Why did kids have to grow up so much faster before about 1980?

 Life expectancy.

In 1900 the average life expectancy was 60. So, in the 1930s they made retirement age about when people died which was 65 at most for most people even though many people died at every age before this especially from birth to 20 or 25 years of age the most than and now.

But now, (before Covid) if you lived to 30 you can sort of expect to live to 90 years old (on average). But, you have to make it to 30 first to expect 90 and even this isn't a guarantee of course but it begins to become possible by 30.

Also, things like Seat belts in cars were not required in the U.S. until the late 1980s too. So, when there were accidents people's bodies would fly out of cars 100s of feet sometimes, especially through the front windows of cars. So, if you crashed hard at anything over 30 mph the likelihood was you were going to die from something inside the car catching on you like the steering wheel or the broken front window or radio knobs or the dash board or the window winders or the inside door opening levers etc.

So, accidents before seat belts were really gory and accidents involving motorcycles were often beyond belief. As a child and young adult I saw many gory dead people in California because of this.

So, if you made mistakes and weren't smart then often you were just dead or maimed for life. This was just how life really was then. It's less that way now because of all the safety laws put in place. However, sometimes I think the old ways were better because only those smart enough to survive actually did then.

Now everyone survives which is only going to create newer problems for the world in various different ways ongoing. If you had lived as long as I have you might know exactly what I mean.

So, basically before the 1980s if you weren't smart at how you survived your lives then you were dead or you were already maimed for life before you were 20 years old and if you weren't dead by 20 then often you were dead by 30.

Life was about 3 times as harsh as it is now then here in the U.S. I would say.

So, when I was growing up many of the people that can survive today would not have then.

But, many of those people are the ones over dosing on various drugs across the U.S. during Covid too.

So, in some ways in the end only those who really want to be alive will be alive especially during these Covid times worldwide.

So, the whole human race is going through an extreme time of Natural Selection during these years because of Covid and Global Climate change which is destroying many third world nations and economies now.

The differences between 1st world nations and 3rd world nations has never been as extreme as it is now because of both Covid and Global Climate changes.

However, there was ONE big difference between about 1960 and 1990 and this was all the social programs that would catch people before they starved or died. Most of those government programs are gone now so more people have to rely on Churches and Food Banks and things like this to survive difficult times now since around 1990.

The one exception to all of this is likely Food Stamps for people out of work temporarily and unemployment compensation still exists in most U.S. States so people have less chance of dying of starvation although many still do but mostly out of pride now. But, at least food is available if you can set your pride aside to take advantage of the food programs available whether through the government or churches or food banks or whatever.

There are still whole families that starve to death because the caregiver of the children is too proud to use these programs to feed their children and soon all are gone even here in the U.S.