Quality of life wise I have to say the 50's There was such prosperity for the middle class ... if you worked hard you made it. There was also a pride in being part of this country, and respect for parents and others, and moral standards that people wouldn't tolerate being sidestepped ... things we seem to have lost lately. If you worked hard you were respected and it didn't matter if you were a brain surgeon or a janitor ... it was not as easy to buy respect, you had to earn it. Today it seems that the almighty buck is the measure to which everything is held up. You get that big house and that fancy car and its ok if you have to crush people into the mud to get it, the fact that you got it is all that matters ... kids have to grow up knowing their baby sitter better than their parents, "oh well, they'll be ok, look at the size of my house!"
The new millennia ... polio and small pox are gone, just a distant memory ... diabetes, cancer, heart disease, we're closing in fast! gotta love that ... polio would sweep through an area and people were terrified, justifiably so ... the cold war for now is gone, enough nukes hanging over your head to destroy the world, and a bunch of guys were sitting at the console with their finger on the button 24/7 and their fingers were twitching !! That was some scary shite!! Everytime that practice drill siren would go off you'd get that knot in your stomach and wonder, is this the end of the world
For the moment at least that threat isn't so eminent ...whew !!!
Ahh the 60's ... free love, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix and the horsepower wars ... how could you not like that combo!!!!
All the eras have great things ... to bad we couldn't combine the best of all of them, man wouldn't that be somethin !!!
