For two generations, from the end of World War II to the end of the 20th century, white Americans knew what was what and where they stood.
The suburbanization of America, within which the baby boom grew to adulthood, was both a protective cocoon and a welcoming society. Technology was an unalloyed good, adding to incomes without demanding too much of the recipients. Much of that income was funneled, through government, into “entitlements” – benefits to which people felt entitled. If you got drafted your health care would be taken care of. The suburbs had good public schools, even good public universities.
There was abundant market friction into which ex-jocks and cheerleaders could slide into golf course lives as insurance salesmen, real estate developers and travel agents. There was abundant land, and state government developed it with free roads and sewer hook-ups, so the boomers could “drive until they qualified.” Some stayed in the suburbs to run things like my dad’s TV repair shop, and later his lock shop. Some became educators like the people in my wife’s family, or my own brother. Others married lucky, like me.
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