Rich or poor, all Americans live life of abundance

Received this a couple of years ago:

Here are some of the U.S. statistics for 1904:

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars

There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.

With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower! The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour.

The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.

Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education.

Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound. Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason.

The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza

2. Tuberculosis

3. Diarrhea

4. Heart disease

5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.

Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two of 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write.

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores.

According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health." (Shocking!)

Eighteen percent of households in the U.S had at least one full-time servant or domestic.

There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

I did not know that. $15.70 is the average wage today? I'm not disputing that, I just did not know how that was arrived at. At first I thought you were talking about minimum wage but you are not. Frankly, I know several typical people who are glad to be making the $9.70 - $10.00 range. They are relieved to have a job at all after losing their $15.00 an hour job to downsizing, out sourcing, etc.>>>>>

I will never vote for another Democrat for President but that does not stop me from seeing reality. I myself am glad to be making just over $11.00 an hour even though I used to make many times that. In this area we have reached the point that anything over 12 dollars an hour is considered very good and yet the figures I see say that the minimum wage would need to be raised nearly to eight dollars an hour to equal the buying power of the 1963 minimum of 1.25 an hour. My own opinion is that the truth is much worse than that even. We certainly are better off than in 1900 but are we better off than in 1995? I don't think so, at least in terms of the average worker's buying power. I saw a report just a couple of days ago which said that the median income in the San Francisco bay area is $90,000 plus change, this sounds great until you read that the median single family home costs more than ten times that annual income. I remember a time when high school graduates routinely married, bought houses and had children in first grade before the age of thirty. This is almost an impossibility now.

The article is definitely biased...some of these points have been pointed out already, but bear repeating -

What’s puzzling is statements like this: “Today, even the poor have a bewildering array of comforts. “More than 98 percent of American homes have a telephone, electricity and a flush toilet” - Like the building codes would LET a person build a house without the wiring and plumbing?????

Or “’More than 70 percent of Americans own a car, a VCR, a microwave, air conditioning, cable TV, and a washer and dryer.’ In 1900, almost no homes had such conveniences.” No, In 1900, most people had what WE’D consider luxuries now: HORSES/buggies, (and weren’t required to have insurance on them!), and a FIREPLACE. How many homes have horses/buggies and fireplaces now??? (the microwave, air conditioning, cable TV, and washer/dryer are moot points - they hadn’t been invented yet - but I bet everyone had a WASHBOARD, lol)
So much of what we have now is GOVERNMENT MANDATED.

One more point those who write such reports fail to mention: if THEY consider a phone and a car necessities, aren’t they JUST AS MUCH of a necessity to EVERYONE ELSE?

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