Always wonder if it true that mid evil peasants actually worked less hours and time per year than people in modern societies. Though I’m sure the quality and extent of the labor you did was still far worse in antiquity.
[deleted] on
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DrHolmes52 on
You could cut the tension in these topics with a knife.
Woden-Wod on
I’m sorry you said the 19th century?
New-Number-7810 on
You can also vote in elections, if you own land, and are a man, and you live in a place which was assigned a minister of parliament during the Middle Ages. You might even have more than one option to choose from, if you don’t live in a rotten or pocket borough.
ChemsAndCutthroats on
They outlawed slavery before all the other large colonial powers. That means employers care even less about their workers. No need to cloth, feed them, and if they get injured you can just replace them. From a large industrialized employers perspective. Having free but poorly paid workers with little to no labor rights is better than slavery and more cost effective.
Pyotr-the-Great on
I mean other countries probably had even worse stuff so Britain was probably better than say Russia.
Efficient-Orchid-594 on
Why are people in the comment talking about medieval europe if the post said 19th century?
weaponised_daisy on
It’s improved at least marginally
Rupaism on
People flocked to the cities despite the harsh conditions. Not to say it was even remotely acceptable, but working in a sweatshop is kinda preferable to being a substance peasant.
Crazze32 on
Name any period in history except the last 100 years where people weren’t expected to work full time and could live off a full and healthy life.
[deleted] on
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jayantsr on
That’s just…..19th century in general my guy
General-Ninja9228 on
Exactly, the average pub drinking Englishman was just as oppressed as his Irish counterpart by the British government. He just didn’t know it.
cgbob31 on
This is capitalism.
StronkGoorbe on
Arguably better than work 16 hours a day *and* die.
Blackrock121 on
> Now when I say that this man has been oppressed as hardly any other man on this earth has been oppressed, I am not using rhetoric: I have a clear meaning which I am confident of explaining to any honest reader. I do not say he has been treated worse: I say he has been treated differently from the unfortunate in all ages. And the difference is this: that all the others were told to do something, and killed or tortured if they did anything else. This man is not told to do something: he is merely forbidden to do anything. When he was a slave, they said to him, “Sleep in this shed; I will beat you if you sleep anywhere else.” When he was a serf, they said to him, “Let me find you in this field: I will hang you if I find you in anyone else’s field.” But now he is a tramp they say to him, “You shall be jailed if I find you in anyone else’s field: but I will not give you a field.” They say, “You shall be punished if you are caught sleeping outside your shed: but there is no shed.” If you say that modern magistracies could never say such mad contradictions, I answer with entire certainty that they do say them. A little while ago two tramps were summoned before a magistrate, charged with sleeping in the open air when they had nowhere else to sleep. But this is not the full fun of the incident. The real fun is that each of them eagerly produced about twopence, to prove that they could have got a bed, but deliberately didn’t. To which the policeman replied that twopence would not have got them a bed: that they could not possibly have got a bed: and therefore (argued that thoughtful officer) they ought to be punished for not getting one. The intelligent magistrate was much struck with the argument: and proceeded to imprison these two men for not doing a thing they could not do. But he was careful to explain that if they had sinned needlessly and in wanton lawlessness, they would have left the court without a stain on their characters; but as they could not avoid it, they were very much to blame. These things are being done in every part of England every day. They have their parallels even in every daily paper; but they have no parallel in any other earthly people or period; except in that insane command to make bricks without straw which brought down all the plagues of Egypt. For the common historical joke about Henry VIII. hanging a man for being Catholic and burning him for being Protestant is a symbolic joke only. The sceptic in the Tudor time could do something: he could always agree with Henry VIII. The desperate man to-day can do nothing. For you cannot agree with a maniac who sits on the bench with the straws sticking out of his hair and says, “Procure threepence from nowhere and I will give you leave to do without it.”
17 Comments
Always wonder if it true that mid evil peasants actually worked less hours and time per year than people in modern societies. Though I’m sure the quality and extent of the labor you did was still far worse in antiquity.
[removed]
You could cut the tension in these topics with a knife.
I’m sorry you said the 19th century?
You can also vote in elections, if you own land, and are a man, and you live in a place which was assigned a minister of parliament during the Middle Ages. You might even have more than one option to choose from, if you don’t live in a rotten or pocket borough.
They outlawed slavery before all the other large colonial powers. That means employers care even less about their workers. No need to cloth, feed them, and if they get injured you can just replace them. From a large industrialized employers perspective. Having free but poorly paid workers with little to no labor rights is better than slavery and more cost effective.
I mean other countries probably had even worse stuff so Britain was probably better than say Russia.
Why are people in the comment talking about medieval europe if the post said 19th century?
It’s improved at least marginally
People flocked to the cities despite the harsh conditions. Not to say it was even remotely acceptable, but working in a sweatshop is kinda preferable to being a substance peasant.
Name any period in history except the last 100 years where people weren’t expected to work full time and could live off a full and healthy life.
[removed]
That’s just…..19th century in general my guy
Exactly, the average pub drinking Englishman was just as oppressed as his Irish counterpart by the British government. He just didn’t know it.
This is capitalism.
Arguably better than work 16 hours a day *and* die.
> Now when I say that this man has been oppressed as hardly any other man on this earth has been oppressed, I am not using rhetoric: I have a clear meaning which I am confident of explaining to any honest reader. I do not say he has been treated worse: I say he has been treated differently from the unfortunate in all ages. And the difference is this: that all the others were told to do something, and killed or tortured if they did anything else. This man is not told to do something: he is merely forbidden to do anything. When he was a slave, they said to him, “Sleep in this shed; I will beat you if you sleep anywhere else.” When he was a serf, they said to him, “Let me find you in this field: I will hang you if I find you in anyone else’s field.” But now he is a tramp they say to him, “You shall be jailed if I find you in anyone else’s field: but I will not give you a field.” They say, “You shall be punished if you are caught sleeping outside your shed: but there is no shed.” If you say that modern magistracies could never say such mad contradictions, I answer with entire certainty that they do say them. A little while ago two tramps were summoned before a magistrate, charged with sleeping in the open air when they had nowhere else to sleep. But this is not the full fun of the incident. The real fun is that each of them eagerly produced about twopence, to prove that they could have got a bed, but deliberately didn’t. To which the policeman replied that twopence would not have got them a bed: that they could not possibly have got a bed: and therefore (argued that thoughtful officer) they ought to be punished for not getting one. The intelligent magistrate was much struck with the argument: and proceeded to imprison these two men for not doing a thing they could not do. But he was careful to explain that if they had sinned needlessly and in wanton lawlessness, they would have left the court without a stain on their characters; but as they could not avoid it, they were very much to blame. These things are being done in every part of England every day. They have their parallels even in every daily paper; but they have no parallel in any other earthly people or period; except in that insane command to make bricks without straw which brought down all the plagues of Egypt. For the common historical joke about Henry VIII. hanging a man for being Catholic and burning him for being Protestant is a symbolic joke only. The sceptic in the Tudor time could do something: he could always agree with Henry VIII. The desperate man to-day can do nothing. For you cannot agree with a maniac who sits on the bench with the straws sticking out of his hair and says, “Procure threepence from nowhere and I will give you leave to do without it.”
-G. K Chesterton: Eugenics and other Evils.