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No one is forcing the average modern worker in the developed world to buy trucks, washing machines, and have running water. If someone chose to have the same st
by bsbechtel 12y ago
No one is forcing the average modern worker in the developed world to buy trucks, washing machines, and have running water. If someone chose to have the same standard of living as a medieval European peasant or African tribe member today, they could easily do so in modern day Europe or the US for costs well below the poverty line, and easily get their 100+ days of holidays you mention. The story of the Toronto Blue Jays pitcher who lives in a van comes to mind as an example of this.
>>So? People were investing those 16+ years of education to young people in the 50's and 60's too, and upon graduation they were able to make a much more comfortable living with less debt that present day degree holders do.
Education in the 50s and 60s cost a fraction of what it does today, even adjusted for inflation. In addition, that education gave European and American workers a unique skill set that the rest of the world didn't acquire until later on, giving those workers a competitive advantage that lasted a generation or more.
- coldtea 12y ago>No one is forcing the average modern worker in the developed world to buy trucks, washing machines, and have running water That's not how it works. Due to the way humans are psycologically, the relative level of those arounds us changes our conception of what's acceptable standard of living very fast. (Works in inverse too: for those living in 14th century Spain etc. it wasn't felt as poverty that they didn't have running water or washing machines). >Education in the 50s and 60s cost a fraction of what it does today, even adjusted for inflation. In addition, that education gave European and American workers a unique skill set that the rest of the world didn't acquire until later on, giving those workers a competitive advantage that lasted a generation or more. That was my point too.