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You're assuming that a day laborer in the UK had income and standard of living similar to a lower-income Texan in 2019. It was closer to that of a lower-income
by azernik 7y ago
You're assuming that a day laborer in the UK had income and standard of living similar to a lower-income Texan in 2019. It was closer to that of a lower-income Haitian in 2019.
EDIT: I was a bit low - BoE's inflation calculator puts a £20 income in 1813 at £1,362.94 in 2018, or about the average income of a Haitian today. So let's say, a lower-income Afghan?
- ghaff 7y agoI'm not sure how useful the BoE calculator is for that. It's probably more useful to just look at standard of living qualitatively. Given that a Victorian era lower-class Londoner probably looks more like a lower-class Haitian than a Texan. I'm less sure how to compare from Austen's era, especially outside of a major city. But things like getting any medical care at all or getting enough food to eat suggests ways that poor people of that era would be disadvantaged compared to most poor people of a developed county today.
- azernik 7y agoI would also caution against focusing on major cities; only around 40% of Brits lived in cities in 1811, and rural poverty was and remains even more grinding than urban poverty.