"Bloody Peasant!"
Posted on 11/19/2016 9:10:05 PM PST by nickcarraway
Medieval peasants had far more vacation days than the average American today.
The peasant, although often toiling in fields with back-breaking labor, would only work about 150 days of the year, according to a report from Juliet B. Schor, an author and professor of sociology at Boston College.
Peasants generally received anywhere from eight weeks to a half-year off. At the time, the Church considered frequent and mandatory holidays the key to keeping a working population from revolting.
So why do we often consider working conditions now better than ever before?
In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into effect. The law initially limited working hours to 44 per week, which dropped to 40 by 1940. The passage of the act however, was not revolutionary. It was reactionary.
Worker’s revolts and union strikes in the early 20th century had aimed to restore a standard of life that was taken away by the Industrial Revolution. Before the invention of the lightbulb and the growth of factories, workers enjoyed a fairly leisurely and balanced lifestyle.
Before electricity, workers were limited to how much they could work by the rising and setting of the sun. Then, workers were limited by the amount of hours they could spend in the office. In today’s digital culture, workers can meet deadlines and check in from around the world, no matter what time.
In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that by 2030, Americans would enjoy such great lifestyles that we would all enjoy more leisure than work time—which, at this point in history, seems very unlikely to happen.
Americans aren’t even taking the vacation days they’re offered. And there are endless studies suggesting that longer working hours are decreasing both employee productivity and health.
So go ahead: Take all your vacation days and cross off your bucket list travels. And if you ever feel guilty about skipping out of work, just remember that you’re still probably working way more than a medieval peasant.
They also starved during the winter while hoping their supply of peat would last until spring.
"Bloody Peasant!"
There’s that!!!
Plus from my backbreaking experience doing 70 hours a week at a desk, I would get hangnails at LEAST once every few weeks!
And I bet the peasants had MUCH better health insurance, disability pay, paid sick days paid vacation days and vending machines than me!!
Yes, they got those masks to ward off evil spirits, WITH NO COPAY!!
lol
The masks dont work. Look at me.
“The peasant, although often toiling in fields with back-breaking labor, would only work about 150 days of the year...”
So THAT was obama’s plan! In my area there has been a huge increase in vacation days; based on the boom of homeless encampments.
He’s always looking out for the people! :)
Leeches and maggots are making a comeback
Exactly.
They worked when the weather allowed. And they had to hustle to lay in supplies for the winter.
Apparently so! There’s another thread on this. I guess that’s Obamacare at its best. LOL
Maybe you lived until you were 40 if you were lucky
lol!
Driverless cars that can take in 34 trillion bits of information a second and we need leeches to save limbs.
Were they called racist, sexist, homophobes by their Monarchy?
Pray America woke
When you think about it, it makes sense. An agrarian economy is labor-intensive for some parts of the year but is usually pretty well-paced for the rest of the time.
Lame Cherry
I bet that an objective reassessment of the Middle ages, minus the hysterical anti-clerical propaganda, would prove that in some ways those times were more civilized than today.
For a bleeding wound, the application of fresh pig's dung.
For jaundice, sheep's dung and beer, left overnight and then drunk.
To prevent marking in smallpox, sheep's dung and wine, left overnight then drunk.
For gout, a plaster made from pigeon dung.
For canker in a woman's breast and baldness, goose dung.
To help hearing, a grey eel left to decay in horse dung and inserted into the ears.
For cramps, an eel tied around the affected area.
For toothache, a bruised cat's ear put on the tooth for three days.
The cure for a sore throat, threading live worms and wear as a necklace around the throat.
The peasant diet was largely meat-free. Except on high days and holidays the poor ate a pottage of oats flavoured with leeks, onions or peas, and barley bread and perhaps a little cheese. Worms cost nothing and added a touch of meat protein to the diet.
*Taken from the book: "The Worst Jobs in History" by Tony Robinson. 2004.
They had to produce as much crop as they could because they were required to pay the lord for the rent of the land they farmed.
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