[_delirium]

The Americans at least that I know who came of age in the 50s as anything close to middle-class weren't very hungry at all. They lived in a world of corporate jobs for life, defined-benefit pensions, comprehensive employer-provided health-care with no deductibles/copays/exclusions, low unemployment, etc. Even blue-collar workers had quite strong unions, high pay, and great pensions/healthcare in the 50s.

Granted, if you meant coming of age in 1947 in Poland, that'd be another matter.

[yummyfajitas]

Unfortunately, the jobs paid for a much lower standard of living than today, the health insurance would pay a doctor to tell you "you have terminal cancer", and all of this was only available to white males.

(Meanwhile, a terrorist group with millions of members was setting off about 20 bombs a year plus assorted lynchings and other acts of violence. The response by law enforcement was mainly gun control targeted at the victims of the terrorist group.)

The world of Mad Men is awesome if you get to be Don Draper. For everyone else, it sucked.

[kjhgfdfgh]

There is a famous film set in my home (small mining) town about dissafected youth in the 60s. At one point the teacher says that if the kid doesn't start working hard he will end up just working down the mine. In the 80s the mines closed, unemployment is 30% and a good job now is illegal minicabbing.

[Tycho]

I can believe that there were more/better careers on offer. But what about the consequences of not working, how do they compare to today?