Were people happier in the good old days? And when were they? William Collins, Newport

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Readers reply

People were not happier in the old days. They were just less inclined to express their emotions. They accepted their fate, especially women. Duty came first. And fear of God prevented them from questioning their circumstances. GD Colin

I was happier yesterday (got my second vaccine dose) than today (my arm hurts). Rob Camp, Devon

My mother has a copy of the complete baby and childcare book from about 1955 and the number of diseases you need to prepare to assist your child through is staggering: polio, scarlet fever, diphtheria, smallpox and typhoid, along with the usual flu, measles, chickenpox, rickets and whooping cough. How to play with your child who is in an iron lung was intense, complete with pictures. Jennifer Raymond

I used to have a press cutting from the Daily Herald from some time in the 30s in which an unemployed man was before the magistrates court because he had been found donating blood. He was given a fine by the magistrate who said he should have been devoting all his time looking for work and not taking time out to give blood. OlderandWiser49

People can’t remember pain. A good thing, since not many women would ever have more than one child. People will actually feel nostalgic about appalling experiences like war, if they happened when they were under 30 – even if they themselves were injured. thegreatfatsby

The question you should be asking yourself is: would you give up the NHS, welfare state, indoor plumbing and enough money to put food on the table to go back to those days? Zagradotryad

I agree with the analysis of the British historian Eric Hobsbawm, who identified the period 1947-1973 as an anomalous golden age in the middle of the 20th century (with crisis if not catastrophe on either end). Some years ago, when I first came across Hobsbawm’s view (in Age of Extremes), I felt an immediate sense of recognition in its correspondence with my longstanding feelings about growing up in Vancouver during that time, certainly in contrast to now. Hobsbawm makes it possible to say that this period, and those days, were indeed the “good old days” in objective reality. I think he got it right and I am grateful to have experienced it first-hand. Pamela Reeve, Toronto

I recall discussing/arguing this with my parents. They would love to go back in time and live – but only if they could take the central heating with them. Alan Hunt

We always were captured smiling in the “good old days”, because we were always told to smile for the camera shot. Film processing time and costs dictated that only “good times” were worth capturing. mikeuck

My aunt voted for Brexit because “everything was better in the 60s and 70s”. I just about remember the 70s. I remember as a toddler paddling off the coast of north Wales, where we lived, and realising that there was human poo floating next to me. nina1414

I don’t know about happier, but we were certainly more relaxed. SandyFreckle

For me, the late 70s, early 80s and mid-90s were my summer of youth – you’ll note how long I avoided the responsibilities of adulthood – and they were filled with pleasure and heartbreak, sunshine and travel, with just enough employment to finance my lifestyle. No money in the bank, but I was happy. Tell the young people that today and they won’t believe you. Ross Gulliver

I seem to remember being content with life being somewhat slower and less regulated as a child growing up in the 50s and 60s before social media and mobile phones. We were less available and had more time to daydream. David Brasted

I think the three-day week in 1974 was a great time. I remember getting full pay for three days’ work. Anthony Killeen

There is an old saying: “These are the good old days. Just wait and see!” Bernard Towers, Norfolk

Happier for who? Black people, Indians, “ethnic minorities”, recently arrived immigrants, asylum seekers, poor people, women, people with a disability, gay people? The trouble with this question is it is often asked from a straight, white and male perspective. Peter Palmer

I was born into crushing poverty in 1955 and it left its mark on me. There were no “good old days” where the majority of people had an adequate (note: not good) standard of living. All mixed in with a highly polarised and class-ridden society, where the plebs had to show deference or else, life was bloody hard. Just look at the life expectancy data. My mother discovered late in life that she must have broken her ankle at some unspecified time in the past, and that was given as the reason she had developed foot drop. She remembered damaging her ankle in 1947, but couldn’t afford to have it treated – she just got on with it, as so many others did in the face of ill health. This is why I will defend the NHS with my dying breath and despair at the “turkeys who voted for Christmas”. There was no “golden age” unless you were one of the privileged, and this country is rapidly reverting to that ideal of wealth for the few and not the many. PeasantsRevolt

No, but they were happier in the good old nostalgia days, which afflict most people at some point in their lives, often when they have also been afflicted by cynicism, age and reality. Mary Bartlett

Here in Canada, people were certainly happier when we paid more taxes and had better-quality government services and a more reliable infrastructure. Thinking of taxes as evil has resulted in a national unhappiness. Raphael_Repine

I grew up in the 60s. My mother said they was the best period of her life because people were hopeful. Living conditions were improving for most people, while there was more informal social support for the very young, ill people and elderly people. It was the sense of hope that things would continue changing for the better that made those times good. Then Thatcher came with her “if you aren’t doing someone down, someone will certainly be doing you down” philosophy. Since then, we’ve been governed by greed and individualism, culminating – in this country, at least – in a general sense of despair that things are only getting worse. nottledim

Unless you had an awful childhood at the hands of abusive parents or the misfortune of being brought up in a children’s home, the “good old days” are inevitably when you’re a child/young adult – in other words, the years when you had no financial, work or marital commitments. Alex Lee

I was born in the early 50s. I don’t know about happier, but I do think that, before everything went global, we were mostly less anxious, partly because we didn’t know so much about the terrible things that went on in the world. I believe that uncontrolled capitalism cannot do anything but make a lot of people unhappy, workers and consumers alike. We seem to have given up any productive concern for the welfare of others and the environment, and it breaks my heart that those who do voice concern are sidelined and diminished as “woke”. I know the 60s and 70s were a long way from perfect, but many of us still had hopes of seeing the emergence of a kinder, less greedy and more just world. jackie37c

The good old days were in the 50s. The world had just suffered unimaginable genocide. Extreme violence continued, largely unnoticed, as countries tried to rebuild. Cities were in ruins and large swathes of the population were experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. At the same time, film was cheap and a perfect way to connect with the population. So, documentary/newsreel films were heavily used as propaganda to paint positive pictures of rebuilding and hope. Today, we look at these jolly black and white films, with their upbeat music and cheerful commentary, as if they are factual records of the time. Our conclusion is how much better everything was back then in the “good old days”. This powerful and deeply misleading narrative has been used by governments time and again; for example, Johnson’s “take back control” and Trump’s “make America great again” harp back to this fantasy time. Seth12

People had lower expectations and were less bombarded with images of all the other lives they could be aspiring to. lisamarie3

I grew up in the 60s and Sundays were crap, with nothing open, endless second world war movies on TV (only two channels) and Monday morning hanging over everything. The sort of world that oldie Brexit supporters want to go back to. A bit like lockdown, in a way. Tonbridgeman66

Some aspects were better. It was safer; I walked to school and back from the age of five. However, the cane was still used and racism was the norm. Now I think education is more fun (I look at my grandchildren’s school work with awe at how interesting and creative it is), but children are stabbing children. Personally, aged 71, I love being alive now and think that things have improved more than whatever has been lost from a different time. PatriciaPJ

The fashion is to view the past as irredeemably flawed, with social pathologies at every twist and turn and dark moral corruption surely underlying every happy facade that appeared to exist, especially in white, western societies. In short, we’ve become insufferable prigs, transferring our old prejudices about foreign and especially non-white cultures into bigotry about our own past and ancestors. I don’t think we’re going to be able to answer the question dispassionately until we calm down. And that might take a generation or two. mscommerce

The past is a different country and all that. Until the 80s, my parents and people like them (millions of working-class people) had little or no access to painkillers, no central heating and little or no TV. They made and mended rather than bought new, mostly hand-washed clothes and didn’t go to restaurants. Pubs were for men who wanted to get blind drunk. There were no cars, only buses, and little health and safety; chilblains; fleas. Leering and unwanted sexual attention was common almost everywhere and management, politics and church were paternalistic and often patronising (your elders and seniors knew better). Access to culture wasn’t great, but public libraries were good and available to most. But there was much, much more communal feeling and activity then; people were definitely more involved with each other and their problems. Shared lives were the order of the day. This final point may be key: most of our human history has been communal at many levels and we thrive on that. eamonmcc

Things were definitely better back when we lived in caves. Plenty of food everywhere, no alarm clocks, loads of free time to paint pictures on the cave walls, invent new technologies, explore the world. Yeah, sure, you might get an infection and die slowly from sepsis or get eaten by a lion, but, you know, you might not! Sigh. The good old days. Went all downhill after we developed patriarchy and farming … confused23