41–50 of 89 posts
There seems to be an error: "The family’s annual food bill was $80 a month." For a person earning $1.50 per day, that would have been a whopping monthly food bill.
Historically, the price of food was much higher than it is now. Thank our farmers for operating more efficient year after year. https://mjperry.blogspot.nl/2010/07/as-share-of-income-ameri...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are right that modern technology has figured out how to turn energy into soil (way oversimplified!), and that probably 80% of the nitrogen in the bodies of any of us reading this came from the Haber process. However, it still sounds bizarre that about 90% of their expenses was food.
It isn't totally off-base. Even today, the poorest consumers in middle-income countries spend 70-80% of their income on food. http://www.hindustantimes.com/interactives/how-do-people-in-...
It may appear for those in state housing that food is their greatest outlay but that would only be if accommodation provided by welfare wasn't classed as "income".
In Twain's position, and time, would food have certainly been the greatest outlay?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's an excerpt from a book, as it says at the bottom and I imagine there's also some expectation the reader is generally aware Mark Twain was involved in many unsuccessful business ventures throughout his life. The excerpt provides a bit of context.
Yes, I get that it's an excerpt. But the title misrepresents (in a slightly click-baity way) the article content. That's all I was pointing out.
Regarding the point about his good fortune of being born in 1835, I wonder what the date is for new tech billionaire CEOs. The article made me wonder if we are in our own little gilded age now. Mark Zuckerberg: 1984 Larry Page: 1973 Sergey Brin: 1973 Elon Musk: 1971 Michael Dell: 1965 Jeff Bezos: 1964 Jack Ma: 1964 Masayoshi Son: 1957 Steven Ballmer: 1956 Bill Gates: 1955 Steve Jobs: 1955 Paul Allen: 1953 Larry Ellis…
Maybe you're already aware of this but being in a gilded age would not be a good thing. The gilded age described a society where serious problems were masked by a thin veneer of gold.
Regarding the point about his good fortune of being born in 1835, I wonder what the date is for new tech billionaire CEOs. The article made me wonder if we are in our own little gilded age now. Mark Zuckerberg: 1984 Larry Page: 1973 Sergey Brin: 1973 Elon Musk: 1971 Michael Dell: 1965 Jeff Bezos: 1964 Jack Ma: 1964 Masayoshi Son: 1957 Steven Ballmer: 1956 Bill Gates: 1955 Steve Jobs: 1955 Paul Allen: 1953 Larry Ellis…
Maybe you're already aware of this but being in a gilded age would not be a good thing. The gilded age described a society where serious problems were masked by a thin veneer of gold.
Regarding the point about his good fortune of being born in 1835, I wonder what the date is for new tech billionaire CEOs. The article made me wonder if we are in our own little gilded age now. Mark Zuckerberg: 1984 Larry Page: 1973 Sergey Brin: 1973 Elon Musk: 1971 Michael Dell: 1965 Jeff Bezos: 1964 Jack Ma: 1964 Masayoshi Son: 1957 Steven Ballmer: 1956 Bill Gates: 1955 Steve Jobs: 1955 Paul Allen: 1953 Larry Ellis…
Regarding the point about his good fortune of being born in 1835, I wonder what the date is for new tech billionaire CEOs. The article made me wonder if we are in our own little gilded age now. Mark Zuckerberg: 1984 Larry Page: 1973 Sergey Brin: 1973 Elon Musk: 1971 Michael Dell: 1965 Jeff Bezos: 1964 Jack Ma: 1964 Masayoshi Son: 1957 Steven Ballmer: 1956 Bill Gates: 1955 Steve Jobs: 1955 Paul Allen: 1953 Larry Ellis…
Maybe you're already aware of this but being in a gilded age would not be a good thing. The gilded age described a society where serious problems were masked by a thin veneer of gold.
Spending ~30+ years learning to write and sell books doesn't look like a Get-Rich-Quick scheme to me. His father also bought land so that his future generations could become rich. That's not quick either.
There seems to be an error: "The family’s annual food bill was $80 a month." For a person earning $1.50 per day, that would have been a whopping monthly food bill.
Someting is off with the food prices. Multiplying the other amounts by 100 yields reasonable comparisons to todays prices: $485 - mens suit $8000 - NYC rent $150/day - working person salary $600 - rural rent $35/lb butter $40/dozen eggs
You need to buy your butter and eggs elsewhere if you think these are reasonable comparisons to today's prices.