We didn't do the Green thing.

[cbr6fs]

Modern life seems to be a bit of a trade off. These days anything leisure or information based is cheap and plentiful. My phone alone has the internet, radio, albums, books, films and TV shows on it and all in hi def and stereo. Travel has never been easier and again my phone can translate newspapers and help me to talk and understand many languages. All this for just a couple of hundred quid. I find that mind blowing. On the other hand a decent house in a decent area will cost you around a couple of hundred grand which is crazy money and cost you another fifteen hundred a year in gas and electric. The big permanent stuff houses and a nice environment to live in are where we now struggle.

Houses were never cheap though John, there were times when they seemed that way but then mortgages were a nightmare to get.
Plus going back to the 70's few married woman worked and even if they did it was rare that they would get a salary that was the same as a man doing the same job.

Bank managers would only take the mans salary into account as it was a forgiven that the woman would become a housewife.

In my opinion it's ALWAYS been a struggle to buy your own place, it's always needed commitment and good money management for working class folks.

I do think that if you work hard and manage your money well then it's possible to be able to afford a decent house in the UK even today.
But i'm from Nottingham so house prices are dramatically different than say London

 

[humdrum_hostage]

Much that is true in there.

Still washing nappies and 99% of the little sandbender's clothes are picked up from second hand shops.

+1 on your post Sandbender

 

[pysen78]

Looking in on this thread and seeing my previous post I see I come across as someone with an axe to grind and maybe a bit of a troll. I still stand by my opinion, but could have chosen other words to express it.
I sincerely apologise to all, and to crosslandkelly in particular.

Although the thread took a turn after that, it's a credit to this forum that it didn't become a slag fest between generations. Thank you.

 

[Paul_B]

I'm very late to this thread so forgive me if I'm not adding anything new.

Tv's were smaller but less energy efficient as indeed pretty much all electrical goods used or sold in the good old days (assuming baby boomer timescale). So I'd really wonder if a typical household now really uses more electricity than back then.

More coal used not least because more heavy industry. No clean burn tech in power stations. Let's face it, electricity production and energy for industry probably accounted for for most deleterious affect on our planet not your granny wrapping your parent's school books in paper bags from supermarket, sorry.

Yes more reduce and re-use rather than recycle or dump. However that is coming back and never really left completely if other threads on here attest to. I grew up never wasting things. My childhood toys were used by my nephew and niece before giving my son great pleasure. I played with my older cousin's toy cars kindly donated to me as a kid. My nephew has them still.

I think the story in the OP's thread is a good example of how with the whole 60s boom in the feeling of entering the modern age we lost our way not realizing the damage. This is clear if you believe the hockey stick curve and global warming/climate change. That's been a long time happening and I'd say is multi-generational cause, blame and problem. However it will always be up to the current generation to manage and cope with. Blame game is not a solution. However if you want a generational blame game no-one comes off as being clean and green. Plus time puts on rose tinted glasses.

P.S. weren't cars more polluting back then and were only about 30% recyclable. Plus they took more energy to make due to inefficiencies. Biggest carbon footprint is in manufacture of cars so it's better now although increased car ownership and use probably takes up most of that if not all of it.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Looking in on this thread and seeing my previous post I see I come across as someone with an axe to grind and maybe a bit of a troll. I still stand by my opinion, but could have chosen other words to express it.
I sincerely apologise to all, and to crosslandkelly in particular.

Although the thread took a turn after that, it's a credit to this forum that it didn't become a slag fest between generations. Thank you.

No apologies necessary, I didn't see the OP as a blame game thing, more an apocryphal story. It has been an interesting thread though.

 

[korvin karbon]

I remember having to switch between 405 and 625 line systems....an waiting for the tube to warm up

Making me feel old. I deal with high end video and some applications are requiring multiple 4k resolutions. Was at a site that had about 15 55inch 1080p led displays getting binned.
The building industry is getting pretty good at recycling mainly due to the legislation and fines, is rather galling when a few blokes show up in a white van