Last week, I purchased a Boston Globe from 34 years ago today, August 9, 1974, announcing then-President Richard Nixon’s resignation. I used to be a newspaper editor and reporter and love old newspaper artifacts.

When I looked through the special section detailing all aspects of the day (including a previously very pro-Nixon New Hampshire town hiding its ties to the man and a detailed profile of Betty Ford where she advocates having a hobby), I stumbled upon the political cartoons. And while they were conceived more than 30 years ago, they could have been imagined yesterday.

The Cartoons
One of the cartoons is of a drawing of a man, his wife and child sitting at the kitchen table, with the man holding a piece of paper that reads, “Gas Lines, Living Costs Up, Unemployment, Economic Slump, Taxes, Government Scandals.” On the wall there is a piece of paper that says, “No Recession, No Gas or Energy Crisis–Only Problems.” And its signed “You Know Who.”

The caption is the man saying to his wife, “I think I’ll write a book about my six problems.”

The next cartoon is a car that has, “Fuel Crisis of Early 1974,” on its back and is running over a man whose jacket says, “Pollution Control Measures,” and another whose jacket says, “Consumer.” It is titled “Hit and Run.”

The last cartoon is of a person checking out at the grocery store and buying expensive groceries. There is a little bottle by the cash register that says, “Smelling Salts, Emergency Use Only.”

After reading them I flipped back to the front page and confirmed that this was in fact the yellowed newspaper I just had purchased dating from August 9, 1974, and not our local newspaper, which carried similar news last weekend.

Issues Are Similar to Today

Digging further into the paper, I found more stories that could pass for today.  One detailed a new program in some New England states to help low-income families grow their own fruits and vegetables to save money on groceries. I’ve read about similar programs happening right now around the country, especially in remote areas where food is already expensive.

There are stories in the August 9, 1974, paper about soaring wholesale prices and trouble in the Middle East. Bizzare.

All of this got me thinking about the state of the world and how far we have (or haven’t) come in exactly 34 years. We are experiencing the same, or similar, problems as we were then–from expensive food and fuel to government scandals and high unemployment. Does this mean we have come nowhere in the last three decades or have we come so far that we’ve gone back again, repeating the same cycle over and over?

I think we can all agree that in some ways the world has changed drastically since 1974. We are about to have the first black nominee for president, the opening ceremony of the Olympics was held in China, and happily we’ve moved past disco. But many things are still the same; we have an unpopular war, living costs are up and we are still facing questions about environmental issues.

What changes do you see in the world now different from the world in August 9, 1974? What changes would you like to see in the next 34 years?