This is f*kng ridiculous
Why do Americans think life was better 50 years ago? - Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-06-20/americans-nostalgia-1970s-public-opinion
@lovelylovely
If any of LA Times' writers are younger than 70 years old, no wonder they find it a mystery. They likely flipped off Boomers instead of paying attention.
@ClaraListensprechen4 @lovelylovely
Lord knows it was not good for a whole lot of marginalized people. But there still was a middle class for us straight privileged whites. We bought a house in 1973. Paid for it on my salary as my wife has never worked ouside the home since i graduated from college in 1970 with no student loan debt.
And many black families too mine being one.
@lovelylovely @dbc3
Of course, but in terms of buying a middle class house, I'm sorry to report that "red-lining" remains alive and well today and in some areas on stearoids.
🇳🇱
People also bought much smaller and cheaper homes for a period there. The whole "pre-built" home craze was around that time and they didnt quite last sadly.
They were called prefab homes. Fully made at a factory and just moved in place and plopped down. Very cheap, popular from the early 1960s onward, and fell apart very easily.
https://builtprefab.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/prefab-housing-estate-post-wwii-600x338.jpg
@freemo @lovelylovely @dbc3
Oh, I forgot about those because the terminology I heard used for those was "non-mobile mobile home". Good point.
@freemo @lovelylovely @ClaraListensprechen4
I had an assignment as a young engineer to test transporting them on railcars. Told them it would not work but the company had a friend in high places in my company.. Built a frame with outriggers to put on container cars. Loaded up one of their modules - a 10 by 40 ft quarter of a house-to-be. Did our standard impact test - let the car roll down a grade and hit a parked car loaded with gravel and brakes locked. Result? see next:
@freemo @lovelylovely @ClaraListensprechen4
Staircase broke free, sailed from one end to the other, taking out everything in its path.
@dbc3 @freemo @lovelylovely
That must have been a cinematic spectacle.
@ClaraListensprechen4 @freemo @lovelylovely All we had was a view of the aftermath when we opened it up and went inside. I had to keep myself from laughing since the factory rep was so disappointed.
It seems like a rather exagerated test to be honest... I mean few things would survive that yet would be perfectly fine on an otherwise normal railway trip..
Im guessing it was more a safety test or something?
@freemo @ClaraListensprechen4 @lovelylovely
Freight trains don't handle like passenger trains. Cars go through hump yards where they are rolled down a hill and switched into the track for the train they will go out on. Special cases are cars like the one I worked on for the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters. They are stenciled :"do not hump" and get special (expensive) handling. These people wanted to go in general service for cheapest rates,
@freemo @ClaraListensprechen4 @lovelylovely
"few things would survive that"
loads of coal, wallboard, automobiles, stone, sand, grain, crates secured in boxcars all survive it. Hauling those things on a freight railroad was impractical then. Now there are plenty of unit trains of all container cars which go point-to-point, Could possibly be accommodated.
@freemo @lovelylovely @dbc3
Well, the "pre-built home" phase began immediately after WWII but wasn't prevalent 50 years ago, I'm afraid.
But it did ramp back up again with housing developers' "community" house building which morphed into "home owners association" neighborhoods, gated communities and the like. Turns out that the original concept of "ticky-tacky" was good for commercial home builders.
Right we are talking 1950s 60s and 70s. It was at its height in the early 1960s
That aside, even if you compare to a brick and mortar, a modern day thermostat has more wealth in it than an entire 1950s home.
@ClaraListensprechen4 @lovelylovely
Yup. Since 1070 I have rented or owned 8 homes. The current one since 2003. I am aware of exactly one Black family living anywhere near any of them, until a couple of years ago a mixed race family bought a house 3 doors down.
@ClaraListensprechen4 @dbc3 Absolutely, My parents bought there home in 1967 in the city of Gardena California until 2012.