Horrible Divers Everywhere?

[CT-Rich]

Looking at prices of housing in a paticular place and time is not an indication of inflation of the dollar in the country as a whole. An example could be housing prices in Detroit and finding a different answer.

Try this:
$200 in 1968 → 2019 | Inflation Calculator




Bob

My class was $125 in 1980. That is the equivalent of $388 today. My daughter’s class was considerably more, around $500 for her open water, I am guessing similar when she gets AOW.

 

[Outbound]

The more I read this thread (and others that are similar), the more I'm convinced that it's a case of Archie Bunker Syndrome. You know, "Those were the days..." type thinking. I'm sure there are crappy instructors out there, and I know for a fact there are crappy students. But there were probably crappy instructors back in the day, and crappy students too. Every generation laments that those who come after them are weaker, dumber, more violent, etc. The national crime rate in the US is half of what it was thirty years ago, and is the lowest it's been in the last forty to fifty years. But if you ask most Americans they'll swear that it's Armageddon out there and we are all going to get robbed and shot.

 

[AfterDark]

Not better, different. If you were a black guy dating a white woman in the sixties, it was a lot different. Being openly gay and trying to report getting beat up? A nice cop would ask you why you set yourself up like that and a mean one might arrest you. People (read minorities) were expected to stay in their lane, this was true in the north and the south. Redlining of neighborhoods was legal and common. Public lynchings occurred well into the 1950s.

The wide spread availability of cars and guns have changed things, too. More guns and easy access to the suburbs have had an impact. It was safe for you growing up because you were white suburban. If you were a black kid wanting to move into suburbia or go to a white college or get a traditionally white job, your experience may have been considerably different.

I never posted they were better, it was a question left to the reader to answer.

It was different, I remember being able to do things as a child that would be considered almost child neglect in todays world.

The wide spread availability of cars and guns have changed things?!?! Guns were a lot more available back in the 1960's. Before 1968 ANYONE 21 or older that is ANYONE could buy a gun thru the US mail from a Sears and Roebuck catalog and other sources; no background checks and more often than not, permits or licenses were not required. That included such as guns the M1-carbine .30 caliber semi-automatic and other semi's of various calibers. No, my friend guns are much harder to get on the legal market these days then in the 1960's. Another excuse needs to found, guns ain't it.

Now the black market for guns, like drugs can't be stopped, that is an entirely different animal and where more than half of guns used in crimes come from. Right in your state of CT a school shooting occurred, the perp used a gun stolen after killing its owner, his mother. There's more going on there.

As drugs and unauthorized foreign nationals pour thru our porous borders so do guns. It's a package deal for a porous border.

 

[AfterDark]

The more I read this thread (and others that are similar), the more I'm convinced that it's a case of Archie Bunker Syndrome. You know, "Those were the days..." type thinking. I'm sure there are crappy instructors out there, and I know for a fact there are crappy students. But there were probably crappy instructors back in the day, and crappy students too. Every generation laments that those who come after them are weaker, dumber, more violent, etc. The national crime rate in the US is half of what it was thirty years ago, and is the lowest it's been in the last forty to fifty years. But if you ask most Americans they'll swear that it's Armageddon out there and we are all going to get robbed and shot.

Yeah but the 1960's were more than 40 years ago, not 30, just sayin'

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

My wife tells the story about how a child disappeared in her neighborhood in Erie and was later found dead. They think they know who did it, but couldn’t prove it. Everyone was afraid to go outside. This was the early 1960s.

So again, when people wish for the good old days, they’re wishing for something that never really existed.

I think everyone was just less informed about what was going on, that’s all.

About the only thing different is that there was less overcrowding because over population hadn’t kicked in yet.

 

[Bob DBF]

Yeah but the 1960's were more than 40 years ago, not 30, just sayin'

Yeah, the Nimrod double hose my dad bought in 1962 is over 57 years old as we speak. And yes, I still dive it on occasion, only in fresh water as parts are hard to find.

So again, when people wish for the good old days, they’re wishing for something that never really existed.

It existed, but it is only part of the picture. People remember the good times over the bad, as they do today, and will tomorrow.

I think everyone was just less informed about what was going on, that’s all.

I'd say it's about the same, although there is more information, to the point of overload, it is less reliable.


Bob

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

Yeah, the Nimrod double hose my dad bought in 1962 is over 57 years old as we speak. And yes, I still dive it on occasion, only in fresh water as parts are hard to find.




It existed, but it is only part of the picture. People remember the good times over the bad, as they do today, and will tomorrow.



I'd say it's about the same, although there is more information, to the point of overload, it is less reliable.


Bob

We didn’t have internet or 24 hour news. There were on 3 TV channels, period.

I can still remember when we got our first TV. I really don’t know how my parents knew anything prior to that.

 

[Bob DBF]

I can still remember when we got our first TV. I really don’t know how my parents knew anything prior to that.

Newspapers, magazines, and libraries were much better than they are now, not that that would take much.


Bob

 

[AfterDark]

My wife tells the story about how a child disappeared in her neighborhood in Erie and was later found dead. They think they know who did it, but couldn’t prove it. Everyone was afraid to go outside. This was the early 1960s.

So again, when people wish for the good old days, they’re wishing for something that never really existed.

I think everyone was just less informed about what was going on, that’s all.

About the only thing different is that there was less overcrowding because over population hadn’t kicked in yet.

Who wished for the good old days? No time was perfect, bad things always happen. Over population?! Only 5% of the US is developed. The only over population is concentrated in the cities, places to be avoid like it was the plague, IMO.

Also there were less divers over populating the oceans back in the 1960's; they might have been horrible divers but they weren't everywhere!

 

[CT-Rich]

In the sixties there was a common set of facts that were generally agreed to as being true. The Liberal newspaper was the New York Times, the conservative paper was The Wall Street Journal (this was probably a recurring theme in most cities).. If someone got the facts wrong they would be called out by another media and would retract it. That doesn’t happen today. If Breitbart or Fox News gets something wrong they may well not even admit it was incorrect much less remove it. Trump gets to say what ever he wants and the accuracy of those claims may not get challenged in friendly media and they often mix editorial commentary with news. I don’t read much of the far left media, So I am not as aware of with them, but I am sure they do it to some extent.

In the old days a lot of stuff would simply be ignored until it was a crisis. You wouldn’t have a slow burn story like Love Canal, that was years in the making. Big stories were completely ignored for decades, like the church sex abuse scandal.

White America was surprised by Rodney King and the reactions to the OJ Trial. Blacks and Hispanics were well aware of the inequities in the justice system, but it wasn’t really getting attention from a mainstream media that was predominantly run by white males.

An unsafe toy going up in flames shows up on Face Book almost as fast as product hits the stores, so there are pluses and minuses.

Skin Diver magazine never met a gadget it didn’t give a good review. Today you can read fifty reviews on LeisurePro the day you become interest.

You get the good with the bad