For those 45+, how good were the 1990s, actually?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from college in 1990. The economy wasn't great and getting a job right out was tough, but once Clinton was elected, it was like the Oz scene when black and white went to color.

The internet coming on line, the economy improving, prospects of a middle east peace deal/two state solution, the peace dividend of winning the cold war etc were all political and economic touch stones. Culturally, not fabulous, but not a wasteland and certainly better than today.

Weird. I never thought of it that way. More that the USSR just imploded on its own.

It was more of a quiet relief than a huzzah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only good years were the 60s and the 70s. Anyone who says otherwise and was alive then is lying.

Yea. The Vietnam War was awesome.

Check your privilege.

Plus no one had the ridiculous attitude above. "If anyone is miserable, everyone must be miserable. So it has been said and so it shall be."

Sorry about Vietnam. There were still a lot of great things about the 60s and 70s.

Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of young men who were forced to fight and the tens of thousands who died. The 60s especially but also the 70s were among the most turbulent in our nation’s history. You’re glamorizing it because you were in a position of privilege. I’m sure everyone you knew got a college deferment.

Not sure how old you think I am but not that old!! I was barely aware of Vietnam. But thanks for reminding me of another great thing about the era -- there was nothing wrong with being privileged. In fact, it was what people strived to be. The American Dream etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only good years were the 60s and the 70s. Anyone who says otherwise and was alive then is lying.

Yea. The Vietnam War was awesome.

Check your privilege.

Plus no one had the ridiculous attitude above. "If anyone is miserable, everyone must be miserable. So it has been said and so it shall be."

Sorry about Vietnam. There were still a lot of great things about the 60s and 70s.

Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of young men who were forced to fight and the tens of thousands who died. The 60s especially but also the 70s were among the most turbulent in our nation’s history. You’re glamorizing it because you were in a position of privilege. I’m sure everyone you knew got a college deferment.

Not sure how old you think I am but not that old!! I was barely aware of Vietnam. But thanks for reminding me of another great thing about the era -- there was nothing wrong with being privileged. In fact, it was what people strived to be. The American Dream etc.

There is nothing wrong with being privileged today. Just don’t act like a raging a-hole about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just popping in to say anacostia and navy yard were pretty horrifying in the 90s. Anyone remember? Different world. So much better now

And Dupont Circle was bad in the 1980s and 1970s (and I assume before)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only good years were the 60s and the 70s. Anyone who says otherwise and was alive then is lying.

Yea. The Vietnam War was awesome.

Check your privilege.

Plus no one had the ridiculous attitude above. "If anyone is miserable, everyone must be miserable. So it has been said and so it shall be."

Sorry about Vietnam. There were still a lot of great things about the 60s and 70s.

Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of young men who were forced to fight and the tens of thousands who died. The 60s especially but also the 70s were among the most turbulent in our nation’s history. You’re glamorizing it because you were in a position of privilege. I’m sure everyone you knew got a college deferment.

Not sure how old you think I am but not that old!! I was barely aware of Vietnam. But thanks for reminding me of another great thing about the era -- there was nothing wrong with being privileged. In fact, it was what people strived to be. The American Dream etc.

If you are too young to even remember then your opinion is worthless.

[Anonymous]

60s were great, 70s were very good, 80s were good, 90s is where the downward slide started.

[Anonymous]

90s were awesome - post Cold War but before 9/11. A golden age. I think the 80s were also great but I was a kid then so didn’t have to deal with the economy or much in the way of Cold War fears.

[Anonymous]

Terrible food. Terrible tv. School bullying. Mass unemployment in my town as the big factories were shut down.

My life is so much better now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I liked the 90s, because people still entertained and engaged with one another, no smart phones. The internet was a thing but hadn’t taken over. There were still cultural differences between towns and cities and that made people/places more interesting.
Best of all, no euro- so travel in Europe was literally dirt cheap. Franc, drachma, escudo, etc. Gas was ridiculously cheap.
however, people were racist and sexist and got away with it. The sexual harassment at work was real and little to nothing done about it. So many highschool and college girls raped and not much done about it. Sad.

The first time I went to Italy to visit family they were on the lira (lire?). It was INSANE. I still have leather jackets and jewelry I bought there during that trip.

[Anonymous]

I’m 53 and I’d echo what everyone else has said and will add:

There was a generally - and genuinely - positive and optimistic outlook for the future. Maybe not among everyone everywhere, but the things the world solved - hole in the ozone, ending the Bosnian war, ending the Troubles in Ireland, end of Apartheid in South Africa, a reckoning for the Rwandan genocide - we’re all signs of hope and functionality. I think all that ended, on some level, after 9/11.

9/11 and two forever wars changed everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Early 90s was a recession; we started coming out of it by '97.

We came out of law school in '92 into a terrible hiring market, and the big law firms had salary freezes due to a weak economy, and some firms actually dropped associate salaries. Three first year classes in a row had the same salary. For those starting in the workforce in the early 90s, they never really made up for that, most of my peers were 10 years late to home ownership compared to people even 4-5 years before or after them.

This. Graduated into a huge recession and never caught up to the people who graduated a few years ahead or later.

[Anonymous]

I'm 49. The 90s were fantastic. I guess in the early 90s we had war and a recession. But 1993/1995 or so to 2000 were truly awesome. No war. Good economy. No smartphones yet. It was a great time to be young.

[Anonymous]

I miss the general sense of optimism.

I don’t miss the constant sexual harassment and the way it was condoned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asking specifically X-ennials, Gen X, and Boomers, who were wage-earning, taxpaying adults during the 1990s - so no rose-colored childhood glasses. I'm also specifically asking those who grew up in the United States, I wouldn't ask people who grew up in Rwanda or Bosnia or Chechnya this question.

Were the 90s actually better, economically, culturally, technologically (as in we had the right amount of technology - not too much?) Were things actually better then, or is it really only a matter of millennials thinking their childhood was the good old days. Also, a possible counterpoint is that we have progressed since then on LGBTQ and racial issues, for the most part, so the 90s nostalgia might be very concentrated among white, middle class, suburban millennials. What I think I'm really getting at besides the whole "is nostalgia real" question is, was it actually easier back then to work a steady job and afford things, and were we healthier as a society before smartphones and AI.

Bonus points if you are old enough to vouch for the 80s as well.

People and society was MUCH LESS POLITICAL back then and politics in general was still seen as something only sleezy people get into. Same for most government jobs, and also private sector jobs like lawyers, etc.

People were more friendly and less divided over race and other things back then, because they weren't politicized and made worse by politics and corporations.

Hardly anyone watch "the news" other than older people for a 30 min segment at night, (10-15 min current events, 5-10 min weather, 5-10 min sports was the norm for the 30 min.)

Johnny Carson/Jay Leno and Entertainment Tonight were the big evening programs.

The Simpson's were still relevant and funny until the early 2000s.

Video rental stores were big and caused a huge drop in movie-cinema goers in the 1990s but there was still a huge weekend cinema crowd at movies. Movies were $1 per person in many places, $4 per person for the fancy new release theatres.

Pizza Hut and Sonic were the main chainfood hangouts for anyone under 35 then, and they had smoking and beer for sale at them.

Driving the drag and cruising in hot rods or the parent's station wagon was still HUGE in the 1980s but starting to dwindle by the late 1990s as video games and internet started getting everyone inside.

1980s was the advent of cable TV and HBO type programming, 1 HBO and 1 Cinemax Channel was the norm on top of the basic 10 "free" channels. Motels still advertised "air condition and HBO" as big come ons in the 1980s, while A/C was the norm then, HBO was still a draw.

Cell phones were starting to get popular in the mid 1990s, but still considered for yuppie, lawyers, and geeks/nerds.

Home computers were still nerd stuff until the late 1990s as AOL got more normalized and internet became more widely available.

Music that was the big hit stuff was still Rock and Roll, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Country (was getting Hollywood country starting with that fat Garth Brooks in the 1980s) and old school hardcore Rap like Ice T and NWA.

The air was getting clearer by the mid 1990s with cat converters and phase out of leaded gasoline, and vehicles started improving once again in comfort and longevity from the 1970s-1980s fiasco in autos. Gasoline was still under $1 a gallon in most of the USA until about 1999 when it started trending up.

[Anonymous]

It’s all relative and depends on where you grew up. We aren’t from here. DH and I both grew up from drastically different backgrounds but poor compared to now. We graduated HS in the mid 90s. Our parents lived paycheck to paycheck. Mine were immigrants and looking back, quite racist although they didn’t mean it. I was not allowed to date a black guy in HS and it was a huge deal.

We each knew some people who went to college. No one had it all paid for. Many went to community college. Everyone took loans. Many had to wait until they were older or go part time. No one went to ivies or talked about prestige.

We both look at the world now and our parents as so much more open minded and so much financially stable as when we grew up. The fact that we have 529 plans for our kids to fully fund almost anywhere and we will not qualify for any financial aid makes us proud. They definitely have it better than we did financially in the 90s. We are open minded with whoever they want to date, races, genders anyone.