No, the working conditions you speak of were prior to WW2. Yes, work was physical, but that beats working in an office in a feminine environment. The pay was enough to afford a house, even with land, and to start a family in their 20's. Most today can't afford even half of that in their 30's, and that doesn't include getting to own land, which is way beyond most people today.
There is nothing better today than it was 70 years ago, in every aspect our country has gone down hill. The fall off post 9/11 was even more drastic. And now the country is in shambles. I am personally thankful to not have kids in this country, the future they will inherit will be either bleak or extremely violent. There is no argument that the country is better in any aspect, and young men realize this. And the worse it gets, the more young men will wake up to this reality and organize to change it.
I'll ignore the topic changing and stick to the topic we were discussing.
It sounds to me like you simply want an easy life, but you also wanted more out of life than you got....those two don't really go hand in hand.
You don't have to work in an office, getting a worthless paper degree (which I did myself but never worked with the degree as I realized it wasn't a good path) and working in an office is seeking the easy life and 50-70 years ago very few "working class" had that option. There are many manual labor trades right now that would allow one to live a very secure, if not lavish, lifestyle.
I don't think you have a realistic view of what it meant to be working class back then, those common factory jobs back then would be considered prison labor camps today. Also the houses you keep referring to that these working class bought and lived in back then, the 20 something year olds today wouldn't live in those houses for free. What you see on tv and Hollywood isn't real life, go take a look at those houses built in the 50's where working class people lived, not the nice charming houses that people fixed up and modernized, go look at the 1100 sq ft one bathroom for 3 bedrooms barely a kitchen to speak of house that 6 people lived in two or 3 to a room. There are lots of other glaring things that no 20 something year old would find unacceptable today but we can just stick to houses, hell sharing a room isn't even acceptable anymore. I think you're confusing upper class with "working class", they were very different from what they are today.
I'll also add that I know multiple 20 something year olds who got married bought houses and are starting families, right in my family tree. They all have one thing in common, they work their asses off for it because it's worth it.
Last edited: