(The 1950s in the US)

5) It was an age of "conformity." People were strongly expected to behave in traditional ways and hold to traditional norms. In school we learned to read from books in which every family was white, middle class, and had a mother, a father, one son, one daughter, a dog, and a car.

It was a very bad time to be a single mother. It was a very, very, very bad time to be LGBTQ+.

"1950 in the U.S what they call golden age of capitalism.' Just curious if they were really happier than our time."

Absolutely not. I was a kid in the 1950s.

Every culture has its myths about a "golden age." For some reason, in the US, the 1950s is one of them. It wasn't necessarily a bad time, but it wasn't like some of the TV and movie shows.

The United States had been in a terrible economic downturn, the Great Depression, from 1929 to 1941. The United States was in World War II from 1941-1946. The economic stimulus of the war ended the depression, many consumer goods were unavailable (there was even rationing of things like tires, gasoline, sugar, meat). Certainly, the 1950s seemed like a good time by comparison. There was a kind of orgy of consumer spending, and advertising all the wonderful new products. But...

1) During this "golden age of capitalism," the income tax rate on wealthy people went all the way up to 90%.

2) There was a severe housing shortage as the "GIs" (soldiers) returned home. Our neighbors had a two-floor garage and they rented out the top floor as an apartment, for example.

3) During the war, women had worked in factories and business (and played professional baseball--great movie, "A League of Their Own.") When the men returned from war, jobs were more or less reserved for returning GIs and women were more or less forced into the role of stay-at-home moms, which they did not want.

4) There was huge fear of Soviet Russia and Communism, and an era of political repression in which it was dangerous to speak your mind about politics. The danger was mostly to careers, getting "blacklisted," losing your job, but it was still bad.

I would probably go 25 years into the past to mess with my dad, and play tricks on him, it would probably be very funny.

Severe economic issues are abound in America today.

78% of Americans are relying on paycheck to paycheck.

58% of Americans have less than $1000 in savings.

Life expectancy in America plummets for recent 3 years in a row.

The excess in consolidations and rapidly technological transformation are choking many Americans.

This is also why many public intellectuals bring the analogy today.