Was Life Really Better in the Past?

[@economicshelp]

Don't miss the thoughs of my Yorkshire Grandfather right at the end of the video. (Don't worry, this is unlikely to become a regular feature.) Tribute to Monty Python's "4 Yorkshire man Sketch" - which is really great, do check it out!

[@garyfraserlewis]

Thank God !! Didn't see that one coming ! Nice one.

[@pipes9878]

Drink tea outa damp rag, luxury 😂👍

[@conorpmccarthy]

That was very funny 😂

[@damianbutterworth2434]

You was lucky.

[@James-el6lj]

I disagree with this video. 60s and 70s were the best.

[@roberthuntley1090]

I left school at 16 in 1976, from a lower middle class background and went on to attend university, become a chartered engineer, own my own house and receive a good pension while staying with same employer throughout my career. I don't see such opportunities are available to the kids leaving school today. Social mobility is far worse then in my day.

[@shubhamsehgal2336]

thank you sir. you are the one of the few people who acknowledge these problems

[@piccalillipit9211]

YEP - I forgot - I got a place at unit [didnt go] which would have been free, and my sister did a BSc and then a Master, she didnt pay. We grew up so poor we went to school in black bin bags in the rain. That would NEVER be possible today.

[@69spook]

I had a similar route in construction. Left school in 1973. Trainee Surveyor & completed an ONC. Then Polytechnic & post grad. Worked in Middle East, bought my first house aged 24, became Chartered, payed my mortgage off by 40. A career of 44 years, retired at 60.

[@tancreddehauteville764]

No chance. There is no incentive to stay with the same employer after the death of defined benefit pensions, and unlike in the past, employers routinely impose pay freezes and don't recognise trade unions.

[@69spook]

@@tancreddehauteville764 Short term contracts too

[@lewismartin4306]

You missed one aspect. Beauty. The Victorian’s built beautiful inspiring buildings. Whereas we build ugly and demoralising structures.

[@tomo_xD]

🎯

[@BatCountryAdventures]

So I left UK 15 years ago to work in Asia because of the 2008 financial crisis. I visited UK every 6 years or so and the level of stagnations was pretty stark. Unreliable infrastructure, massive NHS queue, everything being so expensive. I guess things are pretty high tech when it comes to take money off you (license plate reading for parking, contactless payment) but going back to UK always feels like stepping back in time when compared to Asian countries.

[@UnipornFrumm]

All the factories moved to asia

[@inbb510]

@@BatCountryAdventures aging population

[@agfagaevart]

Even other european countries are way ahead!

[@LiuBei661]

You failed to specify which countries of Asia you are talking about? Mind you that 80% percent of salaries there are very low or medium depending on the profession, thought I won't lie that the cost of living is cheaper and rent very affordable.

[@inbb510]

@@agfagaevart way ahead in what? An aging population? Then for sure Europe is way ahead.

[@christopherspriggs4179]

My father…postman/sorter (low salary job topped up with overtime and night premiums) payed for a stay at home mother, 5 kids and a 3 bed house that’s now worth 500k. Mortgage paid off and retired at 60. Constant holidays from his pension. Myself and my partner both work average salary jobs. Can only afford a 330k 2 bed. One child and Holding off having another due to costs. Had to put our one holiday in 6 years on credit card. Both our pensions will barely be able to sustain us at 68.

[@righteousmammon9011]

I’m an American but seriously man, open up a brokerage account and buy VWRL every month for the rest of your working career. I believe that’s the right ticker symbol for you. It’s VTWAX in the US but look up the equivalent for you.

[@tancreddehauteville764]

Here is a tip: move away from the south-east. Go and live somewhere cheaper like Shropshire or Lincolnshire.

[@charliec9369]

@@tancreddehauteville764and do what for a job exactly?

[@RabJ208]

Are you and your partner doing overtime? I'm sure if you bumped your hours up - you could easily manage.

[@stevencalvert9454]

Such a sad place this country is in

[@hscott68]

yes, it was better. I think we in the UK and in the West in general peaked back in late 90's - its been in (managed) decline since,. Great ending!

[@Deranged316]

I would say Great Britain and not the UK, I’m in Northern Ireland and it was a terrible place basically up until 1999/2000

[@VincentRE79]

Yes would agree the 90's and early 2000's were probably the best economically and then slowly downhill since the financial crisis of 2008.

[@coolbanana165]

I think the issue is: 1) People expect things to get better. Not to get better in some ways, and worse in others, so overall it's stagnate or slightly worse. There's no excuse when GDP and technology are going up. 2) Housing costs are worse, and that's the biggest cost. 3) Public services are worse. 4) Real wages stagnated although GDP and productivity increased. I'm not comparing myself to the 60's, but to my parents in the 80's. Neoliberals ruined everything and should genuinely go to prison. Greedy sociopaths are just parasites to society.

[@bennycarter5249]

I've been watching your videos for a few days now. You are one of the emerging economics channels that is not afraid to face reality. You tell things like it is and don't rely on the dogma that most mainstream economists bow down to. Keep up the good work, you have definitely earned a subscriber!

[@tristanris2481]

Yes, people didn't have phones or flatscreen tv's, or access to the internet. But they had a house 😅

[@jamesgravil9162]

No point owning a flatscreen TV if you don't have a house to put it in.

[@PistonAvatarGuy]

In the '50s, Americans definitely had phones, TVs and access to plenty of media (newspapers, magazines, etc), but they also had houses. In fact, I think flatscreen TVs are cheaper relative to the TVs that American had in the '50s.

[@tristanris2481]

@PistonAvatarGuy must be nice

[@PistonAvatarGuy]

@@tristanris2481 Must have BEEN nice, it sure as heck isn't now. The US is a raging dumpster fire now.

[@youtubeman5033]

Very true,

[@georgesdelatour]

I think this video is pretty fair. BTW when people compare Macmillan’s 1950s to today, I doubt many of those who say we're worse off now would actually want to hop in a time machine and live in the '50s. What they're really asking is whether, if we’d made different choices along the way - avoided X or Y, or done Z instead - we could have ended up with all the good stuff we have now, like computers and better medical care, but without some of the things about today that really suck. If you take such comments in that spirit, you won't dismiss them all as mere nostalgia.

[@Mpl3564]

Greed explains why people choose X or Y instead of Z.

[@chiapets2594]

I would rather live then atleast I could have a chance at having a house and being able to afford my family

[@SilentWalker-if4nc]

The more I look back at British history the more I wonder whether the UK was always incompetent at everything. The empire days gave it some room but it has never really thrived ever since. Even during the golden age, the average brit lived a miserable life

[@Nick-io9uk]

I think thats the thing. People think the stagnation & then decline that has set in since the mid/late 2000s is an anomaly. Nope. The relatively good headline figures from 1985-2005 were the anomaly. Since then there has been a return to normality. There will be no recovery because there is nothing to recover. You can see this quite clearly on a chart of the pound. It hit a low in 1985, after which people really believed in the Thatcher con-job for about twenty years. When the financial crisis showed that up for the scam it was, things returned to their 1945-1985 period of decline & the pound returned to its normal postwar position of being more like the lira than the deutsch-mark. Without an empire to plunder, Britain has always been nothing. Some nice Churches & Mansions for the elite, and a poor, wretched, starving peasant society for the other 99.9%.

[@SilentWalker-if4nc]

@Nick-io9uk this

[@gerhard7323]

Empires rarely, if ever, do much good for the majority of indigenous proles.

[@joannacurran8475]

I was born in 1950 from a working class family, car mechanic father. I went to university with an annual grant of £360. My first job I earned, in a professional job, £1000 but to rent a room, not in London, cost £4 per week, with shared bath where you put money in a meter for hot water. I always saved, to buy my first TV, and then towards a car and house, even if it was only a few pounds a month. Needs are not the same as wants. I am now 74 and grow my own vegetables. I never married so life has always been more expensive to live, harder to pay the mortgage etc. I lived in a 2 up 2 down small terraced house, eventually moving to a 3 bed terrace. 2nd hand car. Not complaining, enjoy my life, travel all over the world staying in hostels or cheap hotels.

[@MyKharli]

In the 60`s we helped farmers bring the hay in for free milk , got rides on the hayrick , the sky full of birds and butterflies , the fields full of wild flowers , the ponds full of frogs , sticklebacks in every stream , now we got progress .

[@IshtarNike]

A lovely and very elegant point. Access and proximity to nature, even via labour can be very good for people's mental health. Lots of us are missing it now.

[@piccalillipit9211]

*YES - CATEGORICALLY YES* In 1994 at 24 I bought my first house a 3 bedroomed stone built large terrace for 2.5X my BASIC salary of £12k [total salary £17 to 24k]. As a telesales person. I had a Toyota Supra Twin Turbo NOT on finance. I was out 3 nights a week clubbing. I didn't get[need] a penny help from my parents. Everything I bought WORKED, I didnt have to use an app to get my dishwasher to work and £9.99 rental on the soap dispenser. My fridge didnt spy on me and send personal info to Russian hackers. YES LIFE WAS BETTER...!!!

[@feamatar]

First thing is that you had employment in 1994, whereas the same year a whopping 9.6% of people did not.

[@piccalillipit9211]

@@feamatar Well That was in Yorkshire and even my dum6e5t and laziest mates had jobs and Yorkshire was hardly a booming place. I think the big issue here is we STILL have 10% unemployment we just calculate it differently and have a different labour market where a zero-hour contract counts as work even if you don't get any.

[@karolnowosad9765]

And now it is time to pay for those lavish decades 😂

[@piccalillipit9211]

@@karolnowosad9765 Well not for me cos I live in Eastern Europe and we are having a boom over here. Snark asside. They were not really lavish, the problem is the UK and the US and the West in general allowed the rich to suck all the money out of the system and stop investing. It didnt HAVE to be like this.

[@sfactory8253]

@@piccalillipit9211 You'll be having a war over there as well pretty soon by the looks of things 🤣

[@SarahWalker-Smith]

I naively thought that things would always get better generally speaking. Perhaps the post war period where we had big government spending on public services and the ‘we’re all in it together’ concessions were a very temporary aberration when governments and the super rich had to placate the electorate. Certainly since the advent of Neo Liberalism under Thatcher and Regan it feels as if those improvements have been reversed. I’ve heard it said that we wont enjoy those concessions again unless there is another war. A depressing thought.

[@jamesgravil9162]

"we wont enjoy those concessions again unless there is another war" Or the people start to demand it. If the political will is there, anything is impossible.

[@SarahWalker-Smith]

@@jamesgravil9162 I’d like to believe it but I somehow doubt it.

[@kristianlavigne8270]

Exactly 👍 Another “Great Reset” in favour of the majority

[@gerhard7323]

Raises the question if that is what is currently happening? Not sure what would be left after a major nuclear conflagration, but our leaders are certainly going the right way about it at the moment.

[@playpianotoday6223]

“Only three tv channels and most of it was rubbish”😂😂 Seriously - what a great summary of all the changes that I, as a mid 60 year old, have seen in my lifetime. Thank you

[@TheJovola]

I stumbled upon a commercial block from 1983 Yugoslavia. There were two tour offers, one for Budapest, another for Kopaonik (serbian mountain). Each trip was around 6000 for 8 days. The average salary was 16000 dinars at that time. Today, the average salary is around 80000. For 30000 today, you wouldn't survive a weekend in these places now. Also in socialist Yugo, the median salary was much closer to the average compared to today's Serbia. So, we had cheaper food, accommodation, education, traveling, eating out. Now we have cheap looking at screens at our homes, texting each other.

[@EmilNicolaiePerhinschi]

The same story can be said about every other European country, but it is strange that to detect the benefits you need to analyze 50 years of data, but to notice the downsides you need to look at your paycheck and see how much is rent :)

[@bargeonline]

I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our Mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

[@flyinghedgehog3833]

You were looky !

[@موسى_7]

What's this quote from? Sounds like science fiction.

[@wattbenj]

I always say I'd rather live in a less advanced time where it felt like I was actually making progress. e.g. I would have thrived in the sixties if I could have earned a living and had my own home. In the modern world I grew up in poverty in a house with never ending domestic abuse, and when I tried to get out at 18, I never earned a living. Just gave 47.5 hours a week to earn what couldn't pay for a home. Environment is everything. The modern world is an absolute nightmare. It's completely saturated in every possible way, and the most worthless thing a person has is their labour - as there are 8 billion others with that too. Even those of us with skills are finding that wages are too low to make a life, and that's before the Chancellor gets her hands on our wages with her high taxes and blindingly obvious and intentional fiscal drag.

[@theolddog5129]

I agree. In fact, I am regularly encouraging the memsahib to do our loundry whilst enjoying the views from the bank of the local river even though washing machines are relatively cheap and there is an abundance of laundrettes here in East Anglia. If it can be done on the Ganges, it can be done on the Gpping!

[@ep1929]

Your Yorkshire grandfather was right, I remember quite vividly growing up in the 1970's - going to the launderette twice a week with my late mother, her shopping on the market every Saturday morning, power blackouts, the old black and white decca tv which only had 3 channels in the corner of the living room, the coal fire but no central heating, frost on the inside of the bedroom windows, telephone box usage was rife, travelling on the bus was common, 50p electric meters where you had to put coins in to keep the power on - I do miss those days, but life is much more comfortable now.

[@manjeetgill1]

The last 20yrs has also seen the mass importation of unskilled labour often doing minimum wage or zero contract jobs. Essentially this all has to be paid for both theough tax creditw ans in work benefits and through the services (health, welfare, education) these workers and their dependents consume

[@skylinefever]

It looks great on the stock market, but there is no upside for the commoner. Too bad the political donor class usually gets what it wants.

[@Lee-70ish]

I feel for the younger generation . Mainly because Thatcher sold off council housing and didnt invest that money in new houses. She also destroyed UK manufacturing saying she wanted the UK to be a services based economy . Its always been tough on the working class I started work in 1969 at 15 . £5 a week , £2 10/- house keeping to mum.

[@ryan_dylan6650]

These challenges arise from an economy struggling with uncertainties, such as housing crises, foreclosures, global market fluctuations, and the lingering effects of the pandemic, all contributing to instability. Escalating inflation, slow economic growth, and trade disruptions require immediate action across all sectors to restore stability and drive recovery.

[@debroahmorrow5919]

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[@creissantrocheleau946]

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[@Elina_H]

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[@creissantrocheleau946]

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[@Elina_H]

Thanks, I looked her up on Google and was very impressed by her credentials. I reached out because I need all the help I can get. I've scheduled a phone call with her.

[@LawrenceTimme]

No, it was always shit and always will be shit. Everyone is told a lie that it was better back in the day or that it will get better in the future. The reality is life is hard and miserable and you need to accept that and get on with it.

[@playpianotoday6223]

Yes and no! There will always be aspects of life that are really difficult but there are also parts which are really good - it’s a mix. On a personal (rather than societal) level, if you work on it consciously, you can increase the number of good things in your life and learn to accept the not so good. Chin up!!😊

[@handlebar4520]

any sources?

[@ellismeah8110]

Only because the govt follow orders to keep it that way for the indigenous population

[@neilcook1652]

@@handlebar4520experience…..have you any sources to the contrary? Feel free to expand on lazy two word comments 😂

[@neilcook1652]

Life’s a game with winners and losers (always has been and always will be), the rules aren’t written down and continually change…..educate yourself and put in more than you expect to get out and you’ll be fine. You just need to have more value to offer than those around you, which is achievable if you put your mind to it.

[@NckBrktt]

Macmillan said we'd never had it so good, because rationing had only just ended in 1954, the country was in ruins from all the German bombs and people had had 15 years of starvation rations. Anything better than the previous 15 year was a relief. People had forgotten how proper meals and beer tasted and were just thankful to be still alive.

[@maxharbig1167]

Couldn't agree more. My Australian father was a Chief Engineer in the British Mercantile Marine on Atlantic convoys when my parents married in 1940. I was born in 1942. We went to Australia in 1947 and returned to the UK in 1957. I can still remember how shocked I was at how dirty and run down the country was. There were still plenty of air raid shelters and bomb damaged buildings about. As you said rationing had only ended a couple of years before and people, like my grandmother who had four sons in the British army and only two came back, were still coming to terms with what they had been through so even the most minimal improvement in their daily life was viewed as a Godsend. It was better than before but it was still pretty s**tty.

[@drewwagar]

My dad was always fond of saying "The only thing good about the good ol' days is that they aint now."

[@egrif9303]

The 1990s had a more relaxed working environment. There were fewer performance targets. Stress was a lot less.

[@superdeluxesmell]

We’e there worse times in the past? Yes, of course. Is Europe currently in a state of managed, rapidly increasing decline? Without a doubt

[@johnjakson444]

Around mid 1960s my father was making 20quid a week so maybe 1000 a year while our house had a mortgage for 2000 quid. Thats a 2 to 1 ratio. Today its more like 6 or 7 ratio so in salary terms houses have tripled in price, 36k vs say 250k. On the other hand TVs are about 100 times cheaper and infinitely better, every little bit counts is what some people say.

[@jhunt5578]

The house being 8.5x income also comes with a mortgage + interest. For a 295k house you're talking about over half a million all said and done. Mental.

[@pozineg]

(00:25) Fortunately, we don't have to imagine politician saying that. We heard it from the lettuce before she withered away.

[@Kidderman2210]

As a 73 year old, I would say two things have been lost since the 1950s - job security and optimism. In the 1950s, many people strived to get a secure job for life, or at least for a long time. Someone in a secure job could get a mortgage to buy a house and plan for their future. Once you were a house owner, you could get a loan to buy a car or washing machine. This was more difficult if you were a renter or in a short term job. Secondly, there was optimism that things were going to get better in the future. Kids got better education than their parents and so got better careers. Since 2008, especially, many people seem to be less optimistic about the future and just think about the here and now - renting rather than buying a house, and changing jobs rather than staying in one job for life.

[@sfbluedevil8588]

I am 76 years old as I look back the world had changed so much 😱 The biggest issue is cost of living is out of control 🤣🤣back in the 60’ fill up a 15 gallons of gas is $5.00 now is $90😱😱

[@The_Bon_Juan]

“Large amounts of slum housing” shows 3 bed Victorian terrace that can easily cost £1.25m in an average part of London.

[@pineapplesareyummy6352]

The worst thing for the Western working class was the end of the Cold War. The 1950-1980 period was the only time the working population of the West actually lived well, because of the "threat" of Socialist revolution exported from the East. The Western elites were forced to make massive concessions to their workers - better wages, better working conditions, a robust social safety net, generous social welfare. As soon as the Cold War was ending, the Western elite went back to form. All the gains made by workers in the 1950-1980 period were reversed, and we are back to where the Western working class has always been before all the progressive changes in the 20th century. I miss the Soviet Union. I can only hope that within my lifetime, the US will fall and collapse, and a more humane global economic order return and take its place.

[@hubbletelescope1721]

You are right. It took them some time which is why nobody was protesting, but brick after brick they demolished the old system.

[@meibing4912]

Yout mind has clearly suffered severely. Seek help asap.

[@senarmstrongfanaccount]

swear neoliberalism started in the 80s though?

[@berys76]

If the past was early 2000s , then yes

[@quailking8265]

I waa born in 2003 but miss the 2000s so much

[@oldskoolmusicnostalgia]

1990s, early 2000s great indeed. Then from the *war on terror* everything went to s**t. Still searching for those weapons of mass destruction as well.

[@tancreddehauteville764]

I was born in 1967, but wish I had been born in 1947. The boomers have no idea how lucky they were. I'm not far off retirement, but those younger than me, in their comfy office jobs, will lose their jobs to AI. No more jobs for solicitors, software developers and accountants because AI will replicate their jobs at a much faster pace. There will be a bloodbath of middle class jobs.

[@VincentRE79]

Agree someone just starting work now will struggle until they inherit.

[@youtubeman5033]

I know so many people that are just willing to live on benefits some friends and people I meet in my work, they are willing to live close to the bread line rather than go to work, I don’t say this as a criticism ,but I think it is easy to live like this nowadays and in the past if you wanted to eat you needed to work, and now you can survive on benefits, because they are easily available some of my family have never worked and never will and it tends to be passed down in the family ,in the past if you didn’t work it carried some embarrassment ,but in our modern worl it doesn’t ,that’s the reason I think, please tell me if you don’t agree,

[@arthurdixon5890]

I am old enough to remember PM MacMillan saying “you’ve never had it so good” and he was right. My Dad purchased a car and we had 2 week holidays on the Isle of Man each year.

[@IshtarNike]

I appreciate the video but personally i think it rather misses the point. That being, that cheaper consumer goods, more cars etc. demonstrably do not actually improve quality of life much. Yes, they are a part of living standards, but I think satisfaction should be taken into account. And when taken into account it's clear that these consumer goods play a minor role. What is far more important, is housing, work, childcare, elderly care, and education. Everything except perhaps elderly care has become far more expensive and scarce in today's age than before. You may argue that education is better because more people than ever go to university. But that's not the point because the VALUE of those degrees has massively decreased. So no kid today who's the first in their family to go to uni is going to feel as chuffed because they're coming away with what is the monetary equivalent of A levels from their parents generation (unless they go to a top uni and do like tech or something). People are upset because the things that matter most have moved further out of reach. Yes we have all these fancy bells and whistles that used to be luxurious, coffee, handheld electonics. But they're not actually that important. Being able to BUY your own home on a couple's salaries after a few years is now well beyond the reach of most people. People who have "better" jobs than their parents by far. Childcare now costs the same as a mortgage or rent. Elderly care is the same. I'm typing this on a smartphone. We could all put these down tomorrow and be fine. But if there're a few thing that are universal human needs they're housing, healthcare, education, childcare and elderly care. No one can avoid them. Which is why we want them back!

[@kimika53]

The Yorkshire Grandpa part was hilarious and lifted my spirits on a depressing morning.It's clear that different generations lead varied lifestyles and hold distinct life expectations. I don't blame either of them.

[@fern8580]

London: Top 5 highest paid doctors in 2023: General surgeon: £2,939,413 General practitioner: £2,429,301 Internist: £2,419,523 Ophthalmologist: £2,292,113 Radiologist: £2,146,042 The number of millionaire doctors has practically doubled since 2014, when there were 166, In 2023, eight doctors were paid more than £2 million, Number of millionaire doctors by specialty Diagnostic Radiology 111 Ophthalmology 71 General practitioner 42 Cardiology 32 General surgery 13

[@Aegelis]

We would all do well to listen to your Yorkshire grandfather 17:14 . All the best & blessings be from the U.S.A.

[@joesemple1723]

Your videos are so detailed but yet so easy to understand.

[@GrahamWoodward-ww1zf]

What we have is an erosion of moral standards from the absolute top downwards.

[@gdok6088]

Eee bygum, you had lucky. We had to work 25 hours a day, pay the mill owner for the privilege of working and when we got home our fathers would slice us in two wi't bread knife and then dance up and down on our graves singing hallelujah - and yer try tellin' kids o today that and they just wint believe thee. (With acknowledgements to Monty Python)

[@mattanderson6672]

DEFUND THE GOVERNMENT, STOP PAYING TAX I'm Welsh and voting Reform Brilliant discussion Excellent Analysis Thank you Sir

[@richardcstockley]

Life was definitely objectively better in the recent past. When I entered the workforce in the late 90s we all had final salary pensions, could buy a house and raise a family. Just look at the country today, birth rate at 1.4, housing completely unaffordable, a pension that will barely keep you out of poverty. Life was better in the past on every measure that counts. Yes, we have better healthcare and flat screen TVs but that's not much us if you are miserable and in debt.

[@feeblewhip8225]

Definitely one of the better channels on this topic... in the post war period

[@lucasdeyton8842]

I mean the fact that I can even type this comment and you can read it is something I don't think someone born in 1970 would be able to imagine. So many people died from preventable illnesses we can treat today, and our ability to understand the world was so limited compared to now. I would argue there are aspects of life that would've been better, but overall for most people, unless you are a white straight man, I don't think you can make the claim your life would've been noticibly better 50 years ago.

[@avandroidandroid5055]

@economicshelp - Mr your videos are very interesting and I am a fan of your channel! Congratulations. However, I have a question, do you know if someone has calculated the Gini index to measure inequalities between nowadays and the past?

[@Lpreilly72]

As an insulin dependent diabetic I am so GRATEFUL to live today and not in the 80s when my father died. I have CGMS that tells me what my blood sugar levels are on my phone and an Ouray ring that monitors my heart, sleep and exercise minute by minute. Do I have a house? No. But I am alive! But I get it about the problems in the UK. With Trump, we’re right behind you. So I watch every penny I have.

[@ZaKRo-bx7lp]

Things were certainly challenging in the past. However, upwards mobility was achievable; there were no higher education related barriers to entry level jobs, no mass migration, no overbearing feminism destroying the birth rate, no expectations of progress, and starting a family building up wealth was possible as inflation didn't eat up your savings as quickly as now.

[@EmmanuelGusto]

Progress is progress, regardless if it is slow or consistent. Either ways one still goes up, credits to Lunvo

[@OldProGolf]

Good video, Tejvan, don't give up the day job. Couple of corrections from this old fogey: "Cathy Come Home" was by Ken Loach not Ken Burns who was our coalman. TV was way better than now, only 3 channels plus radio, but quality not the addictive tripe kids watch for 8 hours a day now. (Even the tripe was better then, cheap, healthy source of protein). Yes, we live longer now, but in pain and misery, kept alive by a corrupt NHS which doesn't prevent illness, just treats it with drugs dolled out by your friendly dealer (GP). Our family GP used to come to our 'ouse to treat us rather than drag us into the surgery so we could infect other folks. Now that I need one, I can't see a GP. Occasionally in response to hours of phone calls, econsults etc. someone rings me up and arranges to take an armful of blood (Hancock, he was a comedian, not the blasphemers we get now) then prescribes stuff that makes me worse. Yes, pollution, but you could get away from it, up on't moors. Now, I am electrosensitive, wifi, mobile phones etc. is unescapeable. By 'eck lad, folk nowadays know nowt, and it costs taxpayers £100,000 to teach them that.

[@diabetesasia]

Great Insight

[@drhibas]

Yeah, low taxes killed the future.

[@meibing4912]

Its a lot better today. Like a lot. Child birth mortality is down by over 50% since the early 80's. Unemployment - by far the most important economic metric as correctly highlighted here - is far, far down. Environment has improved so much. Connectivity, living standards, savings, vacations, overseas travel, food, clothes, telecom - everything is both better and cheaper than ever. Even crime has collapsed. And people are better educated which makes you healthier, happier, live longer, have healthier children, that do better at school etc. etc. Yes housing is more expensive. But the quality of housing today is also far better than back then. And urbanisation is much to blame for this. Move away from the large cities and housing is cheap. Lived in slum when I was young; no bath, no toilet, no heating. Living like that today would be dirt cheap too. Maybe music got worse. Not sure about that one.

[@GoblinGreen2021]

You are a gem and a gent kind sir. Never stop making videos.

[@BartoszKanałPolski]

'You've never had it so good' is actually true for Poland but people are still complaining and are super nostalgic for the 90s

[@meibing4912]

Exactly. Its so ridiculous. Life back in the 1980's was no joke. People would sleep on the ground all around Victoria Station - like ALL the way around it - under cardboard and plastic covers. New York was falling apart and totally crime ridden. And all of Eastern Europe was outright miserable (travelled a lot there in the 70's and 80's). In East Berlin there where whole quarters of ruins left from WWii that you could see from the TV tower.

[@derekwhyle1884]

It’s capitalism that’s out of control. The young are blaming the wrong people. I’m what’s now known as a boomer, but I didn’t create the circumstances that have led to their challenges, unfettered corporate greed, speculation and market manipulation has. Like most people of any generation before or after me I just tried to do the best I could for myself and my family. I don’t like the country I see today but the young must fight the right people. It s not their parents they should blame for high house prices but the land hoarders ,speculators and self-interested who have made a house an asset not a home. Most of all they must vote for a government who will change this.

[@marktapley7571]

The biggest factor causing the downward economic trajectory of the great mass of people is the depreciation of currency by the banking cartel in collusion with their cronies in government. In the U.S. this rate of debt monetization runs at ap. 50% every 17 years. Britain and other countries will be similar or worse. This monetary scam is not only a massive indirect tax on all production but also an insidious method to gradually move all real wealth to the top. British economic guru Keynes even explained how this scam worked: By a continuing process of inflation, Governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some.

[@Dorian-lq3up]

The old Yorkshire bit at the end got me 😂

[@Powerof7even]

I think a big thing to note is modern day sells you the potential of limitless opportunity, but makes you feel bad when you can't or don't capitalise on it.

[@AST4EVER]

it's DIFFICULT for people to accept the change, yes, the change is happening and it will happen anyhow. we gotta accept it. Jobs are not the same, salaries too aren't the same, neither the housing nor the food is same but also same are not our spending habits and things on which we spend those hard earned money. we are living in a hyper materialistic world, we don't need to buy all that what we are buying for no good reason at all. we are wasting our money, time and labour....

[@jacobfield4848]

The working classes in cannot afford to buy a house or go to university.

[@lh4394]

Loved that little bit at the end

[@Destroyer4700]

Fiat currency is rapidly depreciating in value relative to not just cost but quality of Goods and Services. The rise of Bitcoin and the sharp increase in Gold over the last 20 years is a clear sign of that fact.

[@VinsLeMans]

If you categorise being “ better off “ as being able to access to good and services, information technology, medical &scientific innovation and research to improve wellbeing etc etc yes life has improved (assuming you can somehow afford all of it) however quality of life can hardly be reflective of the extravagancy of the products we consume but rather the satisfaction and fulfilment that comes from a sense of belonging and befitting our societal standards with a role of community involvement and participation (called a job)which nowadays has worsened in every possible aspect Happiness and standard of living is not measured in how many immaterial luxuries you own (of course we all need a certain abundance of this to feel esteemed and comfortable) but from the status and recognition of one’s character in society Society no longer appreciate the workers for the work they do, society pities them for even having a job and not having made millions by flipping flats or playing the stock market as that is new frontier of defining success

[@damienheads7151]

An increase in GDP per capita means nothing when taking into account inflation and the increase in the cost of living. We are FAR worse off.

[@piccalillipit9211]

This was my comment: YES - CATEGORICALLY YES In 1994 at 24 I bought my first house a 3 bedroomed stone built large terrace for 2.5X my BASIC salary of £12k [total salary £17 to 24k]. As a telesales person. I had a Toyota Supra Twin Turbo NOT on finance. I was out 3 nights a week clubbing. I didn't get[need] a penny help from my parents. My sister will have to buy a house for her kid [thankfully she can] because he will NEVER earn enough to pay a mortgage.

[@HALLish-jl5mo]

GDP per capita has increased adjusted for inflation. He literally pointed out in the video that the average income in 1956 was, in today's money, £14,000. Now cost of living has increased faster than inflation, but only because we have expenses we didn't used to have. My grandparents in 1956 had a moped and a house, but no car, no TV, no fridge, no freezer, no telephone and no indoor toilet. I'm sure your living expenses would drop if you lived like that!

[@piccalillipit9211]

@@HALLish-jl5mo Why do you come on here and talk ***** ? Houses were 3 - 4 X 1 annual salary and there was near endless social housing at very low rents. Jobs and shops used to be local - for 30 miles away. Public transport was great and dirt cheap. I don't have a fridge or freezer or a car and you know why? Cos I live in Bulgaria where its STILL like that. Society in the UK has changed and cars and fridges are mandatory. Houses are insainl;y expensive.

[@HALLish-jl5mo]

@@piccalillipit9211 What exactly do you disagree with me on? The inflation adjusted average income in the UK in 1956? Or the life my grandparents lived in 1956? Sure, it was easy to get a house back then. Never disputed that. The house my grandparents got would probably be condemned by today's standards. Uninsulated, no indoor plumbing, basically a glorified brick shed, but it was cheap. By the 1960s they had a new house with some indoor plumbing, a TV, and by the mid 60s, a fridge and the only telephone on the street (all the neighbors chipped in for access). They even got a car. It was a 2 stroke built in East Germany, but it was a car.

[@piccalillipit9211]

@@HALLish-jl5mo Im disagree with the premise that we are poor today cos we spend on stuff people didn't have in the past. But your grandparents had things that previous generations didn't have. We are FORCED by powers outside our control to have these things to live. My sister does not want her 16 year old to have a smartphone - he has ADHD and watching Tic Tok etc makes it way worse. But he has to get the train to college and he literally CAN NOT use the train without a smartphone. There is NO paper ticket system on that train line - so thats a what £60 a month expense? We dont have a choice but to participate in 2024 and the cost of participating in 2024 is making us poor, but its NOT optional. Its not a thing that a bit of self-restraint will solve. I used to drive 5.0L V8 S Class Mercedes and YES that was crazy expensive. But running a 1.0L VW Up is STILL a lot of money but there is no bus and the job is 30 miles away. You can not have a family on 1 working-class salary in 2024 no matter how frugal you are. Thats basically my point.

[@didiermorand4714]

And we had good music...

[@everreason5407]

Interesting video as ever, thanks very much. I think there’s a little error however. I think Cathy Come Home was made by Ken Loach not Ken Burns, who is an American documentary film maker.

[@teaboyuk]

We've never had it so good treated to your impression of yorkshire grandad! What a man

[@economicshelp]

Thank you!

[@teaboyuk]

​@@economicshelpyour more than welcome your videos are very good and informative!

[@conorpmccarthy]

So in summary it's better now but we have to accept less ownership of things - namely houses and kids, right?

[@SoniaPrice-c9t]

We barely have social mobility.

[@garyb455]

Brilliant video and so true. The Welfare State has caused many of todays problems, it was set up as an emergency cover when you were unemployed or ill but for decades people have used it as a way of life. We have created estates where millions of people watch daytime TV and do little else. Change will be coming, Lagarde said the other day that Welfare all across Europe will become unaffordable. As always the USA will lead the way. They are about to slash Government Spending and that's what's desperately needed in the UK

[@gregorysurovoi3968]

What you say is without doubt very true. But - if all the people in the council estates (unemployment reservations) wanted to work - are there enough jobs ?

[@garyb455]

@@gregorysurovoi3968 If the economy was run correctly there would be, the economy cant work because nobody has any money its all taxed and wasted by the buffoons in Westminster

[@garyb455]

@@gregorysurovoi3968 There would be if the economy and Country was run in a real business fashion

[@sharonsmiler4938]

Glad I came across your channel 😀

[@petermeter9890]

Lol I remember the tellys that had to warm up 😂😂😂

[@motormouthalmighty]

the twenty first century and what the idiots have done with the place!oh mister morientes!please make it stop!

[@william_marshal]

Now why have 100 TV channels and they're still rubbish !!!

[@UnipornFrumm]

How is it that the uk gov cuts spending for decades and yet,they still complain they have to keep cutting? Where is all my tax money going?

[@dan44zzt231]

40% is NHS and social security on its own. And it's only going to get worse as the demographics shift older and older.

[@ProfoundFamiliarity]

My rent ten years ago was half what it is now. And so was the price of a pint of milk.

[@LawrenceTimme]

If you were renting 10 years ago why are you still a rentoid now? In 10 years you should have easily saved up a deposit for a house.

[@nothereandthereanywhere]

@@LawrenceTimme Because some people live in an area that saving is almost impossible, unless you do cut straight to the bone and live a survival mode. And if you have a family to feed, two wages may not be good enough for it.

[@ProfoundFamiliarity]

@@LawrenceTimme If you're old enough to type, how are you incapable of realizing that people's lives aren't simply a product of your own basic assumptions? In 5 years, you should have easily figured that out.

[@The_Bon_Juan]

Yes, that’s why women are in the workplace, because of washing machines. While that is true, you’re missing the necessity aspect as housing is so unaffordable. I earn 200k and my missus has to work because housing is a joke

[@Sabadiver]

I really like your content, thank you 😊

[@theolddog5129]

It all depends on who you are and your position on the financial ladder. Life today is considerably better for the wealthy, and there are more of them, so it could be argued that things are better than in the past, from a certain point of view. Alternatively, if you are lower down on the financial ladder and consider the hope of the masses that their lot in life will improve, then that is an entirely different matter. So in my view it all comes down to whether people feel that there is hope of a better life from a person's own standpoint and values. An alternative to considering finanical position, one could consider moral values etc. and then things look even worse. Sure, there was self-interest, greed, exploitation and corruption in the old days, but on the whole their benefits were restricted to the upper echelons of society and was done with a degree of finesse and class that is missing today. Now a large proportion of society are at it.

[@sfactory8253]

There were always crooks around . I think people were just more naive in those days , and more deferential .

[@theolddog5129]

@@sfactory8253 It's the upper-class finesse with which it was done that I miss!😜

[@meibing4912]

You should interview some old coal miners one day. What utter total nonsense.

[@theolddog5129]

@@meibing4912 As you consider it to be "utter total nonsense", would you like to kindly enlighten us as to which part and exactly why? I don't think there are any coal miners living near me so perhaps you can also relay what a miner would say.

[@meibing4912]

@@theolddog5129 "Alternatively, if you are lower down on the financial ladder and consider the hope of the masses that their lot in life will improve, then that is an entirely different matter." Their lives have improved by strides: health wise, economically, nutrition wise, life span, educational levels, child mortality, living space. Please share one single socio-economic aspect of life that has not improved since 1960. I gather you don not know much about the UK and its industrial history. There are many book with coal miners memoirs describing their horrendous working conditions, the cancer, black lung, the multitude of accidents, the lack of food, inability to pay mortages, fear for their families future, high child mortality etc. etc. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fojTc42saLmUi6s

[@erongi233]

The role of the implicit subsidy of the banks expanded greatly over the last 45 years. Combined with deregulation, this allowed the banks to expand risk as they knew they would get rescued if they took on too much risk. Too much risk happened in 2008/9 and it has been since then that so many of the problems we face today ,began. If the original trend lines had remained intact there is no question that life would have been so much easier today.

[@bazzadebear8012]

There was no such thing as "THE GOOD OLD DAYS"

[@slinkydonkey]

Worth watching it until the end lol

[@gerhard7323]

Another POI is to look at how much more it costs the UK to build itself a new nuclear power station in real terms both compared to the past and compared to other countries. Higher costs which, ultimately, will be born by the taxpayer and consumer.

[@kylethompson1379]

It's not only how poor or rich you are, it's how you feel about that. It's mainly how you feel about that.

[@firmbutton6485]

Your grandfather was right. We’ve never had it so good. But people always want more for less. And with climate change we have massive population movements, they also want better lives, but a small improvement in our eyes for them is massive to them. The problem is, like fat people or rich people, they keep taking more.

[@JR-lz4bz]

Sounds like the 'problem' is the climate crisis itself and the people perpetuating it (that is, pretty much everyone in the 'developed world'), not those trying to escape from it.

[@agfagaevart]

0:00 He and his ilk had it FAR BETTER! If things were so great, why the need for TV shows like Kathy Come Home? 14:00 A Mini cost about 8 - £900 when launched in 1959. the average wage was about £700 pa so much for a people's car.

[@IaN09876]

I appreciate supporting everything you say with data. Excellent work.

[@TheCactus1234]

Please note that the 1966 BBC play for today was done by KEN LOACH not Ken Burns.

[@MrMichaeljhinde]

Not that we'd want to reverse things, but do you think that the equality in the workplace has exacerbated inequality in the country overall? Historically it may have been the case that you had almost enough jobs (with 50/50 male / female split) that close to (say) 50% of the population could get a job with a reasonable income versus expenses - but those 50% jobs would pretty much exclusively be done by men, who in turn would partner with women and ensure that for most household things were OK-to-good and only the disabled or workshy were likely to really struggle. Now we have the same set of reasonably paying jobs for 50% of the population, but half are done by men and half by women with, in many cases, the women doing those roles seeking out male partners of similar or higher income. So you trend towards a position where half of households are not too bad off and half are really struggling, because neither partner can get one of those better paid roles or build a home with someone that can. Appreciate that it is likely much less than half of households in that better combined income scenario, but outlines the theory. At the same time, that drags the cost of major purchases like homes to a higher level for all, such that it's much harder for people to have a stay at home parent (historically the woman, but even if you wanted that to be 50/50 split these days it still won't be economically viable for many). In turn that has the knock-on impact on the community spirit. I can recall older female relatives would have had the chance to build that sort of spirit with their peers, where many of them were home during the daytime and had the ability to spend time with their neighbours. Our generation, as above, forces all parties to be working as much as possible and building that same spirit when streets can be largely empty until after dark and interactions largely limited to a quick small talk first thing in the morning as we get in our cars to head to work.

[@wind.del.change]

people have swapped a house and family for consumer tat.

[@jeremiahpoole6526]

‘Consumer tat’ is relatively cheaper compared to what makes life truly meaningful such as a house and family which is fast becoming a luxury.

[@wind.del.change]

@@jeremiahpoole6526 well you can see with younger peoples productivity output. nobody works too hard for consumer tat....

[@jeremiahpoole6526]

Where’s the evidence for that so I can fact check it?

[@Jenks1]

It's funny how you said there is a shortage of money and in the same breath showed that national debt is growing so high. If you understand that money is just government debt, it can't be both in short supply and growing. Remember money always balances to zero, it's the resources that are in short supply, we have never had more money.

[@waynecartwright-js8tw]

In my area there are 4 pensioners to every young person in there 20s. We are still under a Tory MP as many boomers regard them as a good even though our 2 biggest employers failed under there government. My pensioner relatives squabble because one single widow gets winter fuel and her sister and husband on attendance allowance now don't. It's a weird state we are in.

[@maxharbig1167]

McMillan said that in 1957 but exactly 10 years later in 1967 Wilson had to devalue the pound and when that didn't improve things the lifeline was the EEC that the UK eventually managed to wheedle its way into in 1973.

[@meibing4912]

Wilson devaluation was a desperate miscalculation. But the UK Government did several other stupid things back then - including unilaterally breaking several trade deals and treaties (a dark side of the Wilson policy that seems largely forgotten in the UK).

[@mrnanji1]

fantastic thank you