What's better or easier now than it was 30 years ago ?
Discussion
I'm trying to work out if I'm largely just wearing rose tinted glasses, or overdoing the nostalgia for my teens and 20's as I can't help but thinking nearly every aspect of life was easier or better back then. I'm currently seeing just how much harder it seems to be now for my 3 three kids to get going in life and generally to enjoy themselves...From my recollection back in the 90's and 2000's it was:
- Less 'pressure' on results at school / college
- Easier to get a job or go to Uni
- Easier to get a driving licence
- Easier to travel to most of the world
- You could get gig tickets without spending a week or month's wages
- My first car insurance (at 17) was £270 in 1991
- You could go for a 'drive' without the ominous spectre of average speed cameras
- My first house was 3x my salary, albeit a doer upper !
- 90% of interaction with people was face to face
- Sensible tax breaks existed
I'm sure there is more....but I'll stop there before I melt down further.
Genuinely, can people suggest something now that is about quality of life etc...that is easier or better than it was ? (And I don't mean comparing now to the middle ages)
- Less 'pressure' on results at school / college
- Easier to get a job or go to Uni
- Easier to get a driving licence
- Easier to travel to most of the world
- You could get gig tickets without spending a week or month's wages
- My first car insurance (at 17) was £270 in 1991
- You could go for a 'drive' without the ominous spectre of average speed cameras
- My first house was 3x my salary, albeit a doer upper !
- 90% of interaction with people was face to face
- Sensible tax breaks existed
I'm sure there is more....but I'll stop there before I melt down further.
Genuinely, can people suggest something now that is about quality of life etc...that is easier or better than it was ? (And I don't mean comparing now to the middle ages)
Your car insurance was cheap!
I'm the same age as you and passed in 1991 as well. Insurance for a 13 year old Mini Clubman estate was £1050.
Banking is easier.
Shopping is easier, if you like to do so from the comfort of your own home.
Communication is easier.
Finding out how to get places is easier.
Life did seem simpler though, maybe because I had no responsibilities back then?
I'm the same age as you and passed in 1991 as well. Insurance for a 13 year old Mini Clubman estate was £1050.
Banking is easier.
Shopping is easier, if you like to do so from the comfort of your own home.
Communication is easier.
Finding out how to get places is easier.
Life did seem simpler though, maybe because I had no responsibilities back then?
In 1995, unemployment was a lot higher (8.6%) vs 4.7% or so now. Crime was higher, going by the stats (I can see this one getting disputed).
No minimum wage. In 1999 it was only £3.60/hour. The vast majority of the country didn’t have internet access and if you did, it was slow, frustrating and expensive. The absolute fastest processor from Intel was 200Mhz- a system with this would have cost a fortune, easily £2,000+ in 1995 pounds, so £4,000ish today.
Lower life expectancy. A lot of mainstream cars were poorer then, whether in refinement, equipment or performance. Culinary offerings were less varied.
That said, think I’d still like to go back to experience that time again. I love/loved the 1990s, but just trying to be objective on certain things. There were many positives- house prices, traffic levels, community feel, etc.
No minimum wage. In 1999 it was only £3.60/hour. The vast majority of the country didn’t have internet access and if you did, it was slow, frustrating and expensive. The absolute fastest processor from Intel was 200Mhz- a system with this would have cost a fortune, easily £2,000+ in 1995 pounds, so £4,000ish today.
Lower life expectancy. A lot of mainstream cars were poorer then, whether in refinement, equipment or performance. Culinary offerings were less varied.
That said, think I’d still like to go back to experience that time again. I love/loved the 1990s, but just trying to be objective on certain things. There were many positives- house prices, traffic levels, community feel, etc.
LightweightLouisDanvers said:
Your car insurance was cheap!
I'm the same age as you and passed in 1991 as well. Insurance for a 13 year old Mini Clubman estate was £1050.
Banking is easier.
Shopping is easier, if you like to do so from the comfort of your own home.
Communication is easier.
Finding out how to get places is easier.
Life did seem simpler though, maybe because I had no responsibilities back then?
Yep, the insurance was cheap - Metro city X, 1984. Sh*te but fun ! Bought it for £900, sold it 12 months later for £1150, which on my teen maths at the time, was free motoring....Haven't repeated that too often since mind.I'm the same age as you and passed in 1991 as well. Insurance for a 13 year old Mini Clubman estate was £1050.
Banking is easier.
Shopping is easier, if you like to do so from the comfort of your own home.
Communication is easier.
Finding out how to get places is easier.
Life did seem simpler though, maybe because I had no responsibilities back then?
Life was simpler when you didn't have all the information in the world in your pocket, but that ignorance is bliss meant you'd miss out on a lot of things.
Marketing is easier now (not cheaper, just easier). I mean products, services, and ideas (so, politics).
Petrol prices are about the same (60p/l in 1995 versus 125p/l today) but cars are so much more efficient you can go further on the same quantity.
It's a lot easier to get proper coffee now.
It's much cheaper to travel internationally.
You don't really see smoke-belching wrecks driving about any more (thinking old transits and the like that used to leave soot marks on the tarmac).
Choice. In 1995, to have choice around music or films/TV you'd have CDs or DVDs, which generally meant going to a physical shop to buy them. Now you don't need to go anywhere to listen to or see whatever you want.
It's easier to seal yourself into your own bubble of information now. Debatable if that's better, but it's definitely easier.
Marketing is easier now (not cheaper, just easier). I mean products, services, and ideas (so, politics).
Petrol prices are about the same (60p/l in 1995 versus 125p/l today) but cars are so much more efficient you can go further on the same quantity.
It's a lot easier to get proper coffee now.
It's much cheaper to travel internationally.
You don't really see smoke-belching wrecks driving about any more (thinking old transits and the like that used to leave soot marks on the tarmac).
Choice. In 1995, to have choice around music or films/TV you'd have CDs or DVDs, which generally meant going to a physical shop to buy them. Now you don't need to go anywhere to listen to or see whatever you want.
It's easier to seal yourself into your own bubble of information now. Debatable if that's better, but it's definitely easier.
LightweightLouisDanvers said:
Your car insurance was cheap!
I'm the same age as you and passed in 1991 as well. Insurance for a 13 year old Mini Clubman estate was £1050.
Banking is easier.
Shopping is easier, if you like to do so from the comfort of your own home.
Communication is easier.
Finding out how to get places is easier.
Life did seem simpler though, maybe because I had no responsibilities back then?
Insurance has got slightly cheaper in the last 25 years IME. I'm the same age as you and passed in 1991 as well. Insurance for a 13 year old Mini Clubman estate was £1050.
Banking is easier.
Shopping is easier, if you like to do so from the comfort of your own home.
Communication is easier.
Finding out how to get places is easier.
Life did seem simpler though, maybe because I had no responsibilities back then?
My first year insurance was about £2300 adjusted for inflation.
It was essentially half my income at my part time job at the time.
TA14 said:
I think that this is the biggest change and would hazard a guess that the same house is now 10 x the average twenty year old's salary.
Interestingly....I looked at a project in the same road as my first house a few weeks ago. So, 1998 I paid £47k, spent £9k getting it to a good standard. At auction two weeks ago, house went for £190k, needed at least £50k spent. General price there is about £240k. (an aside, but hence no point buying as a project). So, I guess yes, not many 24 year olds on £60k to £80k, at least not in this neck of the woods....When in 1999 the Matrix quoted something like the 90s being the peak of humanity oh how I laughed....
Then I look at the world now and I wonder... was that right?
Maybe its because I was a child for most of the 90s but it does seem like the 90s was a much brighter time. I remember thinking how the future was exciting and the possibilities seemed very big and optimistic. Grew up thinking if you work hard you have a good life.
Now though all I see is dystopian futures, not trying to be all tin foil but the state with all its CCTV, its speed cameras, its access to your information at a level of detail that just wasn't as organised in the 90s or before it certainly seems we have a little less freedom, and its not just the state is it, its the tech industry.
Buying on Amazon or anything online is easier than the 90s much easier but is it better? Miss looking at TV's computers etc on the high street?
Yep houses since the 80s really have spiralled out of cost the combination of council stock being sold off and then this massive drive on people to buy a second home to let it out. I recall a lot of the TV in the late 90s at least was all about decorating and doing up houses...
The world changes we get older, I don't know it its objectively worse all together, but it is different and I don't like a lot of it...but as I probably didn't know better in the 90s I didn;t know what I didn't like then.
Then I look at the world now and I wonder... was that right?
Maybe its because I was a child for most of the 90s but it does seem like the 90s was a much brighter time. I remember thinking how the future was exciting and the possibilities seemed very big and optimistic. Grew up thinking if you work hard you have a good life.
Now though all I see is dystopian futures, not trying to be all tin foil but the state with all its CCTV, its speed cameras, its access to your information at a level of detail that just wasn't as organised in the 90s or before it certainly seems we have a little less freedom, and its not just the state is it, its the tech industry.
Buying on Amazon or anything online is easier than the 90s much easier but is it better? Miss looking at TV's computers etc on the high street?
Yep houses since the 80s really have spiralled out of cost the combination of council stock being sold off and then this massive drive on people to buy a second home to let it out. I recall a lot of the TV in the late 90s at least was all about decorating and doing up houses...
The world changes we get older, I don't know it its objectively worse all together, but it is different and I don't like a lot of it...but as I probably didn't know better in the 90s I didn;t know what I didn't like then.
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