver told Beaver not to hangout with a little boy because he came from a broken home. Nice.

Mrs Cleaver didn't want Beaver or Wally to go to their new friends house on the wrong side of town because they're poor Mexicans. Nice.

If you watched the show, you'd know that Ward's dad was an alcoholic who abused him and his family struggled financially.

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You want to define society by the few marching in the streets and ignore the masses happy in their homes building famiies.

Some chick wrote a book? That's supposed to be more important than the middle class doubling in size?

I don't think so.

THe 1950s were clearly a Golden Age for America and you hate it, BECAUSE you know that to be true.



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You think you know the 1950s because you watch one old TV show. 🤣

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Said the chick who's position is based on modern libs fantasies of that old tv show.

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An era that would have been better if not for the events of 1871, 1913 and the actions of the Satanic Edomites that lead to illegal wars.

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What are you babbling about? Why aren't you providing your many claims that proves Trump won in 2020? You are a horrible Trump supporter. I don't understand why you don't show Trump your evidence so he can be reinstated as president. What are you waiting for?

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He calls other obsessed, but he has been obsessed with you for 3 fucking years now. My word.

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"obsessed"

Will you marry me? 💍
👯‍♂️

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I’ve personally encountered a wide range of the mentally ill and emotionally disturbed, but that one takes the cake.

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All three of them are mentally disturbed. I'm intrigued to see how long it will last.

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💍

B1cKsurN B1cKsurN B1cKsurN B1cKsurN B1cKsurN B1cKsurN B1cKsurN B1cKsurN B1cKsurN B1cKsurN Says who?

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Only the mentally ill and emotionally disturbed people believe that Trump won in 2020 without providing evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. You are a dumbass!

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I thought this was funny about "Leave It To Beaver". This was written by someone on a forum:

"If Leave it to Beaver truly mirrored real life as it was back then, here's what the character descriptions might look like:

Ward Cleaver:
Alcoholic, workaholic, beats his sons with a belt. Bones his secretary on the side. His country club won't allow minorities or Jews to be members. The neighborhood where he bought his home is deed-restricted to white Anglo-Saxon protestant homeowners only. Drives drunk.

June Cleaver:
Pops prescription Nembutal (see Mother's Little Helper by the Rolling Stones), and has an unlimited refills script for amphetamine-based diet pills. Her woman's club membership restrictions mirror her husband's country club. Drives high.

Wally Cleaver:
Pretends to like girls because of what he faces from family, friends, church and community if he were to be outed.

Beaver Cleaver:
As the baby of the family, he's spoiled rotten. Wally resents him and makes his life as miserable as he can. Beaver has been regularly sexually abused by his pastor and little league coach since he was 5, but is afraid to say anything lest his abusers carry out their threats of killing his parents."

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Mmm, yeah, that is a good bit, it really shows how twisted and unhealthy modern libs are.

But in the real world, most men were NOT alcoholic cheaters, most women were not drug addicts, and most boys were not gay.

In the real world, as opposed to the lib fantasy, in the REAL 1950s, it was a GOLDEN AGE, for America when the nuclear family became the norm and people loved it.

YOu got kids Keeli?

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You can't deal with reality which explains your obsession with a fantasy series.

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Support your fantasy that the men of the time, the FATHERS of all those families, were general speaking abusive, cheating drunks.


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It's been a whole day Keelai. Show some moral courage and admit that your point(s) claiming that men of the 50s, were alcoholic cheaters, the women drug addicts and the children gay,

was false and you realize that now.


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t's been THREE whole days Keelai. Show some moral courage and admit that your point(s) claiming that men of the 50s, were alcoholic cheaters, the women drug addicts and the children gay,

was false and you realize that now.

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Best generation period

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All this talk about how great the 1950's were...

it helps when you have the only functioning factories in the world because everyone else is destroyed in WW2.

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Clearly that was part of the setup for it.

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When he was on the radio, Thom Hartmann used to say that the middle class in America was strongest in the 1770's and the 1970's.

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Gilded Age

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age

In United States history, the Gilded Age is described as the period from about the 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction Era and the Progressive Era. It was named after an 1873 Mark Twain novel by historians in the 1920s who saw this interval of economic expansion as an era of materialistic excesses combined with political corruption.

It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Western United States. As American wages grew much higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers, and industrialization demanded an increasing unskilled labor force, the period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants. The rapid expansion of industrialization led to real wage growth of 40% from 1860 to 1890 and spread across the increasing labor force. The average annual wage per industrial worker (including men, women, and children) rose from $380 in 1880 ($11,998 in 2023 dollars[1]) to $584 in 1890 ($19,126 in 2023 dollars[1]), a gain of 59%.[2] The Gilded Age was also an era of poverty,[3][4] especially in the South, and growing inequality, as millions of immigrants poured into the United States, and the high concentration of wealth became more visible and contentious.[5]

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The average annual wage per industrial worker (including men, women, and children) rose from $380 in 1880 ($11,998 in 2023 dollars) to $584 in 1890 ($19,126 in 2023 dollars), a gain of 59%.

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A good contender for the golden age,

BUT, despite that massive growth in income, it seems more the creation of a decent base of a working class...

than the creation of a large and comfortable MIDDLE CLASS.


IMO.

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