Not all Glasgow: I saw some Leith shots in there. God.. I used to visit some musicians down there in the mid-late seventies, the stairwells still make me shudder. All pervasive smell of damp and decay and despair. Unhappy places.
Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72
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Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72
#32The photos have a striking similarity to what I've seen in Soviet Union as a child, in the end of 1970s. I can easily imagine myself one of these children on the photos, doing the same things. Of course, not all parts of Soviet cities were as rundown, much like not all parts of Glasgow were as rundown.
It appears that most of the populations on both sides were miserable, while having the image of the other side shaped by the other's side propaganda, culture, and pop-culture.
Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72
#33What is the background economic situation in Scotland at this time?
The last major ship was built and launched from a Clyde shipyard in the early 1970s. Unemployment in Glasgow was heading up: the winter of discontent was just over the horizon. Rampant inflation. The new towns surrounding Glasgow like cumbernauld were ramping up, but life was hard.
I was a kid in Edinburgh during these years and we had a good life. We went through to Glasgow from time to time, it was a wreck of a city much as Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham were. Manufacturers were moving to lower cost economies. People were joining the army out of a sense of desperation for jobs, and winding up in n.ireland being firebombed, or on cyprus dealing with the Greek/turkey thing.
It wasn't an entirely happy time economically speaking oil not with standing.
Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72
#34What is the background economic situation in Scotland at this time?
I just have three anecdotal bits to share. 1. One friend said the rest of Britain historically exploits Scotland. People are poor because their taxes and profits they generate are sent south. AKA Thacher/Majors 's government was pulling £1000 per capita a year out of Scotland. 2. Another man said that heavy industry in Britain was in decline in the 1960's 1970's. 3. And a guy I worked with said Britain after WWII was…
> worked with said Britain after WWII was in economic ruin because of the WWI and WWII.
Yeah for the rest of us, WW 1/2 was absolutely the best thing that happened in history. Europe burning the wealth and power of ages in a short orgy of mutual destruction brought the rest of us out of their yoke and develop our own destinies. Some would argue the US replaced Europe as the hegemonic power but until they got muddled in the middle East, it was mostly light touch except for Vietnam. The challenge for China now is to avoid a shooting war that will burn the wealth of two-three generations of development at all cost.
Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72
#35That's exactly where and how my parents grew up
Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Poverty is a class issue, not a race issue. Sometimes they are correlated (US cities, all of the US southeast), sometimes not (west Virginia, rural everywhere EXCEPT the southeast, everything Irish - - you can't get whiter than Irish)
Poverty is a class issue. Class is a race issue. Poverty is not a race issue. And something has gone wrong with this argument.
How is class a race issue in somewhere like Scotland?
Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72
#37What is the background economic situation in Scotland at this time?
The last major ship was built and launched from a Clyde shipyard in the early 1970s. Unemployment in Glasgow was heading up: the winter of discontent was just over the horizon. Rampant inflation. The new towns surrounding Glasgow like cumbernauld were ramping up, but life was hard. I was a kid in Edinburgh during these years and we had a good life. We went through to Glasgow from time to time, it was a wreck of a cit…
Things were much worse than I presumed. I only imagined the "swinging sixties" sort of thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_the_United...
Re: Powerful Photos of Life in the Old Glasgow Tenement Blocks – 1969-72
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's changing rapidly, though. In 1997, 29% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, it's less than 9%. Stunning, but true. Or to put it another way... 50 years ago, people lived like that in Scotland. They don't anymore. Who's to say that places in the world that live like that today won't be as successful as Scotland has been in putting poverty behind them?
Hmm I'm always wary of those statements. The concept of "living in extreme poverty" is not a good way to measure progress in any sense. First because "poverty means earning less than x" implies that x needs to be updated and its not obvious how to do so; indeed it can be manipulated to push an agenda. Second because it reduces everything to money. You can make more money, but is your life actually improved? Sometimes…
Europe went through the same things - from largely rural extreme poverty, to dirty industrial cities, to modern clean, wealthy Europe. Heck, these very photos show a step in that process, from 50 years ago, when Scotland was in the state you're so horrified about imagining China in today.
And yes, working 12 hour days in a smog-infested city is better than extreme poverty. Life isn't a socialist realist painting. Literacy is better than illiteracy. Vaccination is better than no vaccination. Water from a tap is better than water in a bucket that you have to walk to get. Etc. People don't move to the cities because country life is getting worse; they move because city life is better.
Is income a pretty measure? No. But it's a good proxy. It's more fine-grained and less messy than something like birth rate.