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CarolH96's latest comments
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16th Jun 2017CarolH96 commented on:
Was life in the past preferable to today?Education is free up until the age of 18 which is when you are classed as an adult. You can either choose to find a job or fund yourself in university but at least you get the choice. Had you been born 60 years earlier you would have left school at 15 and be expected to get a job to help fund the family's finances. I was able to stop on at school until I was 16 in order to gain my "CSE's". I got good grades but my parents couldn't afford for me to go onto the private girls school in order to get my "A" levels. Without my "A" levels I had no choice but to go to work and contribute to the family pot. Further education has always carried a premium and no doubt the cost was just as high back in the 50's as it is today. Today you can get a student loan which is exactly what my eldest did. She's paid hers off now but had she not been earning what she is earning then it would have been deferred. I actually think that students have a much better chance nowadays then back in the day but it isn't free and they have to accept that. Education is only free up until the age of 18 in the UK.ViewDate:
16th Jun 2017CarolH96 commented on:
Was life in the past preferable to today?I think it's 50/50. A lot of things in the past were much better but equally a lot of things today are much better. In the past we had very little and we appreciated everything we had. Nowadays there is that feeling of "entitlement" and things come too easy to too many and aren't appreciated. Debt in particular is a huge problem which didn't exist back in the 50's. You had no choice but to live according to your means and that was definitely a much better way then incurring huge debts which can't be paid back. Debt alone has led to very many people committing suicide. We didn't have the massive amount of single parent families of which many are supported by the state. I'm not pointing fingers here.....just stating a fact. Life was a much slower pace and cars were far and few between so the atmosphere was much cleaner apart from the very smoky chimneys. Of course the cities had more cars as well so the atmosphere was terrible. The smog in London during those days was horrendous. I was born and bred in Devon though so I never experienced this. We didn't have foreign holidays ........ in fact we didn't have holidays apart from day trips out. Good or bad? I remember very clearly our family day trips and I loved them. I'd never been "on holiday" so I didn't miss it. To this day we rarely go abroad but we do try and take our grandchildren out on family days complete with a picnic and they love it. Maybe the foreign holidays are aimed more at the parents then the children? I know our grandchildren are just as happy splashing about in an English stream then sitting by a pool in heat which is far too much for them. Medicine and technology has to make our current day take first place in the poll though. I wouldn't be here now had it not been for the wonderful NHS and all the medical advances that have happened since the 50's. It's incredible just how far medical science has advanced. You only need to look at the fantastic scanners that we have and also the wonderful cancer treatments which have reduced death from cancer drastically. Also the wonderful prem baby facilities and medical advances which mean that more and more babies born very premature are surviving. It's nothing short of a miracle...... so modern day medicine definitely wins 100% over 50's medicine. We must never forget those that have donated their bodies to medical science and those brave people who trialled drugs as a last resort to saving their lives. Without those generous and brave people I doubt we'd be where we are today. As for technology.........one of our greatest advancements of all time, which definitely puts present day way ahead of life in the past, is the internet. The internet alone has opened up vast opportunities for the majority of the planet. Personally I couldn't live without it now. It's a means of communicating with people all over the world....and our families. I find digital photography to be the bee's knees. The old way used to cost a fortune in films and developing the films. It took a while to get your photo's back and it cost you even for the duds that you took! lol To be able to take as many pics of the family and my darling grandchildren is huge to me because I know I can cherry pick the best without it costing me a penny. Medical treatment is so much better these days as well but there is a huge potential problem on the horizon because of the over-use of antibiotics over a period of time. Particularly in more recent years antibiotics were used to cure every complaint made by patients which has resulted in a watering down of their efficiency. There are modern scourges that make the "past" more desirable and that is the amount of immigration that has happened. Good or bad.......people have their own opinions, but for whatever cause we are finding the country being over crowded with resources being hit badly. That is a fact and a huge problem that wasn't around in the 50's despite huge numbers of people coming into the country for refuge from the war. So........would I prefer life in the past or in the present day? I would like to take a mix of both but I also have to say that my life in the past was a child born in 1951 who had a secure family background. BUT.....we all move on as we grow and if I'm totally honest I wouldn't swap what I have now for what I had back in the 50's. I wouldn't swap for a Kings ransom! lol. Just for starters I wouldn't be here right now and neither would any of those that chose life in the past. Present day is a definite thumbs up for me anyhow but I will always retain the happy memories of my past as well.