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What I've found in looking at historical financial comparisons in the past is that they are inherently unstable / inexact as you get further and further back.
by ubermonkey 7y ago
What I've found in looking at historical financial comparisons in the past is that they are inherently unstable / inexact as you get further and further back.
Fifty years ago, even, things fall apart a little. At one point in an early Mad Men episode, some reference is made to whether or not Draper is making $40,000 a year. A basic inflation calculator puts this at about $342K today, but the implication in the show (and in other reading) suggests it likely involved much more purchasing power than $342K implies.
Going back 100 or 200 years, and the economics drift. Prices for goods and for services change relative to each other, so straight-up purchasing power comparisons are hard to establish.
Today, we probably wouldn't parse a $2M inheritance as set-for-life (maybe?), but clearly the implication is that Cosette was, right?
All that is a long way of saying that we can really only know that Darcy was rich, and enjoyed a very healthy income assuming his source assets were protected and working. His friend, less so, but still solidly a member of the correct class.
- neaden 7y agoAgatha Christie once said that when embarking on her writing career she never thought she would be wealthy enough to afford a car, or too poor to afford servants. Things change quite fast. And I would say that a $2M inheritance is set for life, withdrawing 4% of that should leave you at a steady income of $80,000 a year for doing nothing.
- angry_octet 7y agoGreat quote. Perhaps compare the cost of servants with the cost of having a dishwasher/washer/drycleaner bill, and a car to the cost of a personal jet. Shows how education and engineering and medicine and law have lifted the value unskilled labour to unprecedented levels. Living off $2M/year is fine, except of course interest rates are now 1% in much of the developed world. Higher returns now requires higher risk.
- devchix 7y agoAgreed! I originally did the comparison to better understand what wealth stratum Valjean eventually attained, was 600,000 francs crazy money back then? Marius' grandfather sent him 60 pistoles monthly (600 gold francs!) was that an exhorbitant stipend? Must have been, as he eventually found work as a translator for 700 francs a year. He pawned his watch for 45 francs, just a little more than a bunch of asparagus! Hugo went into fascinating details about how much things cost in the chapter called "Marius Poor". By these measures Cosette was rich, but we don't know the percentage of the population in possession of 600,000 francs or more. Valjean carried this sum around as a wad of cash. Before this he had buried it in the woods! And at that time Paris had an Exchange. Amazing!