quality of life was better in many ways in the 1980s (if you had a job) - in my estate it was generally one car per house but all the dads cars were home by about 5pm - the evenings they would be involved in community activity - building local GAA club, training football teams, cutting grass on the estate etc
In the summer there would be organised activities for the kids - mini leagues etc
People had more time in the 1980s but less money - a foreign holiday was out of the question and I wasnât out of the country until I was about 16.
In the 1980s most homes didnât have gas or oil central heating - they had back boilers at most which depended on a fire. I donât think people had electric showers until early 90s in most homes.
We always ate well as my folks made it a priority but I know lots of people who rarely ate meat
Eating out was a luxury that we rarely did - occasions maybe and takeaways were rare - McDonalds was a real treat
People generally stayed in the same house and there was no property ladder or push to move to a bigger and better house
To go back to the 1980s way of life would be hard for most people - a lot of creature comforts and experiences we have now they did not have but they probably had more free time/work not as pressurised
[quote=âcount of monte cristo, post: 853597, member: 348â]You are commenting on the difference between one time which you remember and one you dont?
ah, why bother?[/quote]
From stories of the people I dealt with, yeah. âIt was a lovely place when we moved in but nowâŚâ etc etc repeated many times over. Also structurally, people in many situations are now living in houses which have been condemned by environmental protection officers as uninhabitable, which of course they werenât when they were newly built, as I referred to above.
Buildings deteriorate over time due to wear and tear, weathering, rot etc. You can hardly expect a house today to be in the same condition as it was 40 years ago.
The houses in the estates around limerick were mostly built to very high standards in fairness. Most of the problems are caused by adjacent houses going/being left derelict or knocked and poor property management. The simple point was the people in many council houses are in a worse position than the people that moved into them 30 or 40 years ago.
[quote=âglasagusban, post: 853608, member: 1533â]I believe that was my point numbnuts.
The houses in the estates around limerick were mostly built to very high standards in fairness. Most of the problems are caused by adjacent houses going/being left derelict or knocked and poor property management. The simple point was the people in many council houses are in a worse position than the people that moved into them 30 or 40 years ago.[/quote]
Problem was that if you put all social housing together you create a ghetto. Ballymun towers were futuristic when they were built
If you give somebody a house and they donât pay for it or donât pay market rent for it then they generally donât respect it they way they would if they own something. So for example on a privately owned estate people maintain their houses and lawns and cut the grass in common areas on public greens etc. In a publicly owned estate people wait for the council to do it. A private estate generally has a community spirit and ethic because it feeds into the value of peopleâs property and homes. If you own something you will invest in it to maintain it.
In an environment which existed and still exists in council estates/flats good people get pulled down like crabs in a bucket and the cycle is self perpetuating. 3 or 4 scrote families can destroy an area of a couple of hundred houses.
[quote=âglasagusban, post: 853608, member: 1533â]I believe that was my point numbnuts.
The houses in the estates around limerick were mostly built to very high standards in fairness. Most of the problems are caused by adjacent houses going/being left derelict or knocked and poor property management. The simple point was the people in many council houses are in a worse position than the people that moved into them 30 or 40 years ago.[/quote]
Youâre seriously talking through your hole mate. Even with the economic recession, people on housing estates today are in general way better off than 30-40 years ago.
Ulterior Motive makes some valid points about re life stress, free time etc, but those are reflective of still over inflated property values and the fact that we have become accustomed and expect to have certain creature comforts/materialistic expectations that we couldnât have dreamed about back then. In otherwords the bar is set higher now and we want and expect more and with that comes the added stresses and pressures.
We were much poorer back then (with the exceptions mentioned earlier ) and in raw economic terms life was harder.
Itâs funny to listen to the likes of Thraw saying he wishes he was born in the 50âs. He would never have had the opportunity to spend a couple of years arsing around the globe banging Colombian hoors and crazy bitches in Kiwi hostels nor taking holidays in Portugal with his lady friend.
[quote=âTheUlteriorMotive, post: 853609, member: 2272â]Problem was that if you put all social housing together you create a ghetto. Ballymun towers were futuristic when they were built
If you give somebody a house and they donât pay for it or donât pay market rent for it then they generally donât respect it they way they would if they own something. So for example on a privately owned estate people maintain their houses and lawns and cut the grass in common areas on public greens etc. In a publicly owned estate people wait for the council to do it. A private estate generally has a community spirit and ethic because it feeds into the value of peopleâs property and homes. If you own something you will invest in it to maintain it.
In an environment which existed and still exists in council estates/flats good people get pulled down like crabs in a bucket and the cycle is self perpetuating. 3 or 4 scrote families can destroy an area of a couple of hundred houses.[/quote]
One small quibble with your posts - far too reasoned and insightful for this site.
Even for the others you mention there wasnât a whole lot of difference to everyone else Iâd say.[/quote]
Teacher was a cushy number back then. You were not rich, but you lived in a decent house with a decent wage and more importantly you were psychologically buffeted to large extent from the the economic uncertainties and tribulations that the unemployed, working class and small farmers (which combined made up most of the population) had to deal with with.
The other? Doctors, Bank Managers etc⌠they were a step below the landed gentry. There was a world of difference from everyone else.
I imagine if you left Ireland in 1960 and walked into a Mad Men esque 1960s New York it must have been a hell of an experience
I remember seeing a documentary about bands from London travelling to NY in the 1960s after the Beatles had blazed a trail and they said it was eye opening - silly things like places open 24 hours and all kinds of food and takeaway food that didnât exist in London never mind in Connemara
[quote=âHis Holiness Da Dalai Lama, post: 853613, member: 1503â]Youâre seriously talking through your hole mate. Even with the economic recession, people on housing estates today are in general way better off than 30-40 years ago.
[/quote]
How either of you can fail to grasp the relatively simple concept of people living in council houses that are now uninhabitable being in a worse off position than the people who moved into those exact same houses when they were brand new 40 years ago, is beyond me.
[quote=âTheUlteriorMotive, post: 853616, member: 2272â]I imagine if you left Ireland in 1960 and walked into a Mad Men esque 1960s New York it must have been a hell of an experience
I remember seeing a documentary about bands from London travelling to NY in the 1960s after the Beatles had blazed a trail and they said it was eye opening - silly things like places open 24 hours and all kinds of food and takeaway food that didnât exist in London never mind in Connemara[/quote]
Indeed I remember well heading over to New York back in the day, and I only had uncle Benjy, who was a police man in Brooklyn to look out for me. My father, who was the youngest and looked after the farm, asked me to give a wee note to his brother. I never got to give the wee note to Benjy, because he was shot down the day after I arrived in an uptown foray. Anyway I carried on regardless.
My parents house is about 40 years old. It is in better condition now than when it was built in terms of insulation/windows etc because they own it and spent money over the years maintaining it and upgrading where they could
[quote=âHis Holiness Da Dalai Lama, post: 853613, member: 1503â]
Itâs funny to listen to the likes of Thraw saying he wishes he was born in the 50âs. He would never have had the opportunity to spend a couple of years arsing around the globe banging Colombian hoors and crazy bitches in Kiwi hostels nor taking holidays in Portugal with his lady friend.[/quote]
Ah, but I wouldnât have known about them, and what the mind doesnât know, the heart canât yearn for.
My oul lad went to see Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy, Horslips, Planxty, Dr. FeelgoodâŚregularly! He got to buy Dylan and Neil Young LPâs when they actually came out. My oul pairâs first date was seeing John Martyn in his pomp in Liberty Hall. Thatâs a high standard of living, in my eyes. They went on one holiday to Spain. Then they saved like Jews to buy a house and could do so quite quickly. I struggle with rent. I do two peopleâs jobs due to cutbacks in the civil service. Itâs frowned upon to drink at lunchtime.
One took a career break and never came back. I directly replaced him. Then a chap in my section retired after a couple of months of me being here. I was given his tasks to add to mine. He was also a grade above me. Itâs easy to feel a little hard done by.