1970 Is The Greatest Year To Be Born

Christopher Furlong. Getty Images.

Some people believe the worst year to be born in 1898. You are young enough to have served in World War I, then you live through the depression in your 30's when you are likely trying raise a family. To make matters even worse, if you had a son, he likely had to fight in World War II. That's a lot to live through before you even turn 50.

So what's the best year to be born? What's the best time to take advantage of these factors that are out of your control? For me, I think it may be 1970. Here's why:

Being a kid then seems pretty great. You still to get to grow up with Sesame Street and Saturday Morning Cartoons. Then Star Wars comes out when you are 7. That starts a pretty great run of movies into the 80's that you're a fun age for. Think Superman (you're 8), Raiders Of The Lost Ark (11) and E.T. (12).

If you love video games, the Atari 2600 comes out when you're 9. I know this shit looks primitive now but it was a big deal back then. It's not like people knew what a PlayStation 5 was then.

Going to high school and being a teenager in the 1980's seems pretty great. MTV comes out when you are 11 and that's back when they would play nothing but music videos. You get all the John Hughes movies (like Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles) and even better, VCR's become a thing.

Plus this is back when people would go out and have fun. There is no social media to think about. You can just go out and enjoy the moment. Maybe someone brings a Polaroid camera but it's not like people are looking at their phones all night.

You're in college in the late 80's/early 90's. This is a pretty great time to go because the country was going through a bad recession. The good news is that is was fairly quick and you enter the work force right when the 90's start taking off. You're in your 20's so you're young enough to understand and appreciate the internet becoming a thing. Maybe you can even take advantage of it and use it to help your career. 

Also, the housing market hasn't totally lost control yet. You might even be able to buy a house before turning 40. Oh, college tuition is a fraction of what people pay know. You'd likely leave school with some college debt but it's far from crippling.

It's not all perfect. The first Gulf War happens when you're 20 but luckily, that was short. 9/11 happens when you are 31. You do also live through the housing crisis when you're 38 and COVID in your early 50's. But even then, you're young enough where COVID likely isn't affecting you that much and you're old enough where maybe your kids are already out of school or at least old enough to understand.

I was born in 1979 and it always felt like it wasn't the right time. Like stuff was always for people older than me and then in 1999, everything screeched to a halt. The Millennials took over and from that point forward, it felt like everything was for people younger than I was. I'm happy I grew up when I did but it did seem like it would have been cooler to have been a little older.

Hopefully the future is bright and people can say the best time to be born is right after COVID because you miss that headache and you can take advantage of all the technological achievements that are sure to come. But will that future beat hanging out at the mall with friends, watching MTV and then playing Atari or 8-bit Nintendo until sunrise with friends who are actually there with you?