Friday, July 08, 2016
One little piece of sanity
Looking through googlebooks, found a 1922 edition of The American Magazine. 1922 was a transition time as we were absorbing the lessons of WW1. We were comparatively sane back then and we DID learn the lesson. Wilson's giant bureaucracies were dissolved and we acquired a proper distaste for international aggression, which didn't fully break until 1965.
This magazine seems closer to everyday reality than the tech journals I've been reading. It has ads for two typewriters I actually owned and used in the '70s:
Good machines even when they were 50 years old.
And it has a realistic article about professional beggars:
Hmm. $500 sounds familiar. Isn't that about what the best pro beggars make now?
Couldn't immediately find a US article, but headlines from UK and AU verify the impression.
Adjusting currency, the AU beggar is about $600 USD, and the UK beggar is about $650 USD. Similar.
BUT WAIT! The 1922 amount needs to be multiplied by 20 to reach modern currency. The best 1922 beggars were making $10000 a day in modern terms! Or in non-numerical terms, those beggars were making in one day what a poor WORKING man made in a year.
So there's one good thing. Beggars are VASTLY LESS SUCCESSFUL now than they were in 1922. We're actually saner in one limited way.
¶ 3:41 AM 
Good machines even when they were 50 years old.
And it has a realistic article about professional beggars:
Hmm. $500 sounds familiar. Isn't that about what the best pro beggars make now?
Couldn't immediately find a US article, but headlines from UK and AU verify the impression.
Adjusting currency, the AU beggar is about $600 USD, and the UK beggar is about $650 USD. Similar.
BUT WAIT! The 1922 amount needs to be multiplied by 20 to reach modern currency. The best 1922 beggars were making $10000 a day in modern terms! Or in non-numerical terms, those beggars were making in one day what a poor WORKING man made in a year.
So there's one good thing. Beggars are VASTLY LESS SUCCESSFUL now than they were in 1922. We're actually saner in one limited way.
¶ 3:41 AM
