1950s-mid 1960s Where The Old Days Really Better?
 

Multiple times in the Forum I have said that that the Old days when I was growing up were better and have further stated that People these days don’t know that because the did not grow up then.
I am being told by others that it is just My perception that is wrong that I am selectively focusing on only the good things.
For Me the Old days is about the 1950s into the Mid 1960s. In the Mid 1960s things started to change. To me this corresponded with Social agitation and Drug use; but, the causes are not what this thread is about.
In the Pics are various crime statistic charts and it shows a clear rise in various crimes since the mid 1960s.
Speaking of perception if you were a young Person during the 1980s your perception would be that the Crime Rate is lower now then at that time and that would be true. However, the crime rate is still not as low as it was in the Early 1960s.
I don’t know if there are any charts on Ethical Behavior covering that time but I also believe that the Adults in My early years where more honest and decent People then the later Adults.
The last chart is on Prison Spending. It reflects only a small part of the Cost that Crimes cost Society. The Cost to investigate and prosecute Crime is not there nor is the Cost to Crime Victims and Insurance Companies.
I hope I got them all in the right order but I think the Charts speak for themselves.
Crime Chart 1
http://www.volokh.com/2013/01/10/public-opinion-on-the-death-penalty-and-violent-crime-rates/
Crime Chart 2
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2013/06/25/dear-david-barton-violent-crime-is-not-increasing/
Crime Chart 3
https://blogs.lclark.edu/hart-landsberg/2009/12/05/the-prison-industrial-complex/
　
Crime chart 4
http://prince.org/msg/105/360424
Chart 5
http://catholicexchange.com/does-porn-prevent-rape
Prison spending
https://blogs.lclark.edu/hart-landsberg/2009/12/05/the-prison-industrial-complex/

Prison spending.

Nostalgia effect . . .

What is nostalgic about a Chart/s?

Nostalgia isn't about the charts, my comment was about how the psychological effect of nostalgia selectively filters and alters reality. Were the 50's and 60's "better" or the 'golden age?" Probably not, but the influences of shared experiences via a more efficient mass media, might convince some otherwise.

After WW2 we were about the only industrial powerhouse still functioning well. Russia had experienced a surge of manufacturing ability owing to the necessity of building tanks, etc. to defeat the Germans, but they had also lost approx. 20 million citizens and several cities had been beat up pretty badly.

Our losses were not trivial - about 300K servicemen IIRC, but we suffered virtually no damage to our actual territory, apart from Hawaii. The world was ours for the taking, in a free enterprise business sort of way.

That kind of prosperity can smooth over a lot of rough spots. But I dunno, the 50s and the 60s also had some pigheadedness going on in cultural matters. The good ol' days always seem better. Usually always anyway.

News flash: the better parts were better. The worse parts were worse.

ahh , yea - lets just all regress:rolleyes:

The Charts are not about Psycological effects or My preception.

The Charts are bout Crime and the use of the Charts to support My believe that there was less crime because in General the People had better Charcter back then then now.
Meaning the the Society I grew up in was a safer place and that that safe enviornment made society in general better.

I could say the People I grew up with also had better Moral Values but that has become too individualist and subjective because the majority of the Populations Moral Values are extremely divers compared to when I was a Kid.

My perception is the same. I can't say what was the reality. For poor blacks, it was probably worse, but their families were still intact. OTOH, they were more subject to random searches, and police brutality. For middle class, suburban whites, it was a pretty good time to grow up.

Not really, In the thirties the everyday people in small towns across the country rooted for the likes of John dillinger, and Pretty boy.

I don't care what the charts show. I can easily remember my old neighborhood and it was crime central. People getting shot was a rather normal thing.

And kids dying from a lack of medical care was also common. I can remember going door to door asking for donations so we could buy a coffin for a friend of mine. I was about ten years old.

Yeah.... Good times. Fort Worth has changed a lot since then and all for the better.

And in Oklahoma Pretty Boy Floyd is still revered in some parts. They thought he hung the moon and some old timers still tell of how much their parents loved the guy and had no problem hiding him out.

The topic was 50s/60s; not 30s, or did I miss something?

The OP was correct in that all our economic competitors had been bombed into submission. The USA was in a great economic position. Times were good. Interesting that the supposedly "colonialist" USA did not take much advantage of the rest of the world at that time, but actually rebuilt our former enemies with better industrial technology than we had, ourselves. And then they ate out lunch with better efficiency that we had. I would have hated to see what would have resulted from an Axis victory. Probably nothing like the Marshall plan.
Were they perfect? Not at all, and no time in human history has been perfect.

Economically, great times. Lots of crime not reported though (the classic skew), and lots of cultural movements that were suppressed that nowadays people accept for better or for worse. Case in point: peak of KKK enrollment.

Also, many many neighborhoods have gone way downhill since. Just look at Hartford, CT or Chester, PA, two of many examples.