Hello and welcome to the political orphanage, a home for groovy misfits and nifty problem solvers. I'm your host

Andrew Heaton resident Heep Cat. Recently I got it into my head to do an episode on whether or not life in the 50s was better than today.

Over the course of researching this episode, this is a lot more research heavy than our usual weekly interviews.

I mentioned to a couple of my friends.

I'm working on an episode about whether or not life was better in the 50s.

And multiple times, a friend will say it was better for some people Andrew and

then glare at me which you guys know I have very little culpability over Jim Crow Laws and corralling women into

kitchens by means of a cattle prod, right? Like just to be clear on this, we're exploring

this topic today but everybody understands that when I

ask questions about the 50s it's not because I kick back in my study at night and

wistfully reminisce about segregation and the patriarchy or something.

So what I probably should have told my somewhat presumptive friends is

I am curious specifically about if life was more affordable in the 50s.

If families enjoyed comparatively higher wages and stronger purchasing power than today, was it easier. I think pretty much everybody

understands that the 50s were a period of rampant misogyny racism and homophobia and

and apparently I should clarify this.

White heterosexual males such as myself don't actually think those were good things that we somehow lost our grip on.

So I'm assuming you, dear listener, are already familiar with the dark side of the 50s and can find other

venues to explore about the sexism and racism of that period should you feel inclined.

What I am mostly interested in is, was the average American

family doing better in the 50s compared to today? Did they have a greater sense of traction, upward mobility, security,

compared to our own period of precarious scrounging?

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