True economic justice is impossible when you apply liberalism to economics, also known as capitalism. #MedievalSurfs #JohnMaynardKeynes #15HourWorkWeek #UBI #TaxTheRich
SIGH This is very misleading. For those of us who have actively tried to provide our family's food for even a single season, we know it is very hard work. I'm not even talking about providing all of it, but only some of it such as growing a small garden or having a single flock of chickens.
So the 15 hours a week? It had nothing to do with providing for the family. The 15 hours a week was what the peasant owed to his lord. He was not paid for it. He gained nothing but the lord's protection - ie, the lord's soldiers would make sure that 'hopefully' they were not over run by someone else. The rest of his week was spent on trying to provide for himself and his family - long hours in the fields, his children herded his animals, his wife grew her own gardens, preserved all of their food, and made all of their clothing - from plants and animal fiber - not from cloth. She had to make that first.
I've canned and preserved food for most of my life. It's hard work. That's when I can go and buy things at the farmer's market. My gardens? Mostly suck because I have heat issues, but I try every year. If I had to make every stitch of clothing, teach every little fact and action to my children, preserve every tiny piece of food praying that it lasted through both the winter and the hunger gap (that's the time between planting the first crops and the first harvest), plus doing my church work, and spending time with my family? I'd go nuts from the overwork. Notice that I said nothing about going to a paying job. Most teenagers had one before they got married in order to save up for their lives as adults - dowries for girls, apprenticeships and such for boys.
So, sorry, NO. They did not have an easier life. They did not work less than you. They worked harder and had less return. Gardening and farming techniques have come miles in centuries since then. For them, starvation was not a vague concern. It was a fact of life. They expected to starve at least part of the time every year. Did that mean that they did not party? Hell no. They loved to celebrate every chance they could, mostly because they knew that every moment could be their last. That still doesn't mean that they worked less than modern Americans.