What We Really Miss About the 1950s

i really enjoyed reading Stephanie Coontz article, "What We Really Miss About the 1950s". The article begins by informing the reader that in the 1996 poll by the Knight-Ridder news agency Americans choose the 1950s as the best time for children to grow up. Coontz then raises the question as to how acurate that point of view is. She goes into possible reasons as to why Americans who lived in the 1950s might look back on it as such an ideal time. Coontz brings up strong points as to both why the fiftys where ideal and why they where not.
Coontz points out many valid reasons as to why the fiftys where not actually an ideal time to grow up. One of those points that i find particularly valid is that it depends upon which perspective you look from. The fiftys where a time of great descrimination towards minority groups and women. Minoritys where looked down on in society and had a harder time getting good jobs and government aid. Certantly people in those catagorys would not agree that the fiftys where an ideal time to grow up.
Yet on the other hand Coontz does agree that the fiftys where a time of great optimism and potential. Wages where relatively higher in the fiftys than they have been any time since. The government had many programs in place to help the familys to get ahead and become financially stable. This anabled americans to spend more time with there families raising and nutruring childeren.
Coontz makes many good points in her article that raise questions about our nostalgic maybe idealistic view of the 1950s.