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Nostalgianomics

June 23, 2011, 1:38 pm

For those on the Left who wish to return to the economic organization of the 1950's, recognize that this era of more uni0ns and a greater dominance of the economy by hard-core manufacturing also had strong social inhibitions to half the adult population working paid jobs.  As women entered the work force in droves in the 1970's to the present, most of the jobs they found were in the new service industries whose displacement of manufacturing you lament.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is the Battleship game box my son found in a stack of old games at his grandparents house.   The boys having a blast while the girls are washing the dishes.

Update: More from Matt Welch and Michael Barone.  Money quote:

The ongoing left-of-center brainscrub of its own 20th century anti-authoritarianism remains one of the great curiosities of our time.

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Category: Economics
  • http://cardioblogy.blogspot.com/ Jens Fiederer

    Precious. I found it amusing enough to consider sending a link to a family member, then decided I'd rather minimize the chances it might be seen by my wife.

  • Mesa Econoguy

    And that's one of the points Michael Barone makes in his piece about this topic, a big chunk viewable here:

    http://reason.com/blog/2011/06/23/michael-barone-on-nostalgianom

  • Dan

    Love that box. Reminds me of my feminist mom, who refused to read me "The Boxcar Children" because she got so incensed that the boys were out having adventures while the girls stayed home (in the box car) cooking and cleaning.

  • Craig

    It seems to me that a large factor in the strong US manufacturing dominance in the 1950's is that all of our competitors were laid low by WWII. Once they were rebuilt, and Germany and Japan became powerhouses, US protectionism was no longer feasible.

  • MJ

    Notice that there are also no people of color in this picture. That's another piece of the puzzle the Left would rather not discuss.

  • Graeme

    Once the left wing became the dominant political paradigm in Government, Academia, Banking and rent seeking Industry - it was not served by Anti-Authoritainism.