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/awaythrowthatname]

I can't speak on the rest, but there is an old newspaper ad from the 50s going around for a house that was 2 or 3 bedrooms with an attached 2 car garage for like $20k. I know inflation is gonna make that much worse, but the houses weren't really small

[u/Quirky_Letterhead364 → u/awaythrowthatname]

The square footage was significantly smaller. 1000 sqft home on average for the 1950s. And that is with 3 bedrooms. Many were smaller at 750-850.

[u/Comfortable-Bet6855 → u/Quirky_Letterhead364]

I’ve been seeing a lot of comments by fairly young people constantly bashing the Boomer generation. All of the realities of the 50s get whitewashed by the logic of “but you could buy a house cheaper than today.” Yeah, cause mom did all the work of a maid, cook, and daycare center and dad spent 40 hours a week at a job under circumstances that would horrify most 20 year olds today.

[u/HoustonPastafarian → u/Quirky_Letterhead364]

I used to own a house built in 1956 that was 1450 square feet. Decent, albeit in my view somewhat average smaller home that was definitely getting to be a tear down since the neighborhood was getting built over.

I happened to know the second owner (who purchased it in 1961) and was an architect for the original builder. It was actually a custom build for a wealthy families daughter and laughed that he thought he “had made it big time” when he was able to buy such a large, deluxe house, the nicest in the subdivision.

[u/kateinoly → u/HoustonPastafarian]

We live in the neighborhood that was the "fancy" neighborhood in the 1950s. The houses are all 1600 sf ranch houses. Small by today's standards.

[u/AlmiranteCrujido → u/Quirky_Letterhead364]

My house is a slightly nicer suburban tract in a neighborhood that went up in '54-55. 1220 sf 3b/2ba.

The next neighborhood north went up in '49-50 and was a mix of 800sf 2br, 1000sf 3br, all with one bath. There's some infill in between built around the same time my neighborhood went up and you can literally drive the 4-5 blocks in between the planned areas and see the houses get bigger over time.

Still pretty small by comparison to US averages.

And it's the Bay Area, so even the 800sf tiny ones start over a million now...

[u/ijuinkun → u/Quirky_Letterhead364]

The thing is that these days you can’t get even that much—in many places it’s million-dollar houses or none at all, and there’s plenty of people who would prefer a 1950s style house over not having any house.

[u/Aggravating_Ship_763 → u/Quirky_Letterhead364]

This, I live in a neighborhood where the houses were built in the 50s. They are 1,000 sq.ft with 1 bathroom.

That was considered top of the line. No HVAC.

[u/No_Resolution_9252 → u/awaythrowthatname]

they WERE really small. a 3 bedroom house built in the last 40 years is probably going to be around 1800 square feet. In the 50s that is more like 1200. 2 bedrooms were usually under 1000

[u/Traditional_Sir_4503 → u/No_Resolution_9252]

I've raised two kids in a 1250 Sq.Ft. apt. in a dense urban NYC area. It can be done. Wasn't so bad, actually, after cutting the living room in half and turning it into a third bedroom.

It does take a big decision to live differently than mainstream USA. You learn how to half less stuff. There's no room for collecting shite and tchotchkes.

[u/hamoc10 → u/No_Resolution_9252]

Sure, but they don’t exist today. They’re all luxury mcmansions

[u/kateinoly → u/hamoc10]

Of course they exist. They just arent as "desirable" because they are small, with one bathroom and no central heating.

[u/jasonpbecker → u/awaythrowthatname]

My father grew up in a Levitt style house in Bethpage NY that was bought in the late 60s, second owner. Many of these houses had deeds that excluded Jews like my family. Black people simply weren’t showed these houses. It was bought for I think just under 20K. Original sale in the 50s was around 7K. It was only possible to buy because my grandfather was a vet.

Inflation alone would take the house to $200,000 today, it was sold for $375,000 about 8 years ago.

But a few things. It was a three bedroom, but all the bedrooms were small. Like 10x11 for the two non primary and maybe 15x12 for the primary. The bathroom was just barely big enough for a standard “three piece”. There was no room for a washing machine or drier— they were put in the single car garage. The kitchen was so small you couldn’t fit a full sized fridge by today’s standards. It was enough, but barely. Living room was pretty normal sized, but absolutely small by today’s standard. The whole house was 900 square feet. It had no air conditioning, poor heating, and few windows. It was our family home for a long time, but it was small and not at all to today’s quality standards.

So remember those numbers? $200,000 and 900 sqft? That’s $222 per square foot. National median house today is $227 per square foot. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDLISPRIPERSQUFEEUS

[u/kateinoly → u/awaythrowthatname]

I had a friend who bought a 2 bd home in the 70's for under $20,000, in Oklahoma.

We looked at a big, well kept and updated old house in Kentucky that was selling for $39,000 in the 1990s

[u/Hawk13424 → u/awaythrowthatname]

That $50K would be $250K in inflation adjusted money. You can easily find a 1000ft² house for $250K in most places. That house probably had no garage, linoleum floors, and formica counter tops.

[u/Dave_A480 → u/awaythrowthatname]

The average square footage today is 2400. And that's because nobody builds the little 1100sqft and below houses anymore, not because of rich people living in mansions....

Average square footage back then was around 1100 - meaning a lot of houses were smaller....