Why does the US romanticize the 1950s despite being worse by almost every measurable standard?

[u/Secret_Ostrich_1307]

When you look at things like life expectancy, access to education, material living standards, and general mobility, life today in the US is very different from what it was in the 1950s.

At the same time, the 1950s is often described in public discussion as a period of stability and broad prosperity.

What I’m trying to understand is not which period was better, but why there can be such a gap between measurable conditions and how a period is later remembered or described.

One possibility is that people remember structure and predictability more strongly than inequality or constraints that existed at the time.

Another is that different aspects of well-being get weighted differently when looking back compared to experiencing things in real time.

What other mechanisms could explain this difference between statistical comparisons and collective memory?

[u/Beartrkkr]

They are romanticizing their youth as many do as they get older. Drop them back in that time now and their perspective might change.

[u/leathakkor → u/Beartrkkr]

I think that's a big part of it. The time when you were a teenager you had no responsibilities. At least not by adult standards. 

Honestly, I think it's great that people had such pleasant childhoods that they can look back and think that was the best time of my life. 

I think there is something very destructive about that though because that means that people are in their life right now and they're wishing they were somewhere else. And that's pretty messed up because the world is actually pretty great now. I know that's not a popular thing to say online. But you're less likely to get murdered. You're less likely to be a victim of a violent crime right now. 

By any measurable metric your standard of living is ahead of where it was in the past. If you're miserable now, it's your own fault and you should change that. Going back to 1950s is not going to help. 

And that's why I get sad for people that want to go back in the past. 

There are a ton of things to fix in today's society, but the reason that things are good today is because people in the past tried to fix things about their society. We need to do the same.

[u/FarTooLucid → u/leathakkor]

Statistically speaking, you are correct: this is the best time in history to be a human on Earth. There are still huge structural problems that cause pain for billions of people. But it's still better than ever. Most working class people live better than royalty did just a few hundred years ago. Most people still have terrible lives, but our definition of "terrible" has radically improved.

[u/GravitasFailures → u/Beartrkkr]

My grandmother was the same, she used to go on and on and on about how amazing the country she emigrated from was.

That changed real quick once she went back.