A Perspective on Wealth

If you are reading this, you are likely among the wealthiest persons ever to live. Ever.

Do you have heat in your house, a car, hot and cold running water, a refrigerator, a washer and dryer, a TV? Do you have more than one pair of shoes, more than a couple of sets of clothes?

Imagine trying to replace all of these things with labor—yours or your servants’—in a pre-industrial world. Think of the horses, liverymen, stablehands, cartwrights you’d need to begin to replace your automobile. (And, if you don’t own a car, you can still probably travel a hundred miles or so by public transportation for the cost of about an hour’s labor.)

Imagine what it would have taken to have a variety of fresh food—bananas in December—available to you year-round.

Imagine the labor necessary to cut, haul, and split the wood to heat your house and your stove.

Imagine the labor needed to herd the sheep, grow the flax or cotton, harvest or shear it, turn it into thread, weave the cloth and sew your clothes. To make your shoes. To bring you news of the world. To give you a hot bath or shower any time you like.

(Of course, regardless of your wealth, the pace of your travel wouldn’t come close to the speed of travel today, for those who can afford it. You might not be able to find a banana in January for all your wealth. And nylon, lycra, and polypropylene simply didn’t exist.)

Each of us in the industrialized world lives like only a king could live through most of human history. Cheers!