This has been bugging me for ages, what’s changed since I was a kid. Here are some of the answers

TV
Straight up this is the biggest change. There’s no darkness anymore! Comedy shows like Fast Forward feature scathing satire of political parties. Directly taking the piss out of the policies du jour. Even companies running advertising on their network! It wasn’t elitist, it wasn’t one sided. It was purely bi-partisan, satirical humour that reflected the concerns and the trends of the day, with absolute hilarity. Even A Current Affair used to dabble in it a bit with some parodies at the end of the week.

Parody was a tool used in TV to really get stuck in and remind you what was of genuine concern to people. Now you’re simply told what’s a concern unless you’re watching after 11pm on ABC. What we have now is simply witty skits and acted out puns, sans sexism, politics, current affairs or anything remotely sue-worthy! I’m talking about Rove, Skithouse, The Nation, The Wedge. Almost anything channel 10 puts out!

Sadly news stories are now delivered to journos shrink wrapped and ready to go and TV comedy has been watered down to barely even parodies of celebrities. Because even that is too litigious. It’s just lame. I really miss when television was entertaining because it was objective and intelligent.

Culture
OK so this has vastly improved. And at least if you live near the city, you’ll Melbourne is a part of Asia now culturally not just geographically. There are more cultural influences at fashion, work and play now. Not that you’d ever know if you were waiting to see it on commercial television but hey. At least there’s one good thing to say about the here and now.

Education
In the eighties, I didn’t know anyone that had ever been to uni. Not in my immediate family or friends. Uni students were labeled bloody lefty pinkos communists. Higher education was free but the spirit wasn’t. People went there to learn abstract, philosophical stuff or to become a lawyer or a dentist. But the arty students never went there for a straight career path. It was far more of a journey than a destination for most. A hypothetical, yet occaisionally radical, think tank. People were there to truly learn. And get stoned and pissed as farts, but that’s all part of learning to be open minded - something you definitely wont find on the curriculum today.

One thing I know is that I was one of the last of the free and easy uni students. Fees went through the roof, and you had to pay off your HECS debt (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) a LOT earlier in life (when you earnt $27K per year, down from $37). Sure enough for most, the countries’ greatest investment had to bear fruit a lot earlier.

Work
It used to be a means to an end, or what the Whitlam government called ‘extreme leisure’. People still worked hard but there was more family time. That was until you stumbled upon a recession or two which sucked. Nevertheless, there was a better balance and you didn’t have to commit career hari kari to have a house and kids and a life.

We actually had an Adidas factory down the road too. So we all wore Adidas stuff from the factory seconds shop.

Shopping
Strip malls were the go. So you were out on the street, not in an American style enclosed ‘mall’. You weren’t immersed in a capitalist, air conditioned wet dream. So long as you bought your wares from a family friend or ‘good bloke’, price wasn’t too much of a concern. You were lucky if they played some crappy music through an outdoor PA. Shops closed at 2pm on a Saturday and wouldn’t dream of opening on a Sunday.

Instead of looking at department stores or JB Hifi for meaningless crap, you had to find something constructive to do. Yeah it was boring, but not as depressing as just looking at stuff to buy all the time.

All the shop facades were uniquely Australian.  Notice in the last 3 years that places like Dominoes and Subway use exactly the same signage and facades as they do in the US?

Neighbours
It seemed people had a lot more in common, looked out for each other and basically gave a rats’ arse about each other. There may have been ‘keep up with the Jones” kind of stuff, but there was more openness, instead of every man for themselves as there is now. Most probably, you made similar money to your neighbor and that wasn’t an issue. Now everyone’s on individual contracts and that is that. You don’t want your neighbor to know if you’re making more than them for the same work.

Money
It wasn’t the be-all and end-all frankly. We weren’t collectively all so consumer goods oriented. It was more leisure oriented. In other words, the pool and the boat if anything over the plasma TV, the designer handbags and the cool car. Now one fell move on the fast track to success and people are scared still they’ll never have any of the bright shiny objects they so richly deserve. The bright, shiny objects that placate the missus and satisfy increasingly complex cognitive needs.

There was no fear if you didn’t own the latest and greatest TV, that your girl would lose interest, or you wouldn’t have any mates. It just wasn’t a fear based consumer economy. Consumer goods satisfied a purpose and not an innate desire, and did so for a much longer time!

In closing
We live in far more interesting times. There was a lot lacking in our culture 20 years ago, but there was more room for self determination. Both in what you wanted to do and what you wanted to think. People wait to be told now, by a media that’s lost all sense of news and objectivity. More so than ever, our possessions really own us, and we’ll fight to the death to protect them, but will have the rug slipped from under us with our basic liberties time and time again. There’s no time to get involved anyway!

Maybe it’s not just the glam rock and metal that’s keeping me in the 80s….