There seems to be a great deal of recent romanticizing the 1950s and 1960s. This is particularly the case with a vague vision of a middle class and middle-class neighborhoods. Taken in parts, this is natural reminiscing. Here in the Midwest, these decades were relatively prosperous, and a young man leaving high school could look forward to a job that paid sufficient wages to raise a family. Communities seemed to thrive, churches were full and new housing sprung up in Peoria, Toledo and Detroit. 

In the ’50s and ’60s, divorce was not yet common, so families stayed together more frequently. People belonged to unions and Rotary and bowled together. High school athletic events were important and well attended. For example, basketball games in Muncie or New Castle high schools attracted more spectators than many college games do today. But, rose-colored fondness aside, the world is a much better place today than in the 1950s and 1960s. We would do well to admit it to ourselves. We cannot go back, and are naïve to want to do so.

In 1950, the poverty rate was nearly double what it is today, and vast swathes of the nation were gripped by deep economic decline. The jobs awaiting young men in factories were not ubiquitous. While the Midwest accommodated African-American workers when jobs were plenty, factories in the south did not. Likewise, California and Texas factories didn’t welcome Asian or Hispanic workers. Women could work in factories, in some places, but pregnant or married women were expected to be elsewhere. 

We were a lot poorer in the ’50s and ’60s than today. We died on average more than a decade younger than we do today, and were much less healthy into later life. In 1950, more than 29 out of every 1,000 American children died at birth, Today the figure is fewer than six per 1,000 births. These are tragedies still, but tragedies that now afflict far fewer families. 

In 1950, over half of American states outlawed mixed race marriages and racial segregation robbed our nation of valuable human capital. To our great shame, this denied the central notion of our Republic that we hold certain truths to be self-evident. Women were routinely shunned from workplaces, and almost four million young men were drafted into military service for the Korean and Vietnam wars. 

Americans hold broadly divergent opinions on how families and young people should organize their lives. What we should all agree upon is that these matters are their choices, not that of a government. And if anything is apparent in our ascent towards liberty is that no government possesses the competence to tell adults who they may, or may not marry. 

Income inequality at the end of World War II was very similar to that of today, but during the ’50s and ’60s, we saw considerable wage compression. Now, it is likely that this great compression of wages occurred because educational attainment exploded in the post-war decades. It stalled in the late 1980s, which accompanied rising inequality. 

The 1950s and 1960s were not a golden age. While we can look back affectionately at aspects of that age, the notion that we aren’t only better off, but profoundly better off today is factually unsupportable. And, to be completely fair, I can say the same thing about every decade since. Surprising as it is, there simply was no halcyon era in which we did everything, or even most things, better than we are today. We would be wise to keep that in mind as we sort through ideas to improve our nation and the lives of our citizens.