So, I'm doing the assigned reading for English. It's a paper about people looking back to the 50s as a time of hope and prosperity. The author says that politicians talk about getting back to the values of the 50s when they mention family values. Of course my interest is piqued whenever someone mentions the government, especially in a critical way.

One of the problems with going back to the 50s lifestyle for people would be the fact that things aren't as they were then. Politicians love to talk about 'family values', insinuating that we need to get the woman out of the work force and back into the home full time to raise the children. That is the main idea when you hear such a phrase, but it wouldn't be politically correct to come right out and say it, so they come in from the side, in a sneak attack, so to speak. It doesn't work today, because back then the thing to do, if you were a 'normal' family, was to have the man bringing home the income and the woman taking care of the domestic front. It's almost inconceivable today, because although this is the 'land of opportunity', those opportunities aren't open to everyone, and they were more prevalent back then. So, a man out of high school could expect to make a decent living, enough to support a small family, going right into the work force. Today, that is not the case. A person without a college education can expect to make at least minimum wage, but not much more. It takes a number of years of loyal service to earn the kind of living required to raise a family today in the 'ideal' sense. It can be done with two such incomes, both parents working to bring in the income, but that would be far from the ideal situation touted by politicians.

We have created a society wherein the ideal situation is only possible with a college education, but the means to that situation is closed to a lot of people for one reason or another.