You Are Richer than John D. Rockefeller Was

May I suggest the essay from Bill Whittle called Sanctuary? Unfortunately, the originals are not readily available any more, although you can find them in the book “Silent America”

A little over halfway through is a scene in which the Pharaoh Cheops encounters a 7-11 store in the middle of the desert. It is quite relevant to the topic here.

The whole essay is well worth the read, as are any of Bill Whittle’s other writings. A copy can be found here...

http://www.scifiwright.com/2015/01/sanctuary-by-bill-whittle/

A point on older houses:

Having lived in a wooden house built in the 1870s with only one open heating grate I can tell you they wee very well built to handle hot and cold. The design was such in my house that with one fan in the upstairs I could cool down the house to a fairly comfortable degree, I am sure the high ceilings had something to do with it. Maybe 5 to 10 days in the hottest part of the summer were unpleasant.

It is much worst to live in a 1970s house made with no though to convection cooling requirements. Comparing houses designed for the use with AC is not equivalent to houses designed before such existed.

Second air conditioning is only required because we are used to it, when it does not exist you get acclimatized to hot weather. By late August a 60 degree night seems cold and you put on a extra shirt, when in March you go out in shirt sleeves in such weather. Personally I think heat was more important and central heat in US homes dates back to at least the 1870s.

Living in a stone house showed me they can be very pleasant to live in , during summer with no AC. Typically the older houses had three floors plus the basement, and the upper tow were progressively cooler. With heat onto the ground floor alone they would remain relatively pleasant on the first and 2nd floor. The third floor was pretty much storage, as it was hot in summer and cold in winter.

Screens window covers date to no later than 1868 and were pretty widespread by 1900. Electric fans date from the 1880s and were less common in 1900, but by 1916 both window and ceiling circulation fans were much more common in homes.

Rural electrification was not so common in 1916, it was well past the 1920s when it became common.

Of course, there is no doubt, but there is some deception to articles like this. I would contend we should compare NOW to 1975.

Keys goods we can track, say like bread and fruit for food, automobiles, ect, have risen in price faster than income has since 1975. In 1975 a single income earner could have a family, two cars, and live quite comfortably.

Now our houses are smaller, cars much more expensive, and many families are struggling on TWO incomes.

3) Because of the 90 % European stock and a resultant monoculture , in 1916 a women was much safer from a whole range of crimes than today. Many urban areas are no-go regions for folks who do not represent that particular sub culture.

Monoculture? You think we had a monoculture in 1916? Northern and Southern White Anglo-Saxon Protestants barely considered themselves part of the same culture at times and looked down on everyone starting with the Scots Irish and ending with African Americans. {I won't use the terms they would have.} American cities were anything but monocultures and immigrant gangs were as large a problem then as today. Irish, Italians, Jews, and German gangs split on ethnic lines almost sounds quaint today. It would be another generation before Crime Inc put things together in NYC, and only after Italians and Jews butchered their way through the Irish gangs unwilling to play ball.

4) The Justice system had not been corrupted as it is today, in those days it reflected the agreed upon values of the predominate WASP culture. Murder somebody and get caught, 30~40 days later you were likely dead. Do an extremely heinous crime and the law would pretty much allow the crowd to deal with it in the same time interval.
Yes, no, and maybe. Seriously, have you heard of Urban machines?

5) the Culture had not been debased in 1916. The idea in 1916 was entirely towards refining culture, actors were somewhat shady folks, certainly not looked to for setting standards like today. If there was light music available in public it was likely moonlight sonata or some popular ditty that was inoffensive. Today the popular music is pretty dreadful, such songs and “bitch better have my money” being the norm. How has it come to pass that degraded negro music has displaced the European classical music and its derivatives?
There was plenty of risque if not raunchy music at bars, gentlemen's clubs, sporting mens associations (women were the sport), to say nothing of the US military.

Yeah, it was horrible: farm-fresh produce and grass fed cattle and poultry. Fruit in season and home canned for winter. Fish and game for variety, unsanctioned whole milk and real churned butter. A hundred varieties of apples and tomatoes with tastes and textures unimaginable in today’s markets; real smoked ham and bacon, homemade sausage with eggs that had as much yellow as saffron.

Yeah, our modern palette of mass-produced monoculture and processed foods is quite the culinary pinnacle. Bread made without nutritional value; fruits and veggies solely designed designed for transport and storage; and “meat” made from spare parts and less than 30% ‘broth’ seemingly composed of a chemistry lab accident.

Umm umm, that Rocker feller never had it so good. Heck, he probably only had a French master chef and only a dozen or so junior cooks from all over the world.

Just look at the health benefits, too! My, our modern diet has produced the fattest population in history. You just can’t argue with progress.

I’m with you in spirit. Also, my wife and I very rarely eat at restaurants and don’t do “processed” foods. We also have chickens that produce all the eggs we need and split a calf with friends when we need beef.

All that said, much of the things you describe are necessary to supply food to 7 billion people. Well, at least if most people live like sardines in cities.

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