Thread: Is This An Example Of Our Country Going Down The Tubes ? Or Was It Always This Way ?

Forty years ago there seems to have been more of a moral commitment to the public good. In the past thirty, forty years it seems like 'the bottom line' dictates policy. Or am I simply naive ?

When the hospital’s drug cabinet is bare - The Washington Post

I think when these items are manufactured by big corporations it's the bottom line. It wasn't always this way to this extent and that's the problem.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I think when these items are manufactured by big corporations it's the bottom line. It wasn't always this way to this extent and that's the problem.

I tend to think that is what it is. OTOH, I may have an illusory view of 'the good old days.' It could be that there is just more being revealed nowadays than there was then.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I tend to think that is what it is. OTOH, I may have an illusory view of 'the good old days.' It could be that there is just more being revealed nowadays than there was then.

i have wondered the same on diff topics .. like my kids for example .. when i grew up it was be home by dark or b4 street lights came on !! now my kids are lucky if they get out of site !! i think it is cause of all the creeps out there that we "hear" about that make the modern parent this way and i have often wondered if its the same ppl out there as in the past but back then there was no attention !!

Originally Posted by gooser

i have wondered the same on diff topics .. like my kids for example .. when i grew up it was be home by dark or b4 street lights came on !! now my kids are lucky if they get out of site !! i think it is cause of all the creeps out there that we "hear" about that make the modern parent this way and i have often wondered if its the same ppl out there as in the past but back then there was no attention !!

I would say it is much worse now. It may sound 'quaint', but we really never did lock our doors when I was a kid. I roamed all over the place when I was a little kid. Walked to school, to the public park. No supervision and no hassles.

I hitch hiked all over the country a few times in the 1960s. From coast to coast and back. Rode freight trains, no problems with predators. Even met some nice people along the way. Now people don't hitch hike, and I expect no one would pick you up if you did.

same here , although im in my mid-late 30's we never locked our doors either !! and i also ran amuck !! i suppose having more populated area now may also be the cause of things worse (in our topic ) but other things are just mind blowing and hard to comprehend with all that is going on now !!

I think the main problem today is the young have no work ethics.
Back in the 50s I mowed lawns for 25 cents a pop,I washed cars for $1.00,I cleaned morter from bricks for a nickel apiece.
I worked in car washes and gas stations for 80 cents an hr,I was happy to have the work,any work was good work.
Wife and I went to in and out for a burger today,some of those kids in there had to wgt 300lbs and they are just teenagers
They will become diabetics on welfare and just drag this country down more.
You want your food stamps,get your fat butt out on the highway picking up trash,thats the way it should work IMO

Originally Posted by gooser

same here , although im in my mid-late 30's we never locked our doors either !! and i also ran amuck !! i suppose having more populated area now may also be the cause of things worse (in our topic ) but other things are just mind blowing and hard to comprehend with all that is going on now !!

It's just that there are many more people these days and they have to move constantly in order to stay afloat economically (not everyone, obviously - but a significant number of people have to). This means that they have no sense of belonging in the community in which they live, and that leads to people worrying about their neighbours (who are often strangers).

I think that the proportion of 'bad apples' is the same, but we have so many more people around that there is so much more news about nasty things happening.

I have had the good fortune to live in several towns where the population was low enough, and the people knew each other enough to not worry so much about basic safety. We left our doors open all the time. In fact, one of our neighbours went on vacation for three weeks once - left their doors open. We all (the neighbours) would go over and feed and walk the dog. We left cars unlocked, homes unlocked, kids walked to playgrounds - nothing happened.

So, safe areas exist, just not everywhere.

The perfect thread, as I just finished reading No Country For Old Men. The heart of the book is the same as the title of this thread.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I think when these items are manufactured by big corporations it's the bottom line.

That's what the article says - too thin margins and they want the government to step in because the market is failing.


I don't lock my door.

One time I was out of town for a few days and a friend crashed at my place for the night because she was too drunk to drive home and didn't feel like waiting 30min for the cab when she could walk 3min from the bar to my place (yes, I live in the most urban part of the town).

I think the paranoia is largely self-inflicted - people are the same. If anything history would suggest that they've gotten better over the last few hundred years - far less violence these days but we compensate for it by staying on top and getting engaged in larger amounts of it from places far away from us.