• agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    The lowest level of legal living is almost infinitely more expensive as a proportion of work hours now than ever before in history.

    That kind of ridiculous hyperbole doesn’t instill much confidence in the accuracy of the rest of your claims.

    A studio apartment in my region, at the outskirts of a city, costs 50hrs at my state’s minimum wage per month, under 2 hours a day on average. This source estimates 1620hrs/year of work for a 13th century peasant, an average of about 4.5 hours a day (although this was mostly seasonal, that doesn’t affect our average). About half of that went to the lord or church, so we’re talking a little over 2.2hrs/day for a peasant to afford rent, compared to 1.6hrs/day in the modern era.

    And again, that apartment is connected to water, electricity, and Internet. It has modern insulation and air conditioning. So even just for lodging, we work fewer hours for more comfortable accommodations.

    We do work more overall, but that’s more to furnish the luxuries of modern life (compared to a 13th century peasant).

    • yunxiaoli@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Congrats on living in a ridiculously low cost of living country that’s not the us, the west, or even most parts of china at this point.

      • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        I live in a major US state in a moderate to high cost of living city. Most of the populous states have minimum wages between $12-18. Rent at a trailer park is easily doable at 1.5hrs/day at $15/hr.

        • yunxiaoli@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          It really isn’t. Maybe 40 years ago. There’s a reason we’re in a cost of living crisis and the homelessness rate has soared in the last five years faster than any other point in us history. Its not a lack of jobs.

          Hell working homeless is at its highest point in human history.

            • yunxiaoli@sh.itjust.works
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              4 days ago

              No, you’re making things up entirely based on imaginary ideas. A studio for just a week’s worth of work a minimum wage? Even in the early 2000s that was practically a myth. No american I have ever known has paid less than half their wages for rent; including myself when I still lived in that shit hole.

              Maybe the rich lived differently, and from your naive idealism it’s clear you did, but christ I would have loved to not pay nearly all my income for housing.