Despite the nostalgia for the 1950s, people do not really miss the family structure of the time as much as they miss what they think they don't have now: a seemingly more family-friendly and stable economic and social environment.

II. Sub-arguments

1. Coontz argued that "Families comparing their prospects in the 1950s to their unstable, often uncomfortable pasts, especially the two horrible decades before."(33). This is the foundation for the "hopefulness" that people associate with the 1950s family structure/existence. Families were finally becoming stable when the stock market crashed in 1929 and brought on the Great Depression. During the end of Great Depression, World War II had begun. The opportunities available in the later 40s, early 50s did not include everyone because WWII was just ending and so many people needed a job when so little were available. Gender roles suddenly started to come into play. The...