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Cratchit actually makes a pretty OK salary. 15 shillings a week (65 pound per month) is not bad for the 1840s, according to some sources. Though it seems a tad low for skilled labour from a clerk, it’s almost twice what unskilled workers might make, and nicely on par with what a junior clerk might make in other cities at the time.
It’s not that Scrooge is underpaying him (well, a bit), it’s that he’s a miser and only cares about money, because he has no idea what he’s causing.
The terrible reality is that if you sent a dead corporate partner and three ghosts to the houses of modern billionaires, they’d probably just feel vindicated and happy that their actions are having the intended effect.
Even worse when you consider 64 pounds in 1840 is approx 8000 pounds in today’s value
https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1840
Let that sink in, the classic story of some being extremely overworked and underpaid was solidly middle class today
Even worse when you consider 64 pounds in 1840 is approx 8000 pounds in today’s value
Converting money from longer before, say, the 1930s is really hard. Simply calculating inflation doesn’t really work, since things have really shifted in what they cost. White bread was a luxury food, indoor lighting was insanely expensive, but living in central London was dirt cheap.
Also a good point
Using this method, Cratchit’s 15 shillings per week would translate to a relative labor earnings value of £611.30 per week, according to MeasuringWorth, an inflation calculation resource that Williamson co-founded. At the current conversion rate, that’s about $850 per week and $43,000 annually.
That’s solidly middle class in the UK?
Typically, 60k gbp is middle-class ish, which is twice what 43k USD is.
But 60k is basically your housing expenses in London unless you bought a home around the time A Christmas Carol was written.
You know that’s a good point, I was being a bit US centric and also thinking what was middle class a few years ago before Trump and his ass fucking of the global economy
Be the ghost you want to see in the world
Unfortunately, it’s just a fairy tale
The only way to change rich people is not through paranormal apparitions but through World War and violent overthrow of government
Otherwise, rich people will just always stay the same.
Ghosts don’t exist. Guillotines do though…
Mr. Fezziwig seemed to be as reasonable an employer as capitalism allows without needing to be terrorized by ghosts. He was the opposite of Scrooge, as Scrooge seemed to learn all the wrong lessons from treating people decently.
But yeah, it did take supernatural intervention to get Scrooge to see people as people.
“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
