[Alberta's Child]

200 years ago, a guy could make a reasonably decent living using only his musculature. There was an economic demand for just the ability to move things around physically. Perhaps most importantly, there was a need for his services, giving him purpose and something resembling personal self-respect.

I think he can still do that today. Of course, he'd have to accept the fact that he'd have a standard of living that was commonplace 200 years ago, too.

[Sherman Logan]

Quite true.

I’ve seen some numbers on economic levels over the centuries.

In 1800 UK was the wealthiest nation on earth. Its average income was about the same as most sub-Saharan countries today. There were of course rich people in UK then, but then there are rich people in every African country too.

There is a measurement of economic level that is based on a multiple of the absolute subsistence level, that at which survival is just barely possible. Can’t remember what it’s called. It gets around the whole problem with comparing currencies and purchasing power from one period to another, which are huge.

But I’ve only ever seen it used for ancient and medieval societies, even though it’s obviously fully applicable to today’s societies. I suspect the reason it isn’t used today is that it would make even the poorest in a modern society look pretty well off by comparison with the past.