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Is there anywhere that's done a deeper dive into "what you could afford" means? I want to see how few hours you could work throughout history to afford absolute

Is there anywhere that's done a deeper dive into "what you could afford" means? I want to see how few hours you could work throughout history to afford absolute necessities. And then split this based on minimum wage, average wage, median wage etc.

mooreds 5y ago
Here's a podcast which covers how long you have to work for an hour of light: https://www.npr.org/2014/05/02/309040279/in-4-000-years-one-thing-hasnt-changed-it-takes-time-to-buy-light https://www.npr.org/2014/05/02/309040279/in-4-000-years-one-... There's a book referenced, which I have not read. EDIT: sorry, it is the inverse: how much light you get for a day's work.
wincy 5y ago
I don’t have time to find the exact pages but the Rise and Fall of American Growth tries to quantify real realized quality of life gains through what the author Robert Gordon calls “the special century”, 1870-1970. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26634594-the-rise-and-fall-of-american-growth https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26634594-the-rise-and-fa...
- ghaff 5y ago
  There's a graph in the book Why the West Rules--for Now that charts a "social development" index from hunter-gatherer times until today. (Basically a complicated distillation of various measures of civilization.) The bottom line is that if you zoom out essentially nothing happened for thousands and thousands of years until the industrial revolution.
  - AnimalMuppet 5y ago
    Exponential growth is always like that. The question is, what happens on a log scale? Does it still jump at the industrial revolution? And what has happened since then?
bobthepanda 5y ago
The basket of goods has also changed due to technology and living standards. In 2021 I can buy a bunch of bananas for $1 in the winter in the PNW. This is pretty much not possible for a 1900 factory worker let alone some remote 1800 pioneer. And let’s not even get to differences in the quality of housing like with electricity, or running water, or even a stove with temperature control. (Fun fact; recipes with exact cook times and temperatures only start showing up around the 1930s because previously it wan’t easy to control.)
- RamshackleJ 5y ago
  also the basket of goods is mostly impacted significantly by technology which causes deflation. it doesn't include things that don't have acute tech-driven inflation (housing/education/healthcare) where tech can't drive prices to zero as easily.
  - iso1210 5y ago
    > it doesn't include things that don't have acute tech-driven inflation (housing/education/healthcare 80 years ago the President of the USA suffered from polio. A vaccine costs about $1 now. Education at primary/secondary level is mainly salary, buildings, land, so tracks well with inflation. As locations concentrate, attractive land increases in value. Land in the middle of nowhere decreases in value if population is stable (but of course population has increased too)
- ngngngng 5y ago
  I realize it's hard to cut out the things that become standard in different periods of time, but I'm really just hoping for a comparison only factoring in fresh water, 2000 calories a day, average housing (for the time).

mooreds 5y ago

Here's a podcast which covers how long you have to work for an hour of light: https://www.npr.org/2014/05/02/309040279/in-4-000-years-one-thing-hasnt-changed-it-takes-time-to-buy-light https://www.npr.org/2014/05/02/309040279/in-4-000-years-one-... There's a book referenced, which I have not read. EDIT: sorry, it is the inverse: how much light you get for a day's work.

wincy 5y ago

I don’t have time to find the exact pages but the Rise and Fall of American Growth tries to quantify real realized quality of life gains through what the author Robert Gordon calls “the special century”, 1870-1970. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26634594-the-rise-and-fall-of-american-growth https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26634594-the-rise-and-fa...

ghaff 5y ago
There's a graph in the book Why the West Rules--for Now that charts a "social development" index from hunter-gatherer times until today. (Basically a complicated distillation of various measures of civilization.) The bottom line is that if you zoom out essentially nothing happened for thousands and thousands of years until the industrial revolution.
- AnimalMuppet 5y ago
  Exponential growth is always like that. The question is, what happens on a log scale? Does it still jump at the industrial revolution? And what has happened since then?

bobthepanda 5y ago

The basket of goods has also changed due to technology and living standards. In 2021 I can buy a bunch of bananas for $1 in the winter in the PNW. This is pretty much not possible for a 1900 factory worker let alone some remote 1800 pioneer. And let’s not even get to differences in the quality of housing like with electricity, or running water, or even a stove with temperature control. (Fun fact; recipes with exact cook times and temperatures only start showing up around the 1930s because previously it wan’t easy to control.)

RamshackleJ 5y ago
also the basket of goods is mostly impacted significantly by technology which causes deflation. it doesn't include things that don't have acute tech-driven inflation (housing/education/healthcare) where tech can't drive prices to zero as easily.
- iso1210 5y ago
  > it doesn't include things that don't have acute tech-driven inflation (housing/education/healthcare 80 years ago the President of the USA suffered from polio. A vaccine costs about $1 now. Education at primary/secondary level is mainly salary, buildings, land, so tracks well with inflation. As locations concentrate, attractive land increases in value. Land in the middle of nowhere decreases in value if population is stable (but of course population has increased too)
ngngngng 5y ago
I realize it's hard to cut out the things that become standard in different periods of time, but I'm really just hoping for a comparison only factoring in fresh water, 2000 calories a day, average housing (for the time).