Oh, by all means, let's go back 100 years. The year is 1911. Life expectancy in the US is around 50, mostly due to poor sanitation and infectious diseases. Penicillin is still to be invented, as are vaccines. Roads are mostly unpaved, one lane dirt traveled by horses and carriages and by Model T Fords. There are public schools, however, as even then the parents could see the value of literacy. Electricity can be had in the cities, at least some of them, but kerosene lanterns do the job of lighting for most people. Air conditioning is still a science fiction device. An indoor bathroom is a luxury, as is water that doesn't have to be hauled from the hand pumped well.
Those black children in the picture above knew their place: The bottom of society. Step out of line, and face a lynch mob, and heaven forbid they drink out of a "whites only" drinking fountain.
Except, of course, in the darned liberal states like California and Hawaii, where there was no segregation, and decent white folks had to share space with the "darkies." How awful.
By all means, go back and live the way people did in the good old days, before all of the darned liberals ruined everything.
But, if you'll excuse me, I'll stay in the 21st. century, even if I have to pay taxes for all of those unwashed, unparented poor children to have a shot at being able to read, write, and cipher. Have fun.
