I’m not sure what happened in the Great Depression itself, but by 1947 the Gini coefficient for the US had dropped substantially, and continued to go down until 1968. There’s other data series, but the general take most people have is that the pre-crash era had a few people at the top making out like bandits, but prosperity wasn’t broadly shared like it was in the post-war era.
This wiki article has some good stuff.
These are amazing, thanks Adree.
My mom was born in 37, grew up in SE Kentucky, and she’s talked in detail at different times over the years about the living conditions of her childhood. No central heating/cooling, no in-door bathroom, no plumbing, the three sisters sleeping in the same bed under piles of blankets to keep warm in the winter, walking miles to school, etc. The children sleeping in the bed during a dance picture made me think the little boy with his legs over the edge was probably born around the same time as my mom.
Great link, thanks for that.
We definitely do not appreciate what we have.
In my travels I’ve been to civilized countries (eastern and far northern Europe) where people went, at least as early as 10 years ago, to get water from a well or pump-well. If they wanted a bath, they’d heat it at home. If they wanted to drink the water, they’d have to boil it first (I suspect the European love for tea comes from this… if you boil water just to drink it you might as well make it taste like something). Rooms had individual fireplaces, often coal-fired. Even in major cities this meant taking a long trip down a lot of stairs (14 foot ceilings, 4-5 floors) to get buckets and buckets of coal for the night. Before winter came around, you’d order a dump truck full of coal and shoveled it yourself into your locked den in the tenement’s basement. We’re talking 1-2 tons per family, more in northern areas like Leningrad/St. Petersburg. Granted, these were poorer people or those living in far-flung fringes of their respective countries, but I bet if you went deeper into Russia or Asia you’d see all that and worse.
And they thought they had it absurdly good, compared to what their parents went through.
Here I am, complaining about my wireless internet being laggy and mowing the lawn once a week. I should be grateful for just having drinkable water coming out of my tap, never mind hot water I can shower in, electricity to power my entertainment where I can sit down on my comfy couch that was delivered for “free” just this past week.
Currently my major sources of stress are the friend of my girlfriend’s 14 year old daughter who is coming onto me quite strongly (and I have no idea how to defuse this) and my upcoming sales trip to Europe.
Two hundred years ago, my ancestors were probably wondering if the weather would be nice enough so that enough crops would grow so they’d have stores for winter. Two thousand years ago they were fleeing central Asia and invading the most powerful empire on this planet (Rome), hunting, gathering, and dying along the way. A scratch could turn into a powerful infection that would kill or cripple someone. Eating meat from an animal with parasites could lead to death.
These are great.
I saw the Russian ones a couple years ago and was blown away by them. For some reason (and this is going to make me sound like an idiot) I kind of thought that everything from before 1960 or so was…not in color. Like sepia tone. Like Calvin’s dad explaining color photography.
Of course I didn’t literally think that. But I’d go into museums and see these brightly colored clothing or objects or whatever, and those were great. But I could never really envision them in place, actually being worn, used, etc. But seeing these photographs just really “brought history alive”, to use a cliche. The Russian ones moreso, since they’re somewhat earlier, perhaps only 30 years or so, but technologically an epoch apart. Especially no. 9 and 15, and for some reason 29.
major sources of stress are the friend of my girlfriend’s 14 year old daughter who is coming onto me quite strongly
Wait, what???
Seconded.
Tell her you’re gay.
Not in color (well, sometimes they are) but if you like pictures of ordinary people from yesteryear, there is Shorpy.
Don’t stand, don’t stand so, don’t stand so close to me…
You wrote all that just to be able to brag about this? A for effort, D for douchechills.
Ah, see. Had it been a few hundred years ago, you could have accepted her father’s dowry and married her after having your current wife committed for witchcraft secondary to ergotism or just plain old hysteria. Who says we have it better!
I read this thread earlier today when that was the last post, and fortunately all the awesome photos made me forget to come back and highlight that little nugget of creepiness. Eugh. I’m glad other folks picked up the slack.
Perhaps you could elope to Europe with her.
Yes, exactly.
Sorry, it was supposed to be humorous. I’m 50, my girlfriend is 42 and her daughter is 14. Her daughter’s friend finds it endlessly amusing to flirt with me, for whatever reason. Perhaps because I’m so awkward about it.
Stop doubting yourself already, dude. Take your shirt off next time she’s over.
Thanks for the link! Now if someone can tie in the data to Google Maps so you can look at pictures based on geographical locations…
I do like how in the comments you’ll often find people digging up the present location in Streetview.