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Then & Now.

I

indio02

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Always used to laugh when my dad said it was better in the old days. Now being about the same age as he was when he first started saying it and I'm rather shocked to find myself not only thinking the same but saying it as well.

I left university with £0 debt now people are graduating with ~£50,000 of debt which most will never fully pay back.
My first time buyer 2 bed flat cost £33,500 to buy looking at it now it's £250,000. No way could I afford it now doing exactly the same job.
You used to be able to get same day doctors appointments and again with dentists no problems. Now a Dr's appointment can take weeks and NHS dentistry is on the verge of collapse with huge numbers unable to even find a dentist.
My town had 4 fishmongers lots of independent butchers, bakers and green grocers now pretty much all gone victims of the supermarkets. Why does a trip to the supermarket feel like a trip to a super max high security prison? All the gates/barriers, security guards, cameras, checks, receipt scanning before you're allowed to enter/leave. That's not to mention how the lower profit real foods have been replaced by acres of hugely profitable ultra-processed foods. With boss's on pay in the £100,000's a week.
Around here most/all of the public toilets have gone, libraries have either been shut or had hours massively reduced. Council leasure centres have been sold off or run 'in partnership' making them unaffordable.

YET, since council tax was introduced in real terms its nearly doubled, on top of that the general taxation burden is at its highest level since the second world war. Interestingly the Chancellor has said she can't rule out further tax rises.

I could go on but is it just me? Or am I looking at the past with rose tinted glasses?

#SundayMorningRant
 
I have been thinking similar but wondered how many people fell through the gaps and didn't the care they needed. I think more "invisible" people tried to struggle on in silence and I just never knew about them.
Despite many things not being so great, my life is as good as it is due to technology improvements. Dr appointments may not be on the same day but I don't have to deal with the belligerent receptionist because I can book online. My weekends are more free than they were because I don't have to spend Saturday mornings queuing at the post office to pay utility bills or join the hoards of women at the supermarket doing their weekly shop.
Driving is easier and safer with sat navs and more robust cars.

So, yes, some things were better in the past but others are better now.
 
helli said:
I have been thinking similar but wondered how many people fell through the gaps and didn't the care they needed. I think more "invisible" people tried to struggle on in silence and I just never knew about them.
Despite many things not being so great, my life is as good as it is due to technology improvements. Dr appointments may not be on the same day but I don't have to deal with the belligerent receptionist because I can book online. My weekends are more free than they were because I don't have to spend Saturday mornings queuing at the post office to pay utility bills or join the hoards of women at the supermarket doing their weekly shop.
Driving is easier and safer with sat navs and more robust cars.

So, yes, some things were better in the past but others are better now.
Click to expand...
Agree Helli.No doubt many of the things that Indio highlighted are true but I think we all have a gloss that we tend to put on the past ( all the days seemed sunny).
The advances in technology and Science have no doubt improved our lives and as you say many “ bad” things were swept under the carpet and hidden from from others.
The abuse/drunkenness etc went on behind closed doors in many cases.
My own dad was a very gentle soul but his brother my uncle was poles apart and an alcoholic and always fighting and ended up in prison.All of us was hidden from me until after he died and then I learned some of the awful things he did.
I think of “ friends” of mine who joined the police and regaled tales of beating people up in the cells ( whereas many hark back to the “ clip around the ear” from the local Bobby.
Not saying they did not deserve it and there were many things that were great about the past and many tales of where people could sort out stuff and nip it in the bud rather than just letting it spin out of control like often today.
But much was hidden under the “ canteen culture” and “ banter” that held sway in the day.
I suspect the truth as always lies in the middle like the “ curates egg” good and bad in parts.
ATB
 
An interesting thread and I can agree and disagree on equal levels with most of the comments, but I will admit to saying on occasions "The good old days", which is just a reflection of my age I guess.
 
helli said:
I don't have to spend Saturday mornings queuing at the post office to pay utility bills
Click to expand...
That's another one..... go back and you used to get a bill through the door for your quarterly gas bill. You then had a few weeks to pay until you got the red one.

Forward to now.... I'm required to read my own meter and send the gas company the reading. This isn't done quarterly now, it monthly let's say I've used £250 do I pay £250 nope I pay whatever the gas company say they're going to set my Direct Debit to. I can REQUEST a smaller amount but it's at the total discretion of the gas company.

So, the gas company saves huge amounts of money by not employing meter readers, it saves huge amounts of money by not sending bills, it saves huge amounts of money by charging monthly not quarterly, it makes huge amount of money by having Billions of £ of customer credit sitting in cash in its bank account.

Go back and British Gas paid its boss the equivalent of £475,000 in today's money.... a good wage by anyone's standard. Thing is last year Britsh Gas paid it boss £8,250,000.

I completely agree some things are better now but everywhere you look people seem to be paying through the nose for a hugely substandard service compared to years past.

Since privatisation the price of a 1st class stamp has quadrupled yet Royal Mail has repeatedly been fined for poor service despite half the number of letters being sent*. Their answer is to lower targets and only deliver some mail every other day.

* Half the work 4 times the pay! Wish I could get that deal
 
my thought is, many things were batter then
but equally many are better now

like when I was a kid the phone box was on the green on the housing estate I grew up at, if grandma wanted to phone she would call the public phone sometime would answer then come and knock on the door and tell us, unless it was a expected phone call where my mum or dad would be at the call box at the pre-arranged time waiting for it to ring
but today I’m sat here on my I pad communicating with you on my iPad, my sister has just WhatsApp’d me, my mobile phone is Bluetooth’s to my ears

However one thing that definitely isn’t better these days, is many people don’t respect or care for others like people used to, obviously that is apart from us lot on here

Thinking of Diabetes
obviously with the advances in how we can look after ourselves, things have changed, with BGM’ CGM & Pumps etc ..
as I type this I glance at my smart watch it tells me my levels are currently at 7.3, if I wanted to I could check emails on my watch
or even talk to my mother-in-law even through it (she is 5,828 miles away)
not that we chat much on the phone as she only speaks a few words of English, although having said that I believe, if we both had the latest Samsung phone, I could speak in one language and she would hear it in Thai (through AI) or we could see each other via VideoCall, Skype etc…
 
The then when you could actually speak to someone on the phone not some auto assist which does not have the ability to recognise the issue.
Our house insurance is with More Than but they are no longer doing it so passed the business to Admiral, BUT trying to renew, the e-mail address is wrong, it doesn't acknowledge the policy number so doesn't allow me to register with MyAccount and all I get is the autoassist or round in circles on the website. What Now???
 
goodybags said:
However one thing that definitely isn’t better these days, is many people don’t respect or care for others like people used to, obviously that is apart from us lot on here
Click to expand...
Having lived in the same village for over 45 years, I can only agree with your comment, which is a shame
 
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