tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post3177338958966064975..comments2024-03-18T22:32:52.802-04:00Comments on Noahpinion: The Dream of the 90sNoah Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09093917601641588575noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-17508771753988178952016-02-20T15:27:16.280-05:002016-02-20T15:27:16.280-05:00"Last I checked, 1970 came after 1969."
..."Last I checked, 1970 came after 1969."<br /><br />Har. Har. <br /><br />Pedant.<br /><br />I remember the period 1968-1970 as a bad time in Europe and America. 1969 was not a golden age.Absalonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09131268683451462949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-3042219010245052512016-02-19T13:06:40.111-05:002016-02-19T13:06:40.111-05:00The 90s are to millennials (especially older mille...The 90s are to millennials (especially older millennials, a group I identify with although I'm probably a few years younger than Noah) what the 50s were to Boomers (again, especially older Boomers). A time of peace, prosperity, and relative optimism that intuitively feels like the way things *should* be, especially in comparison with the apparent degeneration that came after.<br /><br />Like all myths, and like the 50s myth, the 90s myth has lots of holes. But it comes from somewhere. The 90s were, for the most part, an optimistic and peaceful time if you were a middle-class American.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-77165249747324695292016-02-17T05:09:12.484-05:002016-02-17T05:09:12.484-05:00While in Poland, 90s meant - after a short burst o...While in Poland, 90s meant - after a short burst of ethusiasm and happiness - surging unemployment, raised gender pay gaps, breaking of social fabric, an impression of crime rising and so on - while media were keeping telling us that everything is allright and those who complain are just frustrates who would, hopefully, die out within next decades and all will be even more alright then. And the, at the end, slow recovery.<br /><br />(OK, i am unfair here, as many my friends DO remind the 90s as wonderful times, but I am speaking for those, who feel they lost during 90s - and there were a lot of them in Poland, a lot)szopenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02234132446740838968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-41968666661529022112016-02-15T05:00:13.946-05:002016-02-15T05:00:13.946-05:00This isn't just youth nostalgia here. The 90s...This isn't just youth nostalgia here. The 90s were an amazing decade to be alive. People were happy because of what the future looked like. Things were good. <br /><br />My parents came of age in the 70s and they will both tell you that was a crappy decade to be a teenager. When I ask them what their favorite decade has been so far they always tell me the 90s. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-87948220786227148442016-02-13T14:58:29.136-05:002016-02-13T14:58:29.136-05:00I was pretty unhappy and depressed as a teenager. ...I was pretty unhappy and depressed as a teenager. My most fun years were in the early and mid 2000s.Noah Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09093917601641588575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-10110661973189008282016-02-13T14:15:49.690-05:002016-02-13T14:15:49.690-05:00I hope this means you're voting for Bernie San...I hope this means you're voting for Bernie Sanders. Perhaps he spooks economists a bit because of a misunderstanding of his meaning of socialism, but I hope people realize he's really just a genuine progressive.<br /><br />Why did it take a self-declared democratic socialist to run a campaign on a progressive footing? Why couldn't this party run on this agenda any other way?<br /><br />I broke my promise of not donating to campaigns, but only for Bernie. He needs our help.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-59562476695796978812016-02-12T15:20:16.069-05:002016-02-12T15:20:16.069-05:00Wow.
So, the dot.com bubble was comparatively tin...Wow.<br /><br />So, the dot.com bubble was comparatively tiny (go check out the tulip bubble!) and its aftereffect quite minor.Adamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00848821084269314215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-152775107871499652016-02-12T14:57:43.641-05:002016-02-12T14:57:43.641-05:00Did those promises work out? With the opposite sex...Did those promises work out? With the opposite sex, I mean. Just sayin'. ;-)Noah Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09093917601641588575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-59435092937059375662016-02-12T13:54:18.034-05:002016-02-12T13:54:18.034-05:00I saw Jurassic Park in movie theaters back in 1993...I saw Jurassic Park in movie theaters back in 1993. I was eleven; Dinosaurs! Real living dinosaurs! cementing the idea for a solid decade that the world was a fabulous playground, created just for me.<br /><br />I was just beginning to get suspicions there was something interesting about the opposite sex and only a few years (though it felt like an eternity) from driving. The 90s were an era of achieved dreams and even greater promises. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-27095266478206880952016-02-12T11:43:40.024-05:002016-02-12T11:43:40.024-05:00We let 9/11 collapse back into fear and war, excep...We let 9/11 collapse back into fear and war, except this time without a competing, expansionist super power as a rival. Adamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00848821084269314215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-21620818481671938172016-02-11T23:57:47.266-05:002016-02-11T23:57:47.266-05:00Last I checked, 1970 came after 1969.Last I checked, 1970 came after 1969.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11304146622068183941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-80202148770403532672016-02-11T23:55:08.744-05:002016-02-11T23:55:08.744-05:00My teen years were the 70s. Gas rationing anyone?...My teen years were the 70s. Gas rationing anyone? Not much youth nostalgia there...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11304146622068183941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-90490659242589724982016-02-11T21:52:56.076-05:002016-02-11T21:52:56.076-05:00The late '90's was the out of control dot....The late '90's was the out of control dot.com bubble economy. That is the worst bubble in the history of man, which we are still trying to deal with today. That simple. <br /><br />Any correlation with Bush, Clinton, etc. is very weak. It is a failure of executives at all levels. Even now the brainiacs at the Fed say they can't identify bubbles.<br /><br />I can. I did; invested accordingly and it has been life changing, for the better.<br /><br />The '90's? First Half ~ OK except for the war. The 2nd half? A steaming pile of time bombs that have been detonating for 16 years now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-18646794576354855952016-02-11T14:44:52.511-05:002016-02-11T14:44:52.511-05:00I think the "youth nostalgia" period las...I think the "youth nostalgia" period lasts up until you leave your parents' house and have to start earning your own living.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03403568348078917380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-29444901230997259392016-02-11T12:25:41.518-05:002016-02-11T12:25:41.518-05:00I think this post accurately describes the giddine...I think this post accurately describes the giddiness of the late '90s, but the early '90s were a different time. The mood was a lot darker and grittier. You can see this culturally, for example in pop music, which turned from the bubbly, carefree sounds of hair metal to the darker, angst-driven sounds of grunge, and from the boastful early party rap styles to the violence and alienation of gangsta rap.o. natehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08803577223028106635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-71138651614008920512016-02-11T10:31:13.812-05:002016-02-11T10:31:13.812-05:00
This is one of handful of iconic photos for my ge...<br />This is one of handful of iconic photos for my generation:<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings#/media/File:Kent_State_massacre.jpg<br /><br />The helicopter on the roof of the American embassy in Saigon, the little girl fleeing naked from American bombing and the Vietnamese general shooting the Viet Cong prisoner in the head are others. 1969 was not a happier, better time (except for the personal fact that I was sixteen - being sixteen is better than being sixty :-) ). Absalonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09131268683451462949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-71328249893780559202016-02-11T10:18:33.519-05:002016-02-11T10:18:33.519-05:00"Nothing has gone on right since 1969."
..."Nothing has gone on right since 1969."<br /><br />Apparently, you don't remember 1969 very well. <br /><br />In 1968 the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to stop a reform movement. In 1969 American society was tearing itself apart over the Vietnam war - the baby boomers were in full conflict with the generation that had come of age during the second world war. In 1970 the National Guard shot and killed white middle class university students (and some innocent people walking by hundreds of yards away) for protesting American incursions into Cambodia. Middle class parents lived in fear that their sons would be drafted and sent to die in Vietnam. IIRC, the music popular on college campuses in 1969 was full of rage and despair. <br /><br />A lot of things have gone right since 1969. They could have gone better. Absalonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09131268683451462949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-32968864330993614622016-02-11T10:04:28.496-05:002016-02-11T10:04:28.496-05:00"That optimism doesn't come cheap - you a..."That optimism doesn't come cheap - you actually have to make the world better if you want to feel the rush of progress. We may be able to get that 90s feeling back, but we're going to have to fight for it. "<br /><br />Congratulations. You have re-invented the core principle of the Enlightenment. The world can be improved but you have to work for it and you have a moral obligation to try. <br /><br />So what went wrong after the 1990s? The Second Iraq war was a huge mistake and arguably a war crime. If America promoted the current civil war in Syria, that has been another terrible mistake. America successfully brokered the rise of China for geo-political reasons but at terrible cost to factory workers in America and Europe. Tax policies designed to favor the rich, with their low marginal propensity to consume, coupled with the rise of China, with its low factory wages and 40% savings rate, have created global deflationary pressures and financial bubbles. Absalonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09131268683451462949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-979531900092952962016-02-11T09:17:26.735-05:002016-02-11T09:17:26.735-05:00...and at one point AIDS (if I remember right)......and at one point AIDS (if I remember right)...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-26298488494312890782016-02-11T09:16:02.952-05:002016-02-11T09:16:02.952-05:00You should add the discovery of effective treatmen...You should add the discovery of effective treatments for HIV infection/AIDS to your list, which I think was mid-90s. Until then, the number of deaths and really horrifying illnesses due to the virus was escalating pretty fast, at one point, and AIDS (if I remember right) had become a leading cause of death for some demographic groups. The discovery that HIV could be transmitted through heterosexual sex had freaked out a whole generation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-55796418158290270082016-02-11T08:26:58.774-05:002016-02-11T08:26:58.774-05:00The 1990s was when the Republican party made it...The 1990s was when the Republican party made it's final turn into darkness and became the Party of Gingrich. Life might have looked great if you were American middle-class--but not in Eastern Europe, or in the inner cities. Institutionalized racism persisted in the police, and maybe grew because our attention was elsewhere, on feeling good. Low prices for oil, so we squandered a moment when maybe we could have tried to break oil addiction rather than guzzling cheap gas. The 1990s was an era of blind hubris. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-87010751929457145422016-02-11T07:04:51.785-05:002016-02-11T07:04:51.785-05:00Anecdotally speaking, I think that smuglydismissed...Anecdotally speaking, I think that smuglydismissed has a good point here. The start of my teenage years roughly coincided with the 2007-08 crash, and I still have quite a rosy view of those years and the ones that followed immediately afterward, one that would seem highly implausible in someone, say, graduating university at the time.Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17907329448754558663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-89790476341583255332016-02-11T00:50:28.648-05:002016-02-11T00:50:28.648-05:00Or, as Hobbes said in the 90s (the 1690s, that is)...Or, as Hobbes said in the 90s (the 1690s, that is):<br />"Felicity consisteth in prospering, not in having prospered"<br /><br />Y'know I'm REALLY old. I can remember articles just like this one in the 1970s talking about the betrayed hopes of the 1960s. It really is "its the economy stupid" (to borrow a slogan from the 90s) - everyone in the boom thinks the boom is going to last forever, everyone in the bust thinks that's going to last forever too. derrida deriderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01188777386180390172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-3394046829372291202016-02-11T00:16:04.587-05:002016-02-11T00:16:04.587-05:00Yes. Progressivism is silly. It is always the best...Yes. Progressivism is silly. It is always the best of times and the worst of times.gcallahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10065877215969589482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-51466084943906802072016-02-10T18:05:28.782-05:002016-02-10T18:05:28.782-05:00In a nutshell: the Music and traffic were better, ...In a nutshell: the Music and traffic were better, people were more optimistic, Cost of Living was lower, wages were higher, and technology doesn't necessarily make people happier.Kainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09841689865415250256noreply@blogger.com