[decimon]

Actually, some sailors joined the Royal Navy because the food was better on ship than at home. Which tells you a lot about poverty in England before the Industrial Revolution.

For the average shmo, I think life pretty much sucked pretty much everywhere.

[colorado tanker]

Yep. I think Hobbes’ comment about life being nasty, brutish and short pretty much applied to average shmo’s everywhere. Another reason the liberal/elite attitude about the rise of the middle class drives me nuts. Such ignorance.