[bobnyce]

What's different today? I just took the time to watch "Stand By Me". One of my all time favorite movies. If you have never seen it please watch. When it was over I asked myself what was so different when we were kids. We grew up in a similar neighborhood, ran the streets for entertainment, had our differences but our innocence always came through and we accepted one another. If we fought we always got over it because we were all in similar circumstances and all we had was one another.

Now it is the have and have nots. No incentives to get better because the government will take care of you. We had no health care, not much welfare. When my dad died my friends were my comfort not some social worker sent by the government.

I think we have gotten weak and submissive and rely too much on the differences between us - because we can. We had no choice so we got by on what we had. Can't say that today. Watch the movie it will ring true!

[oldtimes]

The World Wide Web happened. Back then we listened to the nightly news and read newspapers. People were not bombarded with events 27/7 and whipped up into a frenzy by the so called journalists. Foreign countries did not try to manipulate us with fake news and memes on social media sites. Technology is a curse and a blessing.

[justjim]

Besides technology and social media making a major change in our lives, we have kids at best, both mom and dad working, and at worst single parents working two jobs and kids coming home to an empty house. Without adult supervision drugs easily can enter the picture. When we can home from school Mom was there and a couple hours later Dad came home from work we had what we called supper together. We didn’t have a lot of money but we had family. The family as we knew it is almost nonexistent. Over half of marriages end up in divorce. Divorce was frowned upon when we were growing up. Economically we have the haves and have nots with the middle class loosing ground to the upper income brackets. These are just a few things that are different. “In pursuit of higher profits at the cost of lower labor costs we may have lost the American dream.” Anonymous

big companies ship jobs overseas or hire immigrants to replace american workers so the middle class is shrinking. journalism now has a narrative to peddle instead of the truth, schools have become intolerant of different ideas, breakdown of respect for law and order, politics polarized,

[B-flat]

Bobnyce, old times, justjim and john41............all excellent posts.

[GoPacers]

Originally Posted by justjim

Besides technology and social media making a major change in our lives, we have kids at best, both mom and dad working, and at worst single parents working two jobs and kids coming home to an empty house. Without adult supervision drugs easily can enter the picture. When we can home from school Mom was there and a couple hours later Dad came home from work we had what we called supper together. We didn’t have a lot of money but we had family. The family as we knew it is almost nonexistent. Over half of marriages end up in divorce. Divorce was frowned upon when we were growing up. Economically we have the haves and have nots with the middle class loosing ground to the upper income brackets. These are just a few things that are different. “In pursuit of higher profits at the cost of lower labor costs we may have lost the American dream.” Anonymous

There is a lot of truth to what you are saying. A few observations. Divorce rates have actually been going down for decades. What has happened that you referenced is that there used to be a lot more stay-at-home moms who worked on family. In/around 1970, about 30% of two-parent households had both parents working. That number had risen to over 45% of two-parent households in 2015 and has continued to rise since. In the 70's and 80's many families needed both parents working to "stay" in the middle class and that trend has continued.

There is no doubt a strong nuclear family contributes greatly to the development of our future generations and society. 42% of American households were nuclear families 50 years ago. That number has dropped to 22% today (Will the American Nuclear Family Die Out? - OZY | A Modern Media Company). Of all the problems we have in American society - this is the most significant in my opinion. Many children today have little to no chance of achieving the American dream through no fault of their own. Just as you note, we can give these kids all the handouts we want but that isn't going to substitute for a strong nuclear family and the lack thereof leaves them exposed to a lot of outside pressures.