Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Spoiling the plot

If you are reading this you are of unfortunately afflicted with the worst curse to ever afflict man-kind, being alive in the most unfair, inequitable, and doomed period of human existence, the 21st century. Proof can always be found here, here, here, here, and of course here.

Imagine your surprise at reading this:

Personal information from the (1911) census, which has been put online for the first time, paints a picture of a society that is in many ways, unrecognisable from modern Britain.

People did different jobs, lived considerably shorter lives and existed in a society that was vastly less equitable, according to 1911 Census - the oldest from which the original forms were kept.

Noted:

In 1911, the leading occupational category for workers in England and Wales was domestic service, said Mark Pearsall, a records specialist and expert in family history at the National Archives.

Some 1.3 million people worked as domestic servants, he said, compared to a "tiny proportion" today. That was followed by agriculture (1.2 million) and coal mining (971,000).

Figures from a 2008 labour force survey showed that 1.6 million work as sales assistants and retail cashiers; 1.4 million as 'functional managers - such as those employed in sales and marketing, personnel and information technology - and 1.3 million in teaching. There are no longer enough coal miners to even register on the survey.

Almost 100 years ago, the richest one per cent of the population held around 70 per cent of the nation's wealth; today it is about 23 per cent.
The horrors of modern-day living in a western European country, why can't we all just go back to those simpler, happier times .....

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