20-30 Years Ago Did You Ever Think Life Would Be Harder In The 2000s?

Nope, I sure didn't....

I don't know that life is harder in the 2000s. In the early 80s, I was in my early 30s working my butt off. I thought I'd slow down in my 40's (the 90's), but that didn't happen and I didn't slow down in my 50's (2000's) either until I retired with over 30 years of service with one company. I remember having to do everything the hard way. I was one of the first in my office to pick up and regularly use a computer. The others in my office saw how fast I was getting things done and would try and get me to do their work, since I had the computer... B.S. with that... I talked my boss in to getting computers for everyone. I was also one of the first to use the internet (the one Al Gore invented ). I got our Commanding General to approve policy that all his managers would use the internet, e-mail, etc. "at least once a day" (that was the mid/late 80's). I can guarantee you that none of those managers believed that some day they'd be living and breathing on that computer... So, in a way, I think life is easier, because of technology, but now everyone expects more (improved performance), so you're still working your butt off... I do agree the gap between the rich and the poor seems to be widening. Obviously, the policies of the past don't seem to be working, so something different is necessary.

Hi Janey, I think you have a point here. Things have really more or less always been the same. I remember back in the 60s when my Dad said to me as a teenager at the time, that he felt sorry for the kids growing up in a country that had such financial problems! All I can say, that yes, it was a struggle, but if I think of my Dad's younger days, it was awful. They had no money to eat meat every day, and would just about manage to have a chicken dinner now and again. They didn't have radios and couldn't afford a car. When he joined the army, his wages were a pittance, and then during the war, my mother's house was bombed along with everything she owned. There was just her and my two eldest sister standing looking at a pile of rubble. I try to look at the positive side and I think that is neceessary because otherwise seeing such blackness all the time, will become depressing. I have a computer.. unthinkable in my dad's days, even if they were around. We have a TV, always have food on the table. Don't have to get out of bed in the morning and shiver with the cold in the winter. There's are lots more things. But I think maybe we are conditioned by the media to worry about how bad things are going to be. They put on the news what people want to hear and there is a tendency (and it's in me sometimes too) to see the badness and ignore the blessings. And it's all really a state of mind.. I know we have problems here in the UK, but I think we always did, as far back as I can remember anyway... _Derek

"Where did it all go wrong?" I think that it all started to go wrong around the time of the agricultural and industrial revolutions. The industrial revolution in particular. The agricultural revolution just started the ball rolling and the industrial revolution just kicked it up another gear. This lead to the corporations gaining massive control as everyone left their self sufficient lives on the farms and moved to the cities to become slaves to the system. To answer your question. 20-30 years ago, I had big ambitions as most teens/children do. I certainly thought that I would have a lot more than I do now and less debt, but I never imagined that I would have travelled like I have, so it is not all bad.

yeah we are all going backwards to the dark times...its all because we are spending so much on wars and weapons...if we invest 50 percent of the money we invest on weapons for removing poverty and improvement of standard of living the world will be like a paradise for us!! but these woodenheaded and cold hearted people will never understand it..!!

I think twenty and thirty years ago were better than today. In my country, today is the hardest day to earn a living. Unemployed are almost everywhere. The haves-not are increasingly difficult to earn money. The factories are closed due to incapacity. Twenty years ago we could gain something by spending 1 dollar only, but 1 dollar seems worthless today. It means the 2000s is much harder than before. Hope this year will be better.

lol...I guess I shouldn't be responding to this discussion. 20-30 years back life was care-free and I couldn't think beyond a day....a week at the most! I got everything I asked for and had a stress-free life. Though I was aware of major events of the 80's and later, it didn't really affect me on the personal front and even when we kids had to move back to India with mom and dad stayed back to change jobs, it didn't have much of an impact on me. I didn't know why it was done and what was happening. I'll come back to this discussion in another 20 years from now :P

At least you have some solace in the failed fireworks... most of us don’t even know what hit us LOL and at least you understand that it’s the youth / middle aged who are most hit. 20 – 30 years back I was just a kid who saw both her parents working it’s not that they seemed stressed out most of the time. Now as a working mom, I really really envy those years... mom never really appreciates and she thinks I’m just working too hard, but its not so. If I’m not ready to work this hard, there are plenty out there who’ll kick me out for lesser pay! And then money’s just going down down down... no matter how much we’re earning, it seems we’re just not being to save enough for a rainy day.

When I was growing up, we had no hot water, no electricity, everything was done by hand, The farm was worked by horses, cows milked by hand, and in hot weather the milk soured before it arrived at the cheese factory.Do you really think society is going backwards? Have and have- nots you say? I don't know anyone who is without electric lights, do you?

I first entered the job market in the mid eighties.I managed to get a job within a year of my graduation.Compared to the jobs i'm now getting i was satisfied as regards the type of job and the work environment.I feel now the conditions of work and quality of work have now taken a turn for the worse.The difference in salary as you say between different classes of workers has also widened.

Oh my in 1982 I was still freshly in high school, and although I had a great many issues with regards to not having a family I certainly believed like would be sweeter. Ugh, no it did not, perhaps a bit coating of sugar but the lemons keep counter-reacting my feelings. You are right the poor are continuing to get poorer and the rich continue to offer the poorer many lucrative ways on how to assure of it and their way of getting richer.

Hi Janey, You may be right. This may be the hi-tech society but things haven't changed for the greater majority of the citizens. It was just like then and now, unemployment, a few rich on the upper class and a lot of poor on the downside. We are heading for the dumps if we go on like this. Years ago, I went on a basic survival existence, living from the land to cut down costs. Now its basically the same style, with modern amenities like paved roads, running water and electricity. Of course, it is still life on the line, about to go down at a moment's notice.

At present science and technology is forging rapidly ahead .That of 20-30 years ago cann't be mentioned in the same breath.However in some ways there is a reversal indeed.Since economic globalization,no country can escape from economical slump.Meanwhile state system and institutions will go through the rigorous trials.