Edward Thieme":18vqzrjj said:
Hmmmmm... 2010 - 67 = 1943
The "best of times" is a relative thing and I believe some in every generation since the beginning of mankind have said things were getting worse. Here's a short list of positive (and not so positive) things that have happened in the U.S. since 1943
Major events - (numbers are an approximation from various web sites)
1942-1945 - About 100,000 Japanese americans were relocated to US internment camps and held without charge.
1945 -WWII ended - 60-72M total deaths, 400K+ U.S. deaths
1948 - Truman orders the integration of the U.S. armed forces.
1950-1953 The Korean War 2.5-3.5 M total deaths, 36k U.S. deaths
1955-1968 (plus or minus depending on who's definition you want to use) The Civil Rights Movement. Depending on your race and attitude, you might not think the period before 1968 was the best of times.
1956- A federal ruling took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional. African Americans are permitted to ride on the same buses as white Americans.
1959-1975 The Vietnam War 2.3+M deaths, 58k U.S. deaths
1990-1991 First Gulf War - 100k deaths, 300 U.S. deaths
911 attacks 2003 - Approximately 3K U.S. deaths
2001 - Present - Afghanistan and Iraq, 100K+ total deaths, 5000+ U.S. deaths
Now 1975 - 1990 - Mostly good times, and we did have a few good years in the 1990's without much in the way of war (and 5 or so years in the late 40's).
Environmental issues
1972 - DDT banned (many companies argued against this like it would be the end of the world).
1973 - Endangered species act passed - Bald eagles (already protected under other laws) are one of the first species to be listed.
2007 - Bald Eagles Removed from ESA listing (probably a result of a combination of the DDT ban and regulations put in place by the ESA)
1969 - Time magazine article about a fire on the Cuyahoga River, a tributary feeding Lake Erie at Cleveland, Ohio highlights how polluted Lake Erie is at the time (MAN those were good times)
1972 - Congress passes the clean water act
2010 - The water quality in Lake Erie is MUCH improved relative to the 1960's - some (including me) would claim that this is in large part due to some of those pesky regulations passed by Congress in the 70's and later.
1975 - The first wide-spread use of catalytic converters in the U.S. (contributing to the eventual phase out of leaded gasoline) - The initial designs dramatically reduce CO and unburnt fuel emissions, later designs introduced in 1981 also reduce NOx emissions.
1975-2010 The number of stage 1 smog alerts drops from several 100/year to just a few per year. Man those earlier times (say late 60's to mid 70's), those were good times.
1987 - After a great deal of data showed the relationship between the loss of ozone in the atmosphere and the use of CFC's, the Montreal Protocol (officially the Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer) treaty was signed.
2010 - Due to the very long life span of CFC's in the atmosphere, it's not yet 100% when/if the ozone will fully recover. However, recent data suggests that we may have turned the corner and ozone depletion is happening and a much lower (near zero rate).
1976-1978 The toxic waste dump site at Love Canal is discovered and investigated by the local newspaper, the Niagara Gazette. Residents are evacuated in 1978 - man those were good times....
1980 - Partially in response to Love Canal (and many other hazardous waste dumps) Congress passes the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA- AKA Superfund Act).
2010 - 1,270 sites listed on the National Priority List for cleanup under the Superfund act. 340 have been de-listed (usually due to being cleaned up) and 63 new sites have been proposed. Those were some good times before this and other pesky governmental regulations about chemical dumping.
1975 - The corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) regulations are first enacted by US Congress. This was mostly a response to the 1973 Arab oil embargo. The average passenger car sold in the U.S. gets about 20MPG.
2010 - The average passenger car sold the U.S. gets about 32MPG. Some of this increase is due to CAFE and some due to the increase in oil prices. There was an increase of about 5 MPG between 1979 and 1982 as the CAFE standards increased rapidly during that time. Much of the recent increase is due to high gas prices.
Other random stuff.
1983 - 14% of the U.S. population wear seat belts. Deaths due to motor vehicles are about 1 per 5500 people. per year in the U.S.
2010 - over 83% of the U.S. population wear seat belts. Deaths due to motor vehicles are about 1 per 7000 per year in the U.S. Man - those earlier times when we didn't wear seat belts, didn't have child restraint seats or airbags and cars weren't safety crash tested and designed with protective crumple zone, THOSE were the good times.
1949 - Life expectancy at birth in the U.S. - 66.3 years
2010 - Life expectancy at birth in the U.S. - 78+ years
Man, those earlier times when people died younger were so much better.
I could go on -but not everything that's happened in the past 67 years has been great and not everything that's happened in the past 67 years is in obvious decline. While overall wages are down over the past few years (in inflation adjusted $'s), the average person in the U.S. is making far more money relative to 1943. We live longer, we're healthier overall and many of the most egregious environment wrong doings have been put into check or reduced. So, when I look across the entire 67 years (and admittedly I've only been on this planet for 49 of those), I see many, many things that are better today than they've ever been before. I know that I certainly don't want to go back to the environmental regulations that were in place when I was born in 1961.