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Joe, i liked your comments.
I can only comment back to the 40's as that is what i remember. In the 40's and 50's churches couldn't be built fast enough, neighbors knew and helped each other, a man's word was as good as his bond, there was very little divorce,no one would think of suing over minor things, people respected the opinion and advice of older people because they knew they had experienced life.
However, as you mentioned the early 1900s, i do remember reading that the 20s weren't the most moral of times.
Tamminy Hall, Al Capone, prohibition, the speculation and crash of the market. But from what i remember my Dad and many others of that period saying, people were by far ,the salt of the earth and could be trusted. The shaking of a hand was a contract.
The 30s and 40s united the country during the wars, which you mentioned, citizens made personal sacrafices for the sake of freedom.
People would work a full time job, and come at night and work in the war plants. Volunteer for any effort to help. So America had a purpose to defend freedom and still went by a moral compass.
The change i saw, which was very dramatic, between the 60s and 70s ,was the outlook of the country changing from a united purpose to a "me generation". It has never looked back.
You are right, human greed always has, and always will be there. But our morals balance it out. Imho, we need moral beliefs and purposes as individuals and as a country.
As they say, " if you don't believe in something, you fall for anything."
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