In retrospect, but the psychology at the time was traumatic. The Berlin Wall was a prison and the city knew it was ground zero in waiting if the Cold War became nuclear.
Best place to live in 1969?
- Thread starter Quintuplicate
- Start date
In retrospect, but the psychology at the time was traumatic. The Berlin Wall was a prison and the city knew it was ground zero in waiting if the Cold War became nuclear.
marathag
Banned
Incentive to do well in school, College was relatively cheap, even for Ivy League, less prestigious schools, still not bad
Penn State, non resident, was $2150 for tuition, $1150 Room and Board, Fees and Books $350, and budget for personal expenses $350
Not enough money? become a Hippie and run off to Canada. Hope you like Patchouli
Don't want to goto Vietnam or a Draft Dodger? Join the Military for four years, you could pick a Branch and MOS that would be combat related, and spend 13 months in West Germany or similar. Join the Air Force, they only sent Officers out to die. Enlisted, you stayed a a cozy base somewhere
But the chance was pretty low, really
tonycat77
Banned
Anywhere really, back then you didn't need a college degree for being a barista, someone with a blue collar job could afford a house, car and sustain a family.
My friend's grandfather had a interesting story: went to cross the street, the car carrying some guys honked their horn and asked him: "Yo, wanna work at Ford?", he said yes and they brought him to work the next day, only had a high school degree, and worked with a great wage and even higher overtime pay.
Retired and could sustain my friend's father and his severals siblings, Large house, car, etc.
You can't really do that stuff anymore.
My friend's grandfather had a interesting story: went to cross the street, the car carrying some guys honked their horn and asked him: "Yo, wanna work at Ford?", he said yes and they brought him to work the next day, only had a high school degree, and worked with a great wage and even higher overtime pay.
Retired and could sustain my friend's father and his severals siblings, Large house, car, etc.
You can't really do that stuff anymore.
Turn up for your medical in skin tight leather carrying an industrial sized tub of vaseline,
Riain
Banned
I only speak English, which is why I chose US or UK with Australia/NZ as the next tier. However I would like to travel in non English speaking countries which makes the UK particularly attractive and the East Coast of the US more attractive than the West Coast.
In 1969 the USSR had so few long range delivery systems that Australia and New Zealand would be lucky to get a single nuke between them. Even in the 70s and 80s they would only be worthy of the dregs of the Soviet long range arsenal.
... that's adjusted to 2021 dollars.
In contemporaneous dollars, median household income in 1969 was $9430.
Median Family Income Up in 1970 (Advance data from March 1971 Current Population Survey)
This report presents advance data from the March 1971 Current Population sample survey, and covers money income only, prior to deductions for taxes.
www.census.gov
Riain
Banned
... that's adjusted to 2021 dollars.
In contemporaneous dollars, median household income in 1969 was $9430.
Median Family Income Up in 1970 (Advance data from March 1971 Current Population Survey)
This report presents advance data from the March 1971 Current Population sample survey, and covers money income only, prior to deductions for taxes.
Yeah, the more I think about it it would have to be. https://www.statista.com/statistics/500385/median-household-income-in-the-us-by-income-tier/
$9430 is still bloody good money when a house costs $27k and a Corvette $5k.
Fulwood in Preston would have some advantages, being close to Preston or Blackpool for commuting, and the brook/creek at the end of what is now Ashwood Road is good for a quiet walk.
© blogpreston.co.uk 2021
You can tell it's the 1960s by the MINI, the housing and the streetlamp (a post-top concrete 5m GEC Z5670, I think, made by GEC, the British subsidiary of General Electric).
© blogpreston.co.uk 2021
You can tell it's the 1960s by the MINI, the housing and the streetlamp (a post-top concrete 5m GEC Z5670, I think, made by GEC, the British subsidiary of General Electric).
Last edited:
This is gonna sound like an "ok boomer" meme but that is remarkable even when inflation is taken into account (assuming these prices are accurate of course). Adjusting for inflation, $1 in 1969 is about $7.50 today. Multiplying those numbers by 7.5, it's incredible how good the American middle class had it back then. Let's compare the numbers:
1969 US median home price in 2021 dollars: $127,500
Current US median home price: $287,000
1969 California median home price in 2021 dollars: $180,000
Current California median home price: $814,000
To be fair, the median house in 1969 was probably much smaller than a median house in 2021 and didn't have modern technology and was probably built in the 1930s rather than say, the 1980s. And interest rates were higher. But still...
1969 average college tuition per semester in 2021 dollars: $900
Current average college tuition per semester (in-state, public): $4,600
1969 median income in 2021 dollars: $65,000
2019 median household income: $68,703 (probably a little higher in 2021)
1969 minimum wage in 2021 dollars: $10.88
Current minimum wage: $7.25
1969 McDonald's burger in 2021 dollars: $1.12
Current McDonald's burger (basic hamburger): $1.69
1969 Whopper in 2021 dollars: $2.78
Current Whopper price: $4.19
1969 pack of cigarettes in 2021 dollars: $1.88
Current average cost of a pack of cigarettes in the US: $6.96
1969 gallon of gasoline in 2021 dollars: $2.40-$2.70
Current cost of regular gasoline: $3.18
1969 Ford Pinto in 2021 dollars: $15,000
2019 MSRP for a entry-level Ford Fiesta: $14,260
Ford discontinued the Fiesta (subcompact, same as the Pinto) in the US in 2019. Again, to be fair, the 2019 Fiesta has modern safety features, technology, and far better fuel efficiency than the Pinto. And it probably won't explode.
Now here's the one big advantage 2021 has over 1969:
1969 color TV in 2021 dollars: $3,000
2021 20-inch (typical TV size in 1969) flat-screen LCD TV: ~$100
Australia and New Zealand may take hits from SLBMs but it would be probably be limited. MAD does not mean "bomb everything in sight". So yes those two countries down under would be crippled but would ultimately survive.
Me personally I rather be in Samoa or American Samoa. Even if the latter is dependent on the U.S. mainland, it can survive by fishing or trading with its neighbors.
Riain
Banned
Would you let the threat of nuclear war be the primary driver of where you live? For me it'd be pretty low on the radar, I wouldn't want to miss out on big country-big city stuff because of it.
I'm not sure why everyone's talking nuclear war when we know it didn't happen.
This is "where would you like to be ISOT'd in OTL."
This is "where would you like to be ISOT'd in OTL."
Cigarette prices can be chalked up to a variety of factors including sin taxes, and production costs are probably similar with lower aggregate demand but a “captive” core demandThis is gonna sound like an "ok boomer" meme but that is remarkable even when inflation is taken into account (assuming these prices are accurate of course). Adjusting for inflation, $1 in 1969 is about $7.50 today. Multiplying those numbers by 7.5, it's incredible how good the American middle class had it back then. Let's compare the numbers:
1969 US median home price in 2021 dollars: $127,500
Current US median home price: $287,000
1969 California median home price in 2021 dollars: $180,000
Current California median home price: $814,000
To be fair, the median house in 1969 was probably much smaller than a median house in 2021 and didn't have modern technology and was probably built in the 1930s rather than say, the 1980s. And interest rates were higher. But still...
1969 average college tuition per semester in 2021 dollars: $900
Current average college tuition per semester (in-state, public): $4,600
1969 median income in 2021 dollars: $65,000
2019 median household income: $68,703 (probably a little higher in 2021)
1969 minimum wage in 2021 dollars: $10.88
Current minimum wage: $7.25
1969 McDonald's burger in 2021 dollars: $1.12
Current McDonald's burger (basic hamburger): $1.69
1969 Whopper in 2021 dollars: $2.78
Current Whopper price: $4.19
1969 pack of cigarettes in 2021 dollars: $1.88
Current average cost of a pack of cigarettes in the US: $6.96
1969 gallon of gasoline in 2021 dollars: $2.40-$2.70
Current cost of regular gasoline: $3.18
1969 Ford Pinto in 2021 dollars: $15,000
2019 MSRP for a entry-level Ford Fiesta: $14,260
Ford discontinued the Fiesta (subcompact, same as the Pinto) in the US in 2019. Again, to be fair, the 2019 Fiesta has modern safety features, technology, and far better fuel efficiency than the Pinto. And it probably won't explode.
Now here's the one big advantage 2021 has over 1969:
1969 color TV in 2021 dollars: $3,000
2021 20-inch (typical TV size in 1969) flat-screen LCD TV: ~$100
Housing costs are a function of artificial scarcity in large part caused by a rentier class that bought houses when they were worth those 1969 prices (it was the 70s when housing starts began to decline in certain CA cities)
College tuition is the most absurd cost inflation seeing as much more people attend college now with the services economy than did in 1969 (ergo no artificial scarcity). There’s a variety of theories as to why this is, depending on your ideological priors; making up the difference on budget cuts, administrative bloat, easy lending criteria creating no downward price pressure. I imagine it’s all the above plus the general American allergy to questioning cost disease and why we pay more than peer economies for public services (infrastructure the other big one)
Which territories would have been nuked if a full-on war had broken out in 1969?