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.
@ClaraListensprechen4 @dbc3 Absolutely, My parents bought there home in 1967 in the city of Gardena California until 2012.
🇳🇱
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 @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
Oh, I forgot about those because the terminology I heard used for those was "non-mobile mobile home". Good point.