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There is a part of the book that narrates on how they had to ration food in the UK, so hunger was starting to take a toll.
A group of Cambridge dieticians carried out an experiment to determine whether Britain would be starved out of the war in the event of the U-boat threat preventing imports of food from overseas. Their conclusion, was that Britain would have been just fine. In any case the rationing the team undertook was far more severe than necessary, and the U-Boat threat didn't do nearly as much damage as feared. Of course, there was poverty in some of the poorer areas of Britain, but as a whole, Britain never came close to starving.
Yes, it peaked around 1890-1910. I can't say about the US, but in Europe it was not about the top 1% getting most of the wealth (like traditionally with the European nobility), but the next 10 or 20% getting everything and the rest nothing. The beautiful houses we see in European cities today were for the upper class or aspiring higher middle-class, while the working class lived in shacks now demolished and replaced by apartment blocks.
I would guess that industrialization would have created big gains in 1% wealth in the US, as it created huge fortunes and there wasn't much of a very wealthy upper class before that.
Looks like the top 1% still earned owned a lower income during 1913 in the US than Europe. Ditto with the top 10% by the same rate. Order switched in the 1920s; US got more inequal after WWI while Europe got more equal:
Heidenstrauch, who I mentioned, originally a petty bourgeoisie who went to regular schools but was a financial mastermind, built another house when the Czar bought his previous home. And it wasn't even an any kind of burden for Heidenstrauch. Today it's the embassy of Sweden:
Nice building. The Rockefeller Estate is impressive, it's open to the public now as a tourist attraction (run by a foundation owned by the family), visited it about five years about 25-30 miles north of NYC:
50 years later the workers lived in houses like this:
These houses seem to have electricity and phone cables, so they are not even close being to the worst-off slum-dwellers.
So what year was that from?
Well, in a big city once electrical wiring is installed, it's easy for everyone to have it. Mill worker housing from the early 1900s, in a Massachusetts town:
I have a beautiful American friend from Hawaii. Her mother is an ethnic Hawaiian and her father is a Southern Black American male from Atlanta. She was born in Honolulu! (She's a US AMERICAN through and through!)
Well she now lives in Europe and for some reason many ignorant Europeans often tell her that she doesn't look American, that she looks like she comes from somewhere else! When she asks how do Americans look like their reply is.... Well like the British! (What could be more American than the mixture of a Hawaiian islander and an Atlanta black man?)
I do not know where Europeans got this silly idea from!
I also met Europeans who visit the US and are often shocked to see how diverse it is. Many go to Miami and are shocked to find out that the city resembles the UK in absolutely nothing, and it has so many similarities to the Caribbean islands and to South America in culture, history, food, etc. (they were expecting Liverpool by the caribbean perhaps!)
Many in fact are quite surprised to know that not all of the US was colonized by the British. It was only 13 states on the Atlantic coast, the rest belonged to France and to Spain!
This is a colonial map of the US
Hence places with French names like New Orleans, Detroit, Des Moines, Eau Claire, Baton Rouge, Saint Louis. Hence places with Spanish names like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Texas, Florida, Nevada, Colorado.
But this is something that seems to escape most of the Europeans for some reason.
Alaska belonged to Russia by the way!
I met so many Europeans and Brits who often go to America and are shocked to see you can go to many cities and regions where you will hardly find a white-anglo person!
And this diversity does not come exclusively from immigration. Even before the US was a nation, it already had millions of African slaves, Indigenous Americans roaming free all over the land, the central part of the US was pretty much Francophone (Called New France at the time), and the pacific coast was part of Spain mostly populated by Spanish colonials and its colonees (mestizos).
Then came heavy immigration millions of Germans, Polish, Italians, Irish, Eastern Europeans, eventually millions of Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans etc. Making the US even MORE diverse than what it already was and even less Anglo than Europeans seem to think it is!
Americans of course are aware of their own country's mega diversity.... Americans know that in New Mexico they have a lot of Spanish heritage, and in Louisiana many people speak French and that in Montana you have tons of Native americans, and Atlanta has a lot of black people! But Europeans who often claim to know a lot about the world and the US are actually rather in the dark and expect the US to be a really Anglo nation with tons of similarities to Britain sort of like New Zealand is!
Why is it though?
It would be interesting to find out why!
You complain that 'Europeans' don't understand American genetics yet you seem happy to proclaim that the British are not diverse and are all genetically the same!! lol - Pot Kettle??
I would guess that industrialization would have created big gains in 1% wealth in the US, as it created huge fortunes and there wasn't much of a very wealthy upper class before that.
Looks like the top 1% still earned owned a lower income during 1913 in the US than Europe. Ditto with the top 10% by the same rate. Order switched in the 1920s; US got more inequal after WWI while Europe got more equal:
Nice building. The Rockefeller Estate is impressive, it's open to the public now as a tourist attraction (run by a foundation owned by the family), visited it about five years about 25-30 miles north of NYC:
Well, in a big city once electrical wiring is installed, it's easy for everyone to have it. Mill worker housing from the early 1900s, in a Massachusetts town:
I think the difference was that the European 1 to 10% had already the wealth, and it was easy to invest. Why leave for America? The ones who made the disparity were the next 10 and 20%. The educated and skillful middle-class aspired quickly, while the manufacturers gained nothing. The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels targets this bourgeoisie, not the landed nobility with fancy names.
The picture is from 1907. You see the stamp "Signe Brander, 1907" . And Signe was a she, which was quite a curiosity back then. How can a woman mangage to handle such a complicated apparatus as a camera.
I can't remember what the page is where her photos are stored, but she took photos of pretty much every street in Helsinki between 1906-1913. Here's a photo from her from a really poor suburb:
I assume the above houses are long gone? I wonder how much old housing (pre say 1920 ) was demolished here.
Most of them were demolished between 1900 and 1970. They could've kept some of them. Sad to see them all go, though some more middle-class houses were saved.
I mean when you watch LA on TV and everyone is blonde with blue eyes, even in the ghetto parts of the city; It just shows American media has some diversifying to do!
Ummm no, that is simply not true. I have yet to see the media portray a cholo or a blood or crip wth blue eyes and blonde hair. LOL.
The thing is both the US and Britain are both culturally Anglo, along with the other Anglo nations they share language, TV programs, films, film stars and music, the fact is despite what many people seem to think neither the US OR the UK are filled with nothing but 'Anglo Saxon' people, they do however share a culture that is Anglo.
Most Americans are white, around 62% but most are not Anglo in heritage. The largest ethnic group is German!
America is VERY diverse
Plus that is NOT the point. The point is why is US diversity ignored outside the US.
Wrong!
The fact is that the defacto American box on the census is what most British descended Americans select. Many don't bother to denote their British ancestry. There are also Ulster Scott descendants that claim to be irish-american when in fact they're not.
Also finally Anglo-Saxon culture comes from Germany and Denmark and Anglo-Germanic people adopted the English language. Since there is this link the fact that English and not German is the official language and that the founding fathers were of predominant British ancestry, makes the US a largely Anglo society at its core and the Celtic cultures of both Ireland and Britain re-enforce this as they too adopted Anglo culture long before they set sail to the US.
Yes it's diverse but Hawaii wasn't even part of the US, it has a polynesian heritage. It's a periphery culture of the US. Compare the population of Hawaii to New England and the Virginias and Carolinas and you have your answer why the first thing that springs to your mind when you say US isn't Hawaii.
FYI: The same can be said about Americans thinking all Europeans are white. Seems like you only see the dirt in other people's laundry, time to take a good look at your own.
Last edited by Pueblofuerte; 05-29-2016 at 07:17 AM..
America still has a Puritan streak, which differentiates it from the "Anglo culture" you'll find in the Commonwealth.
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. And Signe was a she, which was quite a curiosity back then. How can a woman mangage to handle such a complicated apparatus as a camera.
