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guest_
· 4 years ago
· FIRST
So first off let’s agree that basing minimum wage on what people on TV make is a little silly, because if you do the math most “broke 20 year olds” on TV live in apartments that would make most millionaires gasp at the rent- so if we based minimum wage on the ability to afford things on TV, your barista would pull down a cool $500k+ a year. But getting past the initial absurdity of the premise.....
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guest_
· 4 years ago
I’ll pause the tape and ask about your math and conclusions. Bob made 15 shillings a week according to all sources I find. He was paid considerably more than the average clerk (about 11 shillings) and in today’s money that would be over $70,000. And he wasn’t poor. He owned a house in London. He had a huge Christmas feast with oranges- the most expensive fruit in London at the time. 15 rounds of Gin Punch, and a goose big enough to feed a family. His daughter works and we are told his son is starting a job making 5 shillings a week. Bob spends like an idiot. That’s why he’s poor. By Victorian prices his Christmas goose cost as much as a years medical attention for his entire family. his wife and daughter were decked out in ribbons, cheap ones- but that’s often how people in modern times get in financial trouble too- spending so much on cheap stuff they don’t need.
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Edited 4 years ago
guest_
· 4 years ago
He gave his son a fine shirt as well. In Victorian England it was the thing to do for the wealthy. You’d then go parade through the park showing off. His son even muses to the point- but is shocked he will be able to do so. The ribbons at “6 pence that put on a good show..” the shirt to fop about with rich dandies, the goose and punch and etc. etc. Bob is a guy who makes as more than a cop of the day, more than most people in his job, and is firmly middle class. He isn’t poor, he’s broke because Bob likes to spend big. He likes to show off and not live within his means.
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guest_
· 4 years ago
Scrooge is FAR richer than Bob. He lives in a run down shack, works by the light of a single candle, and he doesn’t eat goose or drink Gin punch. He has thin gruel. Scrooge lives a “poorer” life than Bob does, but should minimum wage be enough to be as rich as Scrooge? Their circumstances have less to do with what they make and more to do with how they LIVE. At the end of the story Scrooge starts giving away gooses and gives the (already highly paid) Bob a raise and all that. But how long can he do that and stay solvent? There’s a reason that even bill gates does t give away money to people every day. In reality giving bob a raise is a temporary solution at best since his problem isn’t what he earns but what he spends, so with more money he’ll likely spend more and then... run out again.
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guest_
· 4 years ago
Realistically Scrooge could lighten up, live and enjoy life and his money a bit, and be kinder and more generous. Bob needs to slow his spending ass down a bit and set a budget, and that would work. But ultimately it’s a fictional dramatization meant to make people feel good and appeal to the masses. Kinda... oh. Kinda like your point huh? Well. Carry on.
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