[speaker001:] ready
[speaker002:] okay uh what what what what exactly we're talking about uh industries trends everything
[speaker001:] social changes well whatever whatever I guess you want to whether things changed over the last uh twenty years
[speaker002:] okay all right we'll start twenty years back and come forward how's that sound
[speaker001:] all right good enough here we go
[speaker002:] all right
[speaker001:] well uh let's see I guess some of the some of the things uh civil rights have come a long way I guess in the last twenty years
[speaker002:] well yeah I think they have I I really do and it's it's no longer the issue it once was and I'm kind of glad least I I hope that's a good sign that uh
[speaker001:] yeah yeah that's true
[speaker002:] uh the times have changed uh more to the more equitable at least
[speaker001:] yeah and I guess I guess uh women's rights have come with that too I guess so that's uh
[speaker002:] uh yeah I think they have too I don't think women's rights have come as far
[speaker001:] probably not
[speaker002:] uh I I think that uh in general women would feel like they still sort of getting the bum deal compared to uh say some of the minority groups
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] uh I know my wife would
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] yeah but uh I don't know uh seems like we come uh a long ways in terms of the economies of of things uh if I recall back in the sixties we didn't tend to run a debt all the time but we did run a debt a lot with the great society a lot seventies and so forth
[speaker001:] that's true yeah
[speaker002:] and then uh it looked like we just stayed in some sort of a economic economic economic morass ever since
[speaker001:] that's right what's I guess uh part of that was that uh twenty twenty five years ago Japan wasn't uh hello
[speaker002:] hello we're there
[speaker001:] okay that twenty twenty five years ago that Japan wasn't uh wasn't what it is now so that that's probably caused some changes
[speaker002:] right I can remember yeah I can remember in the late sixties early seventies you couldn't even uh hardly find a Japanese car around
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh what few there were around were very ugly looking things must've been
[speaker001:] oh yeah like uh like the old Subarus and uh the old old Datsuns
[speaker002:] yeah yeah they must've been pretty reliable though because some of them they built up a fairly good following and it appears that's the case do you own any kind of foreign car
[speaker001:] um-hum uh no we don't as a matter of fact
[speaker002:] I don't either I've always just uh I don't know whether you call it buy American it's just that I've always bought Fords and I guess I'll just keep buying Fords
[speaker001:] yeah yeah and uh but uh what else what else has changed oh I guess uh Watergate was in there so I guess politics politics in general has kind of kind of gone downhill
[speaker002:] uh but well
[speaker001:] in the last because I can I can remember maybe before Nixon that uh the presidents were really up on a pedestal
[speaker002:] some of the ethical aspects of political life certainly seem to have gone downhill and certain
[speaker001:] yeah or else we or else we know about it now one or the other
[speaker002:] yeah in certain respects I feel like that the uh uh Reagan administration coming right off the Carter administration did tend to bring back a more aggressive uh uh aspect to the human rights issues and the sort of things that democracy in this country has really stood for and and you know and uh brought it back to the limelight compared to the sixties and seventies
[speaker001:] yeah um-hum
[speaker002:] and I think that was a positive uh positive thing but it seems like uh uh with all that uh we never seem to be able to get our house in order when it comes to the economic things I I bring this back to that at least uh it seems like we still continue to run uh uh heavy uh indebted indebted budgets and the like I don't see any real way out of it either I might add
[speaker001:] yeah no no I there's no easy answer that's for sure or else they would've uh done something by now I guess
[speaker002:] yeah well yeah yeah I think that's true
[speaker001:] but uh and probably the only other thing I can think of in the last uh oh twenty years or so I guess is that uh family structures have changed a lot
[speaker002:] yeah I think they have too seems like that uh the country's might been more uh migratory
[speaker001:] um-hum that's true
[speaker002:] and family the the old family structure of the mothers and the grandmothers and the grandfathers maybe even some great grandparents occasionally that seems to have been broken apart pretty pretty well including the family structure as a unit itself
[speaker001:] yeah yeah it doesn't seem the norm to have uh have parents and and uh the two what two point five kids and all that uh
[speaker002:] yeah well I hope that's not right I do I do hear these statistics same as you do and uh and uh I I I always felt like at least the immediate family unit mother father and children
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] was a cohesive structure that was healthy and was a integral part of what made this country I don't know sort of a stable country in terms of discipline uh uh I don't know some not necessary discipline but certain social order that's it and I I
[speaker001:] true yeah but it it it's sad that we're we're losing the grandparents and the uncles that that family you know beyond that families don't seem to get close anymore
[speaker002:] yeah yeah yeah
[speaker001:] and that's probably got something to do with what you're saying about the migratory
[speaker002:] yeah in my my family I know most of us are Southerners just happen to be living up in Maryland though but my family uh we're we sort of like our roots and like to get back and have family reunions and all that
[speaker001:] yeah yeah yeah
[speaker002:] and I think that may not be the norm for some a lot of people as much as it is for us that don't want to do that
[speaker001:] I I think you're right I I think that's uh very rare anymore that uh definitely people aren't at family reunions on a regular basis and uh and a lot of them I guess don't do it at all so
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] because I know it's been a long long time since our family ever did anything like that so
[speaker002:] yeah I must say too it seems like the whole flavor of uh war has changed considerably when you look at back at the Vietnam era
[speaker001:] that's true
[speaker002:] and what all we went through there in terms of what's happened in the Iraqi situation it seems like uh we have uh made uh uh uh a a rather uh major about face in terms of the way we conduct war and the way we we uh can technologically uh uh carry out a war
[speaker001:] um-hum it's it's it's easier to to fight I guess when you can find them I remember that was the the problem back then you just couldn't find them
[speaker002:] they're a little hard to hide in that desert
[speaker001:] yeah I mean uh not not
[speaker002:] well uh then too I think the philosophy is changed I was just reading tonight in the one of the news magazines that you can take you know I I I take Newsweek Time and US News and World World Report all three as a matter of fact
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh I was just reading in one of the uh the those news magazines that uh there's a um a movement among certain members of the military establishment the upper hierarchy uh uh uh officer staff to uh change the kind of way we conducted war in the past in terms of uh instead of meeting the enemy the enemy sort of head on instead of doing more feinting and and and and technologically appropriate tactics like these smart bombs and things like that doing more
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] more smart things that are very damaging getting in getting out uh making end runs allowing more creativity at the lower echelon levels for people to slip in slip out and do things
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] than uh has been the case in the past where the idea was to meet your enemy sort of head on and the like and I think politically we've changed a lot I think in the Vietnam war
[speaker001:] um-hum overpower them
[speaker002:] uh we we Congress got too much involved in in trying to manage the war
[speaker001:] well it's probably because it lasted so long you know I guess it's
[speaker002:] yeah and that that's absolutely the wrong way to to go to conduct a war in my opinion when you when you're in a war right or wrong you should let the military establishment handle it and and and give them the job that they're paid and supposedly skilled at doing
[speaker001:] yeah um-hum
[speaker002:] and let them get on with it instead of tying their hands which I felt like was not the case in the Vietnam war but was entirely the opposite in the case of the Iraqi war where they more or less gave it to Schwartzkopf and and the rest of the military units and just says hey look handle it and they did
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah
[speaker002:] and I think the military proved itself competent to do exactly what it's paid to do and uh it just goes to give me a a a feeling that uh we did some things wrong
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I think in the Vietnam era uh and that uh Congress should have stayed out of it much as possible
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] but uh that I see as a change and then industrially going back uh I I think uh uh industrially we've changed I think we've come through an era of the last thirty years or so twenty ten of a uh a a nation that was industrially oriented towards uh manufacturing type industries and I think now we seeing ourselves transitioning into a more technological electronics age where it's
[speaker001:] yeah more of a more information processing yeah
[speaker002:] information and communication and and computers that is really our next industrial revolution and uh you know it wouldn't surprise me the least little bit if we didn't see the whole idea of manufacture of automobiles and the like except to some degree we have to keep a little bit of expertise in the house that being a base export to third world countries and you may find might find even Japan and and uh uh major powers like uh the the British and the central European economies being less and less dependent upon that kind of industry uh because it's uh somewhat labor intensive even if they start robotizing it uh I I I I'm concerned that that would be the case instead the more uh advanced nations would tend to get more computerized more telecommunication oriented and the like and information is is getting to be uh sort of the thing
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I I I think I don't know
[speaker001:] yeah no that's true that's true over the last uh twenty years that's uh that's a definite change and it's only going to only going to get worse I guess in the near future it's going to be more rapid I guess
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah I I think I I I I think we're made some mistakes too for example I think the education system in this country has not really kept abreast of what's going on industrially
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh I'll give you an example I was talking about I've said for years because I I my background's in physics and uh I've said for years that the education system in this country has not reacted
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] to what is the actual uh uh uh industrial evolutionary state of the country and by that I mean when I was going to school you got your basic sciences
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh that was pretty much about it
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and uh when I got out of school I had to sort of teach myself everything I've learned uh about computers and programming and and just you know the whole bit hardware in general relative to why you can do things with data acquisition process and the like
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh when I was going to school you had to have mathematics if you were in engineering or science or any of the other scientific fields chemistry and biology and the like
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] but you never had to have computers and even to this date in colleges it's not required to take computer courses if you're in in the engineering or the science fields
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] unless you're a computer scientist or or or someone in that area and then it is required of course because it's part of the curriculum and uh just as we have to take at least a year of English in in in colleges and a year of some sort of social study
[speaker001:] or electrical engineering probably yeah
[speaker002:] I think that it should be required in college in a in a uh uh science curriculum I even think in liberal arts this day and time it should be required you have to have a year of some sort of computer
[speaker001:] um-hum