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

[Anonymous]

It was grinding poverty for lots of people in Appalachia and the inner cities.

1992, I had just started working in public health. I had positions in communities with extremely concentrated poverty. I realized later that the object poverty I saw masked how poor I myself was. It would have been obvious in a regular working class setting. But I felt so fortunate to be able to buy $5 new shoes at Ames rather than getting used shoes for 50 cents at the flea market like most of my clients. I just normalized all of us having holes in the bottom of our shoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:90s were like peak America. Things have really gone downhill since 9/11.

Succinctly stated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everything changed after 2010. Blame it on social media and smart phones.

They really are a couple of the most significant and worst creations, as far as society ruin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 1990s were fantastic. You could expect to go to a good university, for a reasonable amount of money. You could raise kids as a single mom and send them to a good university. You really felt like you could be anything in the world you put your mind to. And it was fun -

Yep. My first Bachelors was about $10-15,000 total, all tuition, books, etc. Not counting meals or gasoline. That was mid 90s! Don't even want to see the over-inflated prices of one now.

[Anonymous]

Xennial, born in 1977, and if someone could open a portal right now to go back to 1993, I would jump at the chance. Life was simpler before the internet, cell phones, and social media. I would pick those simpler times any day over this current strange era reality.

Additionally, global warming was not yet a factor, so the seasons remained as they were intended to be.

I started my federal government job in '98 at age 20 and got in with my first application. Jobs were plentiful back then; easy come, easy go when it came to finding work. My only regret is not buying a house earlier.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I realize that the Xennial microgeneration is really the sweet spot. We aren't cynical like elder Gen Xers, and we didn't miss the gravy train like full-fledged Millennials did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure I have rose colored glasses looking back because it was my 20s, but got into selective college ED as a regular good student and after graduation found cool jobs and apartments in SF and then NYC pretty easily, plus it felt like people were starting to push back on some of the casual racism, homophobia, and sexism that was so prevalent in an 80s childhood.

Same. I got accepted to 6 ivies and Stanford on mediocre stats. My jobs didn’t pay well and my gpa sucked yet whenever I wanted to make a job change, I could have an in-person interview in 2-3 applications and have an offer that week, every time. The level of competition was so different. Mass applications for schools and jobs weren’t a thing yet, so if you could write a decent cover letter, hold a strong conversation, and have an alumni or friend of a friend pulling for you in an office, you were in.

By the time I had worked a while and graduated from b-school, it was a very different world and the Internet and globalization made life feel like a fight against millions for scraps. I also have a knack for graduating into recessions, so that didn’t help.

[Anonymous]

OP needs to keep in mind that in the 1990s the white middle class suburban demographics was the majority, if not by far the biggest single demographic cohort in the country. If you want to take the stance that if you were white and middle class then you only have an biased perspective of life in the 1990s, you're ignoring how the majority actually experienced the 90s, which means you're risking seeking out a minority and biased perspective of the decade. And contrary to what some youngsters like to believe, gays and minorities weren't persecuted, you'd have to go back much earlier.

That aside, there were huge ranges in how people "experienced" the decade as well as variations within the decade itself, from the brief 1991-2 recession to the boom of the end of the decade (which incidentally set up the framework for the great recession in the long run). I remember plenty of uncertainty and fears about everything, which is utterly typical for every decade and every generation. Some things feel better about the 90s, especially the pre social media era. There's been a great deal of cultural changes in larger society, some for the better, some that are neutral, and some that simply means a different kind of future than previously assumed. I actually think Europe actually is having a much harder time with this than the US.

I will say technology improvements, for all its benefits, has sped up the pace of how things are done and lived these days compared to the 1990s, which did move at a fast pace of its own. It seems like the more technology we have, the faster we have to live our lives. The pace is breathtaking nowadays and the ability to step out of it to a slower lifestyle seems impossible, at least without significant economic implications.

[Anonymous]

Born in 1980. Graduated in 2002. The 90s were an amazing time to be a teen, I had the best teen years, easily got into great universities with good grades/test scores/a few extracurriculars.

Technology is ruining our children’s experiences!

[Anonymous]

I'm 64 and got married in 1996 at 35 years old. We spent about $6,000 on our wedding at a restaurant, with 80 guests in attendance.

Shortly after that, DH and I bought our first house in Woodside Park in Silver Spring for $240,000. At the time I was making $93,000 a year (lawyer), and DH (teacher) was making $60,000 a year. We didn't have much of a down payment so had to get PMI, but paying the mortgage was easy. It's paid off now and our house is worth about $1.2 million according to Zillow.

In 1997 we had our first child and paid $125 a week for home-based daycare.

It was much easier to get to get a house and afford children at that time.

Our two children are now 28 and 25 and it is much harder for them in pretty much every way. We do our best to give them as much of a financial boost as we can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP needs to keep in mind that in the 1990s the white middle class suburban demographics was the majority, if not by far the biggest single demographic cohort in the country. If you want to take the stance that if you were white and middle class then you only have an biased perspective of life in the 1990s, you're ignoring how the majority actually experienced the 90s, which means you're risking seeking out a minority and biased perspective of the decade. And contrary to what some youngsters like to believe, gays and minorities weren't persecuted, you'd have to go back much earlier.

That aside, there were huge ranges in how people "experienced" the decade as well as variations within the decade itself, from the brief 1991-2 recession to the boom of the end of the decade (which incidentally set up the framework for the great recession in the long run). I remember plenty of uncertainty and fears about everything, which is utterly typical for every decade and every generation. Some things feel better about the 90s, especially the pre social media era. There's been a great deal of cultural changes in larger society, some for the better, some that are neutral, and some that simply means a different kind of future than previously assumed. I actually think Europe actually is having a much harder time with this than the US.

I will say technology improvements, for all its benefits, has sped up the pace of how things are done and lived these days compared to the 1990s, which did move at a fast pace of its own. It seems like the more technology we have, the faster we have to live our lives. The pace is breathtaking nowadays and the ability to step out of it to a slower lifestyle seems impossible, at least without significant economic implications.

It is pretty sweeping to say gays and minorities weren't persecuted.

Just because you didn't experience it personally, does not mean it is not true.

Yes many people had the good life in the 1990s but there was still discrimination.

[Anonymous]

They were real, and they were spectacular.

[Anonymous]

I am now 56 (Gen X-er) & I think life during the 1990’s was very good.

Things like rent, food, etc. were obviously more affordable & technology was just a little bit out of its infancy.

Computers 🖥️ during that time would, could lose valuable + time-consuming material which was frustrating as heck (😤) yet there were fun chat rooms online that was a great way to spend time > most especially if you were lonely.

The music/fashion was great >> yet nothing compares to the pop culture of those great ‘80’s!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:90s were like peak America. Things have really gone downhill since 9/11.

+1. That was the inflection point. A lot of it due to the self-inflicted wound of intrusive government and technology from the patriot act.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They were real, and they were spectacular.

<3