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Ransom Cozzillio's avatar

Really enjoyed the look back into tue 1700’s. I think a similar useful endeavor would be to do the same exercise with a much more recent date, like the 50s or 60s.

It seems very few people genuinely think life in 1770 was better than today; though to your point they likely are not aware how much worse.

However, it seems many people do legitimately think the golden age of relative modernity was their parents/grandparents time.

Every time I read an interesting statistic (usually economic) about that era and foist it on my friends (who are not necessarily the “the past was better” types) they are shocked.

Things like how much of their income families spent on food, what percent of households still lacked either regular electricity or running water, what percent of families had to be dual income (that last one reallly shocks people).

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Erin Skinner Cochran's avatar

I absolutely loved this piece! There's something about it that feels totally unique. I can't imagine reading it in a magazine or a newspaper (for a number of a reasons). It's delightful, informative, surprising and fascinating! Thank you for an awesome read.

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