[lucysmom]

Well, you probably wouldn't have wanted to be black in 1955 or have a kid with polio in an iron lung machine. Then there was the Cold War and the chance that World War III would break out at any moment.

Of course we didn't have AIDs back in the old days either.

Now we have the War on Terror, though I'm not sure what that has to do with the poor being better off today than the average in the 50s.

By your reasoning Comminst rule in Poland in 1970's was better free Poland in 1920's.

And Cuba, a workers paradise.

[durasell]

Again, my point was that no era is perfect. 1931 wasn't a great year, either, but oddly I've heard folks speak of their childhoods in the depths of the depression with something approaching fondness.

Also, remember post World War II America through the 1970s was an economic anomaly that won't be repeated. It wasn't the norm and it won't be the norm any time soon.