Yesterday I bumped into a young couple shopping in the supermarket. He was ponting out to his wife/partner the increase in price and decrease in content size of a shelf item.

We entered into a discussion based upon inflationary trends and the way the world was changing. He did say that his father, who grew up in England during the war years, often spoke about his restricted diet during those years in which he had no option but to eat horse-meat and was only too pleased to be able to get a bread and dripping sandwich as a meal.....this at the time the young fellow said he found hard to believe!

After listening to this young chap for a while I did remark that I myself could verify the truth of the situation as I had been fortunate enough to survive those very lean times in England and remember when one could purchase a quarter of a pound of lollies for 5 pence and a big bottle of soft drink was 7 pence with 3 pence refund on the bottle! .....I continued by saying that I was only too appreciative of the fact that I had lived through the 50`s and the 60`s in Queensland ( which I now believe was as close to Paradise as one will ever get!) and felt really sorry for the youngsters of today who will never ever be given the chance to live or appreciate those wonderful times when there was full employment, fuel was 31 cents (equiv) a gallon, and we had a friendly, relatively crime-free society. People would help each other and moral principles reigned supreme,...People knew and accepted the difference between right and wrong and took the punishment meted out if stepping over the line....THIS WAS A HAPPY SOCIETY!

Where have we gone wrong?...... if only we could return to those good old days before Television and before the inception of this national occupation of greed for more and more?

The good old days eh ? Yes perhaps there were many advantages 50 or 60 years ago. I too was brought up during the war years but I remember my mother saved every paper bag and every piece of string. Presents as well as chips came wrapped in newspaper and I remember sitting down to a plate of mashed potatoes grown by my father because there was nothing else to eat. We picked blackberries from hedgerows and mushrooms from fields. I had never tasted a banana until after the war.
If you were ill you paid to go to the doctor who was unable to give you drugs now available. Dentists drilled your teeth with something driven by a venetian blind chord with no anaesthetic. No Television, fridges, washing machines, computers, toasters, mobile phones,microwaves, dishwashers, airconditioning, cars were primitive compared to today's, no recorded music apart from 78rpm records, Hospital treatment was also primitive compared with today's advances particularly in the operating theatre and you usually had to pay for it.
Yes, in some respects we were healthier, because we didn't overeat, we cycled everywhere, we actually pushed lawn mowers and we didn't jump in a car to go to the local shop, we walked up stairs and didn't take lifts and we didn't have remote controls for everything.

Were we happier ? In some respects we were, but I for one would prefer not to go back to those days as I am happier living in today's world in spite of the drugs, crime, pollution and terrorism, Sixty or seventy years ago we had our worries, but they were just different worries then, particularly the risks of war and all the devastation that brought. As for working conditions, the present generation doesn't know how well off they are now...... fancy cutting cane by hand or digging coal by hand ?

False advertising.

The starting contribution says nothing about "where we are heading", only about "where some of us have been".

The world is so completely different today, from transport, through entertainment, to mobile phones, the internet and beyond, that it is utterly pointless to compare the experiences.

Different planets.

I agree with Pericles on this.
If there's something about today you don't like, don't waste time mooning over the supposed "good old days", get up and work for the "good new days", make it happen! That, in my humble opinion, is what our parents and grandparents did, and we stand today among the fruits of their efforts, as our descendants will stand among the fruits of OURS. It's up to all of us to determine what they'll be.
Hindsight is always rosier than the harsh realities.

Greed is right Cuphandle. Advertising and corporatism targets gullible people with spurious ideas that consumption and spending will make you happy and that if we make big business rich and omnipotent then we will all be better off. Local businesses and communities have been decimated. The vast majority labour under despots and bullies in faceless and impersonal corperations that care for nothing but their own profits and growth. No wonder the wage slaves excessively use drugs and alcohol to escape their misery. Another opening for the greedy capitalists.

We live in times of shallow bountifulness where soft drinks, chips and fast food are no longer treats but everyday items and wonder why we are getting sick and no longer appreciate the good things in life. Humans need some hardship. Without the bad you cant really appreciate the good.

Dear Cuphandle,
Where are we heading . Up the creek without a paddle.
I do a bit of web serfing and people who are much more articulate with words then I am say Obama is leading us into slavery to big business and the banks by not doing the hard yards to stop greed and paying off the debt but postponing the enevitable and bribing us with a stimulus package. I don't care what people think but there are no free lunches.