Things that have changed for the worse in the last 40 years

Wibbles

Petrol - in 1982 cost £1.65 per gallon
Now £6.00 per gallon and you don't even get free lead

Post - in 1982, 2nd class cost 12.5p
Now - 68p

Mail delivery 1982 - I could guarantee first delivery by time I left for work at 7:30 with 2nd delivery by 1:30
Now - when they can bother (often 5 pm - sometimes never) - and we get other peoples addressed mail all of the time (and assume other people get our mail - but worryingly never redeliver it to us)

leeCal

Family used to live nearer to each other and so used to visit more regularly, Sunday’s especially. Also Sundays used to be an almost national day off work so visiting could take place too. 

Im sure there were more local jobs but perhaps I’m mistaken. 

66Mustang

As much as I don’t like the fuel taxes, £1.65 in 1982 is about £6.20 in todays money so not much change if you take into account inflation.

Not worked out the stamp one but I am sure it will be a similar story.

Great idea for a thread though.

I think technology reliability has got worse, probably due to the tech getting more complicated. They do all sorts of clever things these days but are always going wrong. Perhaps if they invested some of the R&D money into making it more reliable rather than more and more new features it would be less frustrating!

stevie66

Lack of common sence!
Seems its not on the ajenda any more. Now everyone has to be tought health and safety.

66Mustang

With benefits going up ~3% vs ~7% cost of living this year I wonder whether benefit payments have got worse over 40 years or whether they have generally they kept up with inflation.

I know the £10 Christmas bonus, while still welcome, would be something like £175 today if it was increased each year since the year it was introduced!

SueHeath

This is an easy one for me - Kids behavour - when i was young we wouldn't talk to any one in the manner that some of the Kids to day do.
And unfortunately the anger on the streets.

janer1967

Knife crime everyone used to fight with their fist not pull a knife . Not that I condone fighting in anyway but it's horrific to hear of teens going out with knives some think to keep them safe 

Cartini

Hi,

Speaking as a computer engineer, technology reliability has vastly improved over the years.  The problem with machines is, 99% of the time, the user.  Admittedly, some machines are "bad out of the box", but generally problems arise because a user doesn`t know what he or she is doing.   @66Mustang - I agree with you in that technology is more complicated, even I have a hard time job trying to keep on top of all the advances in the technology I work with. 

There will always be problems with technology when people purchase items with functionality that is not needed.

Back to the title of this thread and picking up on what Wibbles said about petrol.  As a child I lived in South Africa and Rhodesia (as it was then) and returned to the UK in October 1975 (I know this is older than 40 years, but I`m saying it as a comparison).  Putting the news about Vietnam aside, the other big news story then was petrol hitting £1 a gallon for the first time ever.  If those newsreaders had the ability to see into the future, they would have been gobsmacked at how rip off Britain is charging the earth for vehicle fuel.

I know it`s not quite 40 years, but what I hate with a passion that has changed for the worse over the years is the "addiction" people have to mobile phones and anti-social media.  I get really annoyed when I see couples or families out for a meal and they all sit there plugged into their mobile phones instead talking to each other

Something else that I really dislike is the increase in cars on the roads over the last 40 years.  The standard of driving also seems to have dropped in line with the increase in vehicles.  Generally drivers really don`t care about anyone when behind their wheel; where they park, who they block in, ignoring traffic lights and stopping on yellow boxes when they shouldn`t.

One part of society that I am so glad has changed over the years is the smoking culture and the drinking during the working day culture.  I don`t, and never have, smoked so I`m more than happy to see restrictions imposed on smokers.  I no longer do, but as part of the then culture, I used to have a couple or three beers at lunch during the working day (before I could drive).  I`m so glad that culture has gone and taken the peer pressure to go for a beer with it.

Just a thought or three,

Andy

leeCal

@SueHeath, totally agree. When I was young we were taught to respect our elders. Then computers and whatnot hit the streets and suddenly the elders were dumb, didn’t have a clue about technology of that kind, so why respect them. Suddenly everything was about youth, being young, smart and tech savvy. And why ask an adult anything when you can google it in private if necessary. Respect for elders is a thing of the past I’m afraid. ☹️

66Mustang

@Cartini

I’m more on about little bugs that appear in software. Not things like printers not working which I agree is often user error and easily rectified. I just think as software has gotten more complicated there are more bugs. I don’t know how it works as I’ve never worked with programming but I’m guessing there are more lines of code in a modern program than an old fashioned program and so there is a higher likelihood of a bug occurring?

66Mustang

@SueHeath @vikingqueen yeah I don’t know any old people who are rude

In all seriousness though I agree @SueHeath though  I think society as a whole is ruder now, not just a certain demographic. I see tons of rude kids, teenagers, young adults, middle aged and old people.

leeCal

@66Mustang from what I know of programming I’d say bugs were more about bad or sloppy programming or a lack of sufficient beta testing than more lines in the code, modern languages are high level and need less code provided by the programmer, not low level machine code.

Cartini

@66Mustang

I can`t speak from a linux / unix point of view, I`m a Microsoft man but most software, regardless of vendor, is thoroughly tested by people in the know.  Unfortunately in the world of computers, it doesn`t matter how thoroughly something is tested, it can take a sequence of events not thought of to identify another bug or security risk.  There`s no escaping that.

poppy123456

66Mustang said:

@SueHeath @vikingqueen yeah I don’t know any old people who are rude

In all seriousness though I agree @SueHeath though  I think society as a whole is ruder now, not just a certain demographic. I see tons of rude kids, teenagers, young adults, middle aged and old people.

Couldn't agree more with this. Don't talk about the young, the elder ones can often be as rude or even more rude sometimes.

Cartini

poppy123456 said:

66Mustang said:

@SueHeath @vikingqueen yeah I don’t know any old people who are rude

In all seriousness though I agree @SueHeath though  I think society as a whole is ruder now, not just a certain demographic. I see tons of rude kids, teenagers, young adults, middle aged and old people.

Couldn't agree more with this. Don't talk about the young, the elder ones can often be as rude or even more rude sometimes.

This is a subject that really frustrates me.  Having spent most of my life in a disciplined environment (my home then the Royal Navy), I despair at the lack of respect the majority of the society of today has for other people.  I have to stress here - I don`t mean everyone, I mean the majority.  I can`t say why the older generations (to me, I`m 60) can be rude, but I put the blame for those born from the 80`s onward down to a certain female Prime Minister who banned punishment in schools. 

I had an unpleasant experience a few years back when I asked the son of my next door neighbour to turn his music down, it was 21:00 then (and his mother was out).  In a very short period of time a gobby teenage (early teens) girl was screaming at me that she can do whatever she wants before 22:30.  I abhor violence to females, especially children, but it took every bone in my body not to drag her by her hair and throw her on the road.

calcotti

66Mustang said:

With benefits going up ~3% vs ~7% cost of living this year I wonder whether benefit payments have got worse over 40 years or whether they have generally they kept up with inflation.

They definitely haven’t, numerous reports describe them as now at a low.

Cartini

woodbine said:

I started a part time job at a petrol station in 1972 it was 32p a gallon today it's more like £7.20 a gallon, beer was about 25p a pint now it depends where you live as to it's price.
I'm a glass half full type of person most of the time, as for respect I'm a great believer that it has to be earned, whilst it's true that Thatchers time in office saw an end (and rightly so) to corporal punishment, I was at Grammar school from 70-75 and it had been abolished there by then.

I think you and I are going to disagree on this point. I would like to see punishment reinstated in schools (actually, I would like to see conscription reinstated).  I lived in South Africa as a child and caning was used as a punishment; and effective it was too. I once received 6 of the best from a Kojak lookalike headmaster using a bamboo cane as thin as you could imagine.  I learnt my lesson and never had to bend over for him again.

leeCal

Me and my class mates used to get hit with all sorts, slippers, tennis shoes, canes and blackboard rubbers. It made us more careful and sly, we also hated our teachers (and other authority figures) and bullying was rife and largely went unpunished. It was supposed to help make us more manly, all boys school, and we were to be the leaders of the future according to our slightly demented headmaster. It was a harsh life which included cold showers and five mile cross country runs in all weathers and I wouldn’t recommend it, unless ones intention was to join the forces after school.

I don’t however agree with a system which is lenient on wrongdoers, I think there must be a compromise between extremes somehow. 

Cartini

leeCal said:

Me and my class mates used to get hit with all sorts, slippers, tennis shoes, canes and blackboard rubbers. It made us more careful and sly, we also hated our teachers and bullying was rife and largely went unpunished. It was supposed to help make us more manly, all boys school, and we were to be the leaders of the future according to our slightly demented headmaster. It was a harsh life and I wouldn’t recommend it. 

I don’t however agree with a system which is lenient on wrongdoers, I think there must be a compromise between extremes somehow. 

"get hit with all sorts, slippers, tennis shoes, canes and blackboard rubbers" implies a free for all punishment system; I don`t agree with that at all.  A regulated punishment system, controlled by strict rules, is what I agree with.  Unfortunately that will never happen in the society of today <sigh>

SueHeath

Yes my friends i think a lot of us can associate with the youth problem of today, not all i may say, but unfortunatly even the good youth are frowned upon.
I can pat myself on the shoulder, myself and my husband have brought up 3 lads who were born on an housing estate with a bad reputation, they all done very well at school and went on to have fantastic careers, but we brought them up with respect and we never had the technology there is today (they teach us now)
We did have punishment only a tap on the hand when they were young advancing to grounding them when they were older. I do wonder if the policing has made it a big problem - with lack of court cases - threat of prison not there or to light - human rights the list can go on and on.
Respect starts at home x

Wibbles

66Mustang said:

As much as I don’t like the fuel taxes, £1.65 in 1982 is about £6.20 in todays money so not much change if you take into account inflation.

Not worked out the stamp one but I am sure it will be a similar story.

Great idea for a thread though.

I think technology reliability has got worse, probably due to the tech getting more complicated. They do all sorts of clever things these days but are always going wrong. Perhaps if they invested some of the R&D money into making it more reliable rather than more and more new features it would be less frustrating!

Technology has become much much cheaper!

My first computer (C64) cost £400  in 1983 - £1500 today

It had a 1Mhz processor and 64Kb RAM and 20Kb ROM

Monitor / TV was extra

Compared to modern laptops - its ridiculous !