Didn't someone do the math and determine that, adjusted for inflation, Bob Cratchett was making like $20 / hour, which was so sinfully miserly that God sent spirits to intervene?
That's correct. We're making less today than peasants used to make.
From my Christmas 2020 sentiments: This year, Ignorance and Want are not mere wastrel wretches clinging to the ankles of a Christmas spirit,^†^ rather they are massive kaiju, towering over us all, with a fell, desiccating breath and a petrifying gaze brought fully to bare. And as I write they thunder across the countryside razing human civilization like Godzilla leveling Tokyo.
† passage here. Note it's not a secure site.
I have sadly had the unfortunate occurrence of two separate companies I've worked for just completely cancel the holiday bonus. I thought it was a fluke the first time but it is a trend when private equity buys the company you work for.
I don't work at those places anymore. They can suck a yule log.
Be the ghost you want to see in the world
True trickle down ectonomics.
More like trickle treat economy
Trickle up economics
Odd that they bring up the Charles Dickins story, when litteral Christmas was about knocking on the doors of rich people and beating the fuck out of them if they didn't provide enough money or drink, then getting drunk together in the town square or the rich peoples houses.
Curiously A Christmas Carol was what started the modern retail-centric rites of Christmas celebrations: prezzies, house parties and feasts.
Also at the time Dickens wrote it, industrial bosses were grudging about making it a work holiday, like Scrooge, often mandating reporting for work and penalizing those who didn't.
These days we might add a spin on it, that the ghosts are of bosses past who failed to mind the welfare of their workers, only to be brutally turned into the ghosts they are today, and finding the afterlife not to their liking.
Here we come a' wassailing, motherfucker
Reminds me of my favorite verse (from MST3K):
If the person who you sing to can't provide the wassail
Then you are entitled to his debit card and PIN number
Love and joy come to you, unless you can't provide the wassail
Then severe financial penalty shall come to you
Then severe financial penalty to you
Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.
Rule: You must post before you leave.
