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An absolutely pathetic Christmas tale (Original Post) True Dough Sunday OP
Greedy capitalist business owners look at payroll as highway robbery Walleye Sunday #1
Good grief. Stated like that it's more than appalling. Biophilic Sunday #2
Not as appalling as it seems markbark Sunday #3
Bottom line: True Dough Sunday #4
Can be calculated based on government sources JT45242 Sunday #6
I always took that work not as not about greed. Igel Sunday #7
I have always said Scrooge was really a nice guy. 😀 Wonder Why Sunday #5

Walleye

(36,395 posts)
1. Greedy capitalist business owners look at payroll as highway robbery
Sun Dec 22, 2024, 08:44 AM
Sunday

They think people should work there just for the honor

markbark

(1,597 posts)
3. Not as appalling as it seems
Sun Dec 22, 2024, 09:08 AM
Sunday

Shillings to dollars in 1840 and then converting to modern values is not as simple as it seems:
Politifact reports "....there is no good way to determine what 15 shillings then would amount to in U.S. wages today. He added that "Dickens knew what a barely-above-starvation wage would be for a worker like Cratchit with his family would be, as did his readers."

True Dough

(20,839 posts)
4. Bottom line:
Sun Dec 22, 2024, 09:25 AM
Sunday

15 years of $7.25 as the minimum wage is criminal. Even though it's "only" one million Americans who are trying to get by on that woefully low level of compensation, it's an absolute outrage.

JT45242

(2,993 posts)
6. Can be calculated based on government sources
Sun Dec 22, 2024, 10:24 AM
Sunday

$1 in 1840 is worth $36.26 today - Inflation Calculator

https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1840?amount=1#:~:text=%241%20in%201840%20is%20equivalent,cumulative%20price%20increase%20of%203%2C526.36%25.

since there are 20 shillings in a pound, that would be 0.75 pounds. The conversion if rate of pounds to dollars for must of the 1800s was 1 pound was $2.20. multiplying you get $1.65. multiply that by 36.26 and you get about $60 a week.

The sentiment is correct. But the original math is faulty.

Igel

(36,229 posts)
7. I always took that work not as not about greed.
Sun Dec 22, 2024, 10:44 AM
Sunday

That reduces things to money and little more. Granted, some people see everything in terms of money while some others think of everything in terms of power. (My mother, straight (D) from first vote to last, denominated nearly everything in $.)

Others think in terms of goodness or righteousness (tricky terms to define clearly, those), yet others think in or at least include terms of compassion and empathy--which has $ consequences, but goes way past those.

If $18.70 is starvation wages, then it's obvious that purchasing parity power must be included.

But I'd also be curious as to how they calculated that--15s/day might be for 6 hours or for 12 and that would make a rather large difference in the hourly rate.

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