America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report • Hacker News Board

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#81

Post by swed420 » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:08 PM UTC

sanguinesphinx wrote: post #17

jmyeet wrote: post #14

I an a completely unabashed leftist who has been "radicalized" (if you call free school lunches "radical", which apparently it is in modern America) by seeing the rapidly accelerating wealth and income inequality since 2008. I mean it really kciked off in the 1970s but the effects post-2008 became impossible to ignore. In the spirit of all models are wroong but some models are useful and that generational politics is…

> talked to the rising anger in young people at the lack of opportunity, the possibility that they'd never own a house or have a good-paying job or they'd have a family. The disillusionment and anger has only grown. This should be the absolutely only thing that Democrats talk about. Every single day, with a big graph and call in number, so people can call in to say if this was fixed for them or not. And if it's not f…

> This should be the absolutely only thing that Democrats talk about.

Democrats are half of the uniparty of capital interests. They only exist to prop up the illusion of a functioning democracy.

"Look guys, the election was so close! Democracy is still alive! We just need to vote harder [for the lesser of two evils] next time!"

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#82

Post by fc417fc802 » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:09 PM UTC

dctoedt wrote: post #10

bryanlarsen wrote: post #7

You're a 26 year old in 1926. You're part of what history would later call the Greatest Generation. You will suffer through both the Great Depression and World War II. Perhaps due to those experiences, you will be the only generation that votes more left as you age.

If you were born in 1900 you probably are at the tail end of the Lost Generation — the Greatest Generation is considered to be those born between 1901 and 1927. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Generation

Wild to think there were people who as adults lived through all of the railroad buildout, WWI, the 20s, the depression, and then WWII. Complaining about AI buildouts causing electronics prices to regress by a decade or so begins to seem rather trite in comparison.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#83

Post by mylifeandtimes » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #33

dctoedt wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were born in 1900 you probably are at the tail end of the Lost Generation — the Greatest Generation is considered to be those born between 1901 and 1927. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Generation

Lost Generation describes those who experienced WW1. Given that he turned 18 in 1918 it's certainly possible he enlisted or was drafted. The article implies he didn't join WW1. It's that experience rather than his exact birthday that would categorize him into Lost vs Greatest IMO.

In the US, something like 98% of eligible men enlisted in WWI. There was no draft.

So yes, VERY high probability of service.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#84

Post by bryanlarsen » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

soperj wrote: post #60

bryanlarsen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If so, we haven't hit the equivalent of Sept 1 1939 yet. That's when WW2 is generally considered to have started, but residents of Manchuria, Austria and the Sudetenland probably consider it to have started earlier.

It's only considered to have started then because that's when France and Britain declared war on Germany, and that's who wrote the history books.

Sep 1 1939 is when it escalated from a small number of 2-party wars to a massive multi-party war. It's not the day the war started, it's the day it became a "World War".

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#85

Post by fc417fc802 » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:20 PM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #70

dgellow wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you mean to say “how little”?

How much and how little are logically equivalent, although in vernacular usage it is of course common to use how little when implying the amount is less than one might expect, and how much to imply the amount is more than one might expect.

Practical communication is not an exercise in logical deduction. The meaning of those terms is not equivalent for exactly the reason you noted.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#86

Post by bryanlarsen » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:20 PM UTC

mylifeandtimes wrote: post #83

bryanlarsen wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lost Generation describes those who experienced WW1. Given that he turned 18 in 1918 it's certainly possible he enlisted or was drafted. The article implies he didn't join WW1. It's that experience rather than his exact birthday that would categorize him into Lost vs Greatest IMO.

In the US, something like 98% of eligible men enlisted in WWI. There was no draft. So yes, VERY high probability of service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_Service_Act_of_1917

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#87

Post by artisinal » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:20 PM UTC

pixdamix wrote: post #64

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freedom to say (almost) anything, publicly, including criticism of the elite and powerful. Freedom to do, to create a business with far fewer roadblocks than in, say, Europe. Freedom to go, to travel anywhere in a really large country, with no borders or restrictions. Yeah, you can quote me all the caveats. They're there; I don't deny them. But: Freedom to say, freedom to do, and freedom to go. Those are really big d…

> Freedom to say (almost) anything, publicly, including criticism of the elite and powerful. Most European nations strongly protect free speech, allowing open public critique and satire of politicians, the wealthy, and the powerful. > Freedom to do, to create a business with far fewer roadblocks than in, say, Europe. Several European countries actually lead global easy business rankings, some offering fully digital,…

> The schengen zone grants passport-free travel across 29 nations, spanning thousands of miles without a single border checkpoint.

Not anymore. I got stopped between The Netherlands and Germany, between France and Spain, Denmark and Sweden. Germany has border checkpoints with most of its bordering countries.

That is unheard of in the USA. You can travel thousands of kilometers without getting stopped by authorities for checking your passport or identity card.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#88

Post by retired » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:23 PM UTC

dgellow wrote: post #62

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freedom to say (almost) anything, publicly, including criticism of the elite and powerful. Freedom to do, to create a business with far fewer roadblocks than in, say, Europe. Freedom to go, to travel anywhere in a really large country, with no borders or restrictions. Yeah, you can quote me all the caveats. They're there; I don't deny them. But: Freedom to say, freedom to do, and freedom to go. Those are really big d…

Europe isn’t a single country. We have multiple countries where you can create a company in no time, with little capital. And have freedom of movement within the whole EU

> And have freedom of movement within the whole EU

To a certain degree. In the US you can drive to another state thousands of kilometers away and decide to just live there for the rest of your life.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#89

Post by WalterBright » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:23 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #7

You're a 26 year old in 1926. You're part of what history would later call the Greatest Generation. You will suffer through both the Great Depression and World War II. Perhaps due to those experiences, you will be the only generation that votes more left as you age.

> Perhaps due to those experiences, you will be the only generation that votes more left as you age.

I doubt it. My dad lived through the Great Depression, and fought desperate battles in WW2 and Korea.

As a young man, he was a socialist. His experience in fighting for American freedoms changed all that. Before he passed, he told me he regretted leaving me in a country that was significantly less free than when he was young.

I don't believe you'll find many communists in the greatest generation, especially among the war veterans.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#90

Post by tmoertel » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:24 PM UTC

g42gregory wrote: post #61

Is this some sort of a paid advertising piece, to make you feel better about inflation, lack of affordable medical care, lack of affordable housing, lack of jobs for recent graduates, etc...? "Life is much better in 2026. We live healthier, richer, and longer lives, with better medicine and more self-determination." - I can't speak for 1926, but compared to 1980s or 1960s, this is so patently not true. The US populat…

I think it’s important to acknowledge that today U.S. citizens in the bottom economic decile live longer lives and do so with more comfort and convenience than even the wealthiest and most powerful people of 100 years ago. Not even the infamous robber barons, such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, with all their staggering wealth, had access to anything approaching modern health care (and dentistry!); air-conditioned comfort; television, instant communication across the planet via text, voice, and video; computers, let alone supercomputers in their pockets giving them the internet, Google, GPS, and approximately free and instant access to the world’s information.

Yes, there is still much work to be done to improve the United States, but I’d rather be poor in the United States today than wealthy in the United States 100 years ago. I suspect that most educated people would choose likewise.