A Nation Of Slobs

Yes. When I was a kid, people dressed up to fly, but of course, airline tickets were much more expensive prior to deregulation. I wear business casual when I fly, but this is one of the reasons that it was so stupid of the head of TSA to make air marshals wear business suits. It made them stick out, and obvious which ones they were.

10 thoughts on “A Nation Of Slobs”

  1. Look at movies from the 40s and 50s. All the men wore suits, ties and sometimes, vests. Even villains and arch villains knew how to dress. Those actors dressed just like the general population. At the very bottom of the middle class, I got my first suit at age 13 because even teenagers were expected to dress properly.

  2. Firearm concealment requires at least a jacket. For that matter, sky marshals probably need to carry a lot of items on their persons that ordinary passengers don’t, and spotting a can of pepper spray or handcuffs on a fellow passenger’s belt is bound to be a giveaway.

  3. Back in the day, we used to dress up to go pick someone up at the airport…

    And I almost always travel with a jacket – a sports coat, blazer, etc…I get better service from the stews that way. Of course, I normally wear a jacket for concealment anyway.

  4. Because tickets were much more expensive, the whole experience felt much less like a cattle as well. In essence, you get what you pay for.

    What i find mindboggling is that outside US airline industry manages to maintain much higher standards for everything, especially in Asia. Airports in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei have excellent food and lots of services. Quality of service is worlds better etc.

    1. No $7/hr or soon to be $15/hr for cleaners and other staff. Same in ME where there’s 1000’s of (very) low paid staff for everything from stores, [not] duty free and baggage porters.

    1. Millennials. Really? The millenials have there issues but we’ve been on a dressed down trend since before I was born. If a generation has to take the hit, it would be the baby boomers most likely.

      1. Nope, blame the millennials! They wear dungarees in public like they’re going to work in a gold mine. Dungarees have no place in public! And when was the last time you saw a millennial in spats or a topcoat! DISGUSTING!

  5. When I have enough room to feel comfortable in a standard seat, I’ll dress up. Right now airline flight is like seeing how many people can fit in a telephone booth, or a clown car. Frankly it’s degrading.

  6. I agree Rand with the price of tickets, but I also think there is something about the availability of clothes. At the link, those pictures are fairly old. Back then clothing was very expensive, because we didn’t have southeast Asian sweatshops cranking out clothes for us. You purchased what you needed, and you needed what you got to work for as many settings as possible. So you bought nicer clothes and maybe coveralls to protect them from dirt when the job required getting dirty.

    The women in the modern photograph are wearing several layers of clothing that are relatively inexpensive. They probably have very expensive dresses back home in the wardrobe, that cost a bit more, but not so much they feel like they need to use it a few more times.

    I write this to touch another subject I noticed with the latest 20 something generation. They actually want a lot less things than the previous generation and seem to be buying less. I think it is because they look around and see whatever they want available whenever they may need it. Older generations know that what they see today may not be available tomorrow, and if they may need it tomorrow, they better buy it now lest it be unavailable when needed (even if they don’t use it before it deteriorates and becomes useless). I think this is part of the reason that retail is failing. And other than the impact to those businesses, I think this may be a good thing overall.

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