Heath thinks America was once a glorious utopia... this webpage refutes that utopian myth nicely:
http://kingstonobserver.com/good-old-days1.shtml
"Children often worked the same long hours as their parents. By 1900 there were nearly two million children under fifteen years of age working in factories across the nation."
"During the 1890s it was estimated that nearly a million workers were killed or injured each year in the work place."
"Workers' compensation was unknown. Disabled workers received no pay, benefits, or social security."
"When "Old Days" prices are translated into the numbers of hours worked and then charged against today’s typical wage of $12.00 an hour, a different picture emerges. For example: butter at 19 cents a pound meant that an average worker making 75 cents a day on a 12 hour shift had to work just over three hours for his pound of butter. If it took as many hours to earn a pound of butter today as it did in the 1800s, butter would sell for about $36.48 a pound."
ACK! Can you imagine buying a poiund of butter for $36?!?!
"In 1887 America experienced a depression that saw nearly three million workers loose their jobs. Many families lost their homes or were thrown out of their city tenements. Thousands of homeless families lived on the streets of major cities. Between 1893-98, another economic crisis swept the country throwing nearly four million workers off their jobs. Almost one in five workers was jobless."
"Between 1882 and 1903, more than 3,300 people were lynched across the United States. Lynching of blacks alone totaled 2,060. Guilt or innocence made little difference to a mob driven by a blood lust. Lynching went far beyond simple hanging and often include anything from boiling the victim alive, castration, and torture to burning at the stake.
"Discrimination in the workplace was rampant. Blacks, Jews, and Catholics were not allowed to work at many jobs. The law of the land did not protect minorities in the good old days."
"A child born in the 1800s had a 40 percent chance of dying before they could grow to adulthood. Disease and high infant mortality were facts of life and epidemics were common. Hundreds of thousands died each year from cholera, small pox, yellow fever, influenza and other common diseases."
Wow, those were good old days... NOT!
http://kingstonobserver.com/good-old-days1.shtml
"Children often worked the same long hours as their parents. By 1900 there were nearly two million children under fifteen years of age working in factories across the nation."
"During the 1890s it was estimated that nearly a million workers were killed or injured each year in the work place."
"Workers' compensation was unknown. Disabled workers received no pay, benefits, or social security."
"When "Old Days" prices are translated into the numbers of hours worked and then charged against today’s typical wage of $12.00 an hour, a different picture emerges. For example: butter at 19 cents a pound meant that an average worker making 75 cents a day on a 12 hour shift had to work just over three hours for his pound of butter. If it took as many hours to earn a pound of butter today as it did in the 1800s, butter would sell for about $36.48 a pound."
ACK! Can you imagine buying a poiund of butter for $36?!?!
"In 1887 America experienced a depression that saw nearly three million workers loose their jobs. Many families lost their homes or were thrown out of their city tenements. Thousands of homeless families lived on the streets of major cities. Between 1893-98, another economic crisis swept the country throwing nearly four million workers off their jobs. Almost one in five workers was jobless."
"Between 1882 and 1903, more than 3,300 people were lynched across the United States. Lynching of blacks alone totaled 2,060. Guilt or innocence made little difference to a mob driven by a blood lust. Lynching went far beyond simple hanging and often include anything from boiling the victim alive, castration, and torture to burning at the stake.
"Discrimination in the workplace was rampant. Blacks, Jews, and Catholics were not allowed to work at many jobs. The law of the land did not protect minorities in the good old days."
"A child born in the 1800s had a 40 percent chance of dying before they could grow to adulthood. Disease and high infant mortality were facts of life and epidemics were common. Hundreds of thousands died each year from cholera, small pox, yellow fever, influenza and other common diseases."
Wow, those were good old days... NOT!
). During World War I & II, many "town" families grew their own Victory gardens in very small plots of land or containers.
