Sometimes I think that if I was born in the 1950s, that things would be better. I am twenty-six now, and going through the stressful process of buying a home. A man of my age and profession in the American 50s would not only be able to afford a home, but wouldn't need a two income household to do it. Instead now, in 2014, my lady needs to work and I need to settle on a house that is a little less than what my dreams want it to be. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like for my young little family had we been born just 60 years earlier.
Nostalgia can cloud the obvious truth though. I would have the best of opportunities in the 1950s of course, because I'm a man, and more importantly to that era's citizens, I'm white. However, I am an atheist, and living with the true religious freedom of today can cause one to forget what life would be like just a short time ago for someone who doesn't think that god is real. I would be forced to keep my atheism from everyone, a little blasphemic series of thoughts hidden safely away in the back of my skull. Were I alive in that age, I would not be me, instead, an imposter, pretending to agree with the status quo for fear of the accepted violence and destruction of those who didn't agree with the white christian majority.
I would fear for my son. He is three years old now, and is a member of the first generation that will (by the time they are adults) enjoy marriage equality, and legal weed. My son won't have to be shy about whatever his religious beliefs may be, and will be able to marry another man if he so chooses, with only the extremely old and senile casting poor judgement on him. Sure, if we lived here in suburban Philadelphia back in the day, we'd have a big house with a giant yard, a dog named Spot and a mother that was always home, but my kids would be uniform, products of few real individuality choices and even fewer relationship ones. Back then, the only path to true fiscal and physical security was conformity.
Here in the present however, fiscal problems seem insurmountable. My generation, (Gen X, 80s babies) are drowning in debt, and a majority of us have less than one thousand dollars in the bank. Those like me, who managed to save enough for a down payment, are just now learning the new tricks of the trade that banks employ these days, especially the enormous penalties for the most minor of mortgage infractions. Compared to the economic boom that white men were enjoying in the 1950s, we are definitely backsliding, at least fiscally.
But today, things are better. Sure, my kids will have to struggle to own their own homes, and pay their student loans. They will probably be worked to depression by their corporate bosses and have their pensions weaseled away from them. These are problems that are dire of course, but the trade off seems to be the immense personal freedom. Today you don't have to marry anyone if you don't want to, and if you do decide to marry and then don't like it, you can get a divorce easier than ever before. You don't have to give birth to your rapist's baby, and you don't have to have sex with the opposite gender if that's not your cup of tea. Today you can walk into a Barnes and Noble and buy a book called "Jesus is an asshole" and nobody cares. It simply doesn't matter anymore. If the choice was between being broke and free or rich and confined, I'll take the first one. Everytime.
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