Let's Never Lose Sight of the Fact that Most People are Genuinely Nice (Week 9)

 

 

 

Last week I drove 1,172 miles from St. Petersburg to our place at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.  The 18-hour drive over 2 full days gave me plenty of time to catch up on my podcasts and reflect on life in general.  It sure seems like there are plenty of things going on in the world to reflect on these days.  And few of those things are good.  But one of the things that I continually noticed throughout the trip was just how nice everyone was.  At each of the many convenience stores and fast-food restaurants I popped into, I was greeted with big smile and a “how may I help you?”  And it wasn’t one of those “I have a service job, so I have to be nice” smiles.  These were genuine, “I’m glad you’re here” smiles.  The front desk staff at the Hampton Inn and Suites where I spent the night couldn’t have been more helpful and engaging.  The patrons that I shared a bar stool with at the Outback next to the hotel – most of which were single travelers like me – bantered back and forth with each other.  Even the people I passed at the rest stops gave me a smile and wished me a good day.  Sometimes I think we forget that the vast majority of people are genuinely nice and really do want other people to be happy.  This trip was a really good reminder of that fact.

Country music is filled with songs that long for the good old days when times were simpler and people weren’t so argumentative. Songs like “Mamaw’s House” and “The Whole World Needs a Kitchen Table”.   As humans, we tend to remember the good things of the past and block out the not so good things.  As each generation ages, they begin to strongly believe that things were better when they were younger.  Consequently, they tend to fear for the future generations.  Part of the rationale of Trump’s tariffs is to bring manufacturing back to this country so we can generate more high paying middle class jobs, which in turn will bring back prosperity for more Americans.  This policy is attractive to many because it resonates with our desire to return to the way things used to be.  But were we as a society really more prosperous a generation or two ago? 

Let’s take a look at the facts.  Let’s go back to 1955 – a time period where shortly after World War II, many people would say that life was good for almost everyone in our country.  The median household income in 1955 was $3,300.  Adjust that number for inflation and you get a whopping $38,000 in today’s dollars, an amount this is only slightly above what is considered the poverty level for a family of four.  Compare that to the median income today of $75,000, exactly twice the 1955 amount in today’s dollars.  Keep in mind this is the median income, not the average. Therefore, it is not skewed by the uber wealthy.  The median family net worth in 1955 was just $9,000, or $100,000 adjusted for inflation.  The median family net worth today is $192,000.  Again, almost twice the amount from 1955 adjusted for inflation.  And what about the homes we now live in?  The average house in 1955 was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house equal to 983 sq. feet.  Most everyone would be melting in our summer heat, because only 10% of the homes had air conditioning.  One in five houses did not have complete indoor plumbing.  And while we can debate all day if cell phones have been a net positive or negative for society as a whole, no one can deny that this little device makes many tasks previously thought of as impossible an afterthought in our daily lives. 

If we could climb into Doc Brown’s DeLorean time machine and go back to any previous generation, we would likely find people longing for the good old days when things were much better people were much better off.  But it wouldn’t take us long to realize we didn’t want to stay  there.  We’d quickly long for the ability to watch almost any sporting event on our 70” color TV, wander the aisles of today’s supermarkets and tire of sharing a bedroom with 2 or 3 other people.  And summers without air conditioning?   Not a chance.  But I believe that one thing that would be consistent is that we would see what I saw during my 2-day drive – that that vast majority of people are genuinely nice and care about other people.