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To: Sam Cree
Rural poverty is different for psychological reasons; firstly, as has been pointed out, one is not crowded cheek-by-jowl with one's neighbors. People literally go nuts when lacking in enough private space.

Secondly, the urban poor of the industrial era had to make a giant change in their mentality regarding time: they were regimented and "on the clock" in the city. They had to work all the time, often in appalling conditions which were psychologically trying, and tedious in the extreme.

Rural poor, in contrast, did not live "on the clock", but rather, according to the seasons, and although the work was physically demanding, it was not monotonous or boring or madeningly tedious like that of the factories. And the work was episodic; when there were no crops to plant or to harvest, as happened throughout the year, one had free time. Whereas the urban factory worker had no free time, initially, except a little in the evenings, and on Sundays; his work schedule paid no attention to the changing of the seasons. He was tied to it willy nilly

Not that rural poverty was fun; check out the foreign language film (Swedish or Danish; not sure which) "Pele the Conqueror" with Max von Sydow. If you didn't own or rent your own land, and were just a paid laborer, things were pretty bad indeed.

14 posted on 01/14/2003 4:50:48 PM PST by Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
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To: Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
I think you make good points - I believe conditions were awful for the urban poor during the industrial revolution.

Confusing the entire concept is the fact that today's definition of poverty is pretty broad, lots of folk that now fall in the category might not have been considered "poor" in days gone by.
16 posted on 01/15/2003 7:30:21 AM PST by Sam Cree
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