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The conclusion comes to us from an newly updated study by professors Peter Lindert of the University of California - Davis and Jeffrey Williamson of Harvard.
Scraping together data from an array of historical resources, the duo have written a fascinating exploration of early American incomes, arguing that, on the eve of the Revolutionary War, wealth was distributed more evenly across the 13 colonies than anywhere else in the world that we have record of.
Business Insider
By the time the Civil War came, the top 1 percent of U.S. households laid claim to 10 percent of the nation's income, versus about 7 percent during the founders' era.
Today, the same group accounts for about 19 percent.
Business Insider
Originally posted by boncho
I imagine it was much easier to save money when you had a slave in the home. No wonder the middle class had more money.
Really, this premise is actually an argument for something?
Originally posted by Tardacus
Originally posted by boncho
I imagine it was much easier to save money when you had a slave in the home. No wonder the middle class had more money.
Really, this premise is actually an argument for something?
The middle class didn`t own slaves. The average cost for a slave was $300,000 - $500,000, that was just the purchase price.add to that the cost of feeding,clothing, housing, medical care etc and the total cost of owning even just 1 slave was way above what any middle class person could afford.
-$1 in 1775 = $29 today
Average market price per slave in 1860 (current dollars from the era): $1,658.00
Costs and wages
Wages were low in Britain in the 18th century because of a surplus of labor. The average was about 50 shillings (£2.5) a year for a plowman, and 40 shillings (£2) a year for an ordinary unskilled worker. Ship captains negotiated prices for transporting and feeding a passenger on the seven or eight week journey across the ocean, averaging about £5 to £7, the equivalent of four or five years of work back in England.[10][11]
Originally posted by boncho
Quality of life and standard of living are probably more important factors than just who's sitting on money.
You seem quite preoccupied with that though, and communism....
I imagine it was much easier to save money when you had a slave in the home.
Do you find that you are even living a life? Or are you simply waking up to do things to sustain yourself?
Originally posted by boncho
reply to post by ANOK
I live in a socialist country and I'm quite happy with it. I also have relatives in another socialist country and they are quite happy with their lives too.
I guess my point is no matter the system there are still injustices, (seen even in both I mentioned), the real issue isn't the system but how it's run, and how it's kept from being perverted. Nearly all could be successful under the right conditions.
Originally posted by Jeremiah65
Not a shocker....it's not capitalism that's the true problem...it's cronyism...rascal-ism and backroom dealings.