If I had to offer my two cents, I’d say we’re NOT in the Golden Age of great entertainment.
Yes, there is some good music and some good movies that come out here and there, but it sure seems pretty few and far between, right?
Or maybe I’m just old…who knows?
Let’s take a look at what AskReddit users had to say about this.
1. What happened?
“Architecture.
At least not here in the UK, we seem to be obsessed with making loads of shitty carbon copy houses that haven’t in the slightest got any character.
Bring back locally sourced materials and good community layouts not this BS.”
2. All gassed up.
“Information.
You got to study any number of subjects just to watch the news without being gassed up.
The same thing applies in spades to social media. It’s everywhere like Wikipedia and any random Google search.”
3. Interesting.
“Fishing.
We’ve killed so many fish it’s a f**king tragedy. By some estimates we’ve k**led 90% of the world’s shark population alone. Reading old books and running into offhand comments about fishing is depressing as hell.
I love seafood, but we need like a decade-long commercial fishing hiatus followed by much stricter limits and better regulations. There are a bunch of really dumb rules right now; bycatch is wasted, for example. Let’s get by on sport-caught and farmed seafood for a while and let the fishes come back.
Fishing now is nothing whatever like it was even fifty years ago. A century ago it was like another planet. And this is coming from a kiteboarder, somebody to whom sharks are a genuine threat.”
4. It’s true.
“Comedy movies.
Honestly, when’s the last blockbuster comedy movie you saw in a packed theater?”
5. Hollywood.
“Mainstream films.
Thanks to streaming services studios can’t count on physical media sales anymore so now they have to make everything back at the box office. As a result investors are seeing new or experimental ideas as an unnecessarily risky venture so they refuse to fund them.
Effectively innovation is punished while conformity is rewarded – hence why movies don’t seem as “good” as they were in the 70s, 80, and 90s and everything is a sequel or remake.”
6. Making a comeback?
“American manufacturing.
During my Dads time you could get a factory job, raise a family on a single income, buy a house and retire comfortably after 30 years service.”
7. That sucks.
“Halloween trick or treating.
I used to get anywhere from 25-50 kids to my door every year.
Now I’m lucky if I see 10. People are not doing it anymore.”
8. I miss them!
“Music videos.
So much money was spent on music videos in the 1980s and 90s. We are talking six figures. Today, only artist at the very top get close to that kind of money for music video budgets. With the accessibility of the internet and the speed of which pop culture changes, it’s not worth putting that much money into a music video anymore.
One could argue the quality has gotten better but If budgets did increase again, there could be some pretty awesome music videos today.”
9. Back in the day.
“Cars
I’m fascinated with all the creative features of cars from the 50s/60s. They used to be fun, colorful and distinctive. Sure there were some wacky designs too but at least they tried.
Now it’s all the same boring shapes and colors, nothing really stands out and it makes me so mad.”
10. Counterculture.
“Counterculture in North America.
It’s never been more cool to just simply follow along with the social media/consumerist lifestyle.
It’s not considered lame nor “establishment” to simply just consume everything and follow all the same trends everyone else is. If anything it’s encouraged.”
11. Definitely!
“Respectful debate. Differing views discussing opinions and stances.
Now it’s extremes of everything clashing and refusing to converse in any way.”
12. Hard to see.
“Prosperity.
There is so much wealth hording and machines in place to redirect resources to a few select people that the middle class is going to eventually shrink to a minority.
It still blows my mind that nearly 70% of all wealth in the US is owned by 10% of the people. The bottom 50% only possess 3% of all the wealth.
That 27% of wealth left over…that’s what everyone is trying to buy a house for a family of 4, 2 cars, fund education, medical care, and an annual vacation with. Can’t afford that stuff anymore? There’s a reason.
This is why tax laws are so important. I know people say “The rich pay the majority of taxes!” Well…they’re not taxed NEARLY enough and it’s an illusion to think they are. During America’s most prosperous time (1950s-60s), the tax rate for high income earners was 91%. This encouraged business owners to redistribute income to worker’s pay, benefits, pensions, infrastructure, and built the middle class.
Today the max tax rate is around 43%, there’s so many loopholes it’s realistically around 24%, and any profits go into the stock market to auto-generate more wealth to benefit a single person.”
Now it’s your turn!
Tell us what you think about this in the comments.
We’d love to hear from you!
