Many thanks, Harry. This is exactly what I am looking for.....
What are you up to, these days? Lawry _____ From: Harry Pollard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 4:34 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected] Subject: RE: [Futurework] Work hours needed to live Lawry, There was a brief moment in English history that Professor Thorold Rogers called the "Golden Age of English Labour" (From "Six Centuries of Work and Wages" published in the second half of the 19th century.) At the end of the 15th century, there were several years of extraordinary harvests and labor became short. Landholders paid high wages to attract labor, thereby defying the severe penalties of the Statute of Laborers - legislation that put a ceiling on wages. Rogers found source documents where actual wages had been carefully erased to be replaced by the official wage - for the benefit of the King's Inspectors. Rogers compared wages back then with wages in the 19th century using food as a common measure. A laborer could earn a year's food for his family with just 15 weeks work. An artisan (a blacksmith, or thatcher) could earn enough food for his (no doubt large) family for a whole year with just 10 weeks work. They worked 6 days a week, but Rogers found they would take a vacations running into months. Their families also got free accommodation (present average for an apartment in LA $1,413 a month.) I am not suggesting we would want to live back then. Rather, that given the right circumstances, it was possible in the 15th century to live better than many of our citizenry now - without handouts from the government. You'll note that in half a millennium we have gone from a law to put a ceiling on wages to a law that puts a floor under them. I suppose it's progress. Harry From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lawrence de Bivort Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 9:23 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Futurework] Work hours needed to live Greetings, everyone, I am preparing a talk on the growing domination of systems (social and technical), and am hoping that one of you may know a bit about the calculations that have been made of how many hours/day a person has to work to live, compared to such levels in the past. Can anyone steer me in the right direction? Many thanks. Cheers, Lawry
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