My sister's email: life in 1904.My response: like life in 2008

[DebJ]

The Year is 1904

Maybe this will boggle your mind, I know it did mine! The year is 1904 ... one hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes! Here are some of the US statistics for 1904:

-The average life expectancy in the US was 47 years.
-Only 14% of the homes in the US had a bathtub.
-Only 8%of the homes had a telephone.
-A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11.00
-There were only 8,000 cars in the US, and only 144 miles of paved roads.
-The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
-Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.
-The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
-The average wage in the US was 22 cents an hour.
-The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
-A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year.
-A veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year.
-A mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
-More than 95 percent of all births in the US took place at home.
-Ninety % of all US physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."
-Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
-Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
-Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
-Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason.
-The five leading causes of death in the US were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
-The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
-The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30!
-Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
-There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
-Two of 10 US adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 % of all Americans had graduated high school.
-Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health." (Shocking!)
-Eighteen percent of households in the US had at least one full-time servant or domestic.
-There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire US

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years ... it staggers the mind.

My response to her:
This email ends, try to imagine what it will be like in another hundred years?

In another four years of Bush, we may be in Deja Vu; History Repeats itself:

only 8,000 people can afford cars and only 144 miles of road are in good paved condition.

The average wage is the inflated equivalent of 22 cents per hour

95% of all births take place at home because 95% of people can't afford medical care.

Two of ten US adults can't read or write because No Child Left Behind failures cancel all federal funding to schools. Only 6% of Americans graduate from college.

The average life expectancy is 47 years because with no earnings potential and no medical care, people are simply too worn out, sick and tired to live beyond that.

Only 14% of homes in the USA have a bathtub because the water is so polluted only the wealthy can afford to have water properly cleansed for the luxury of bathing.

Only 8% of homes have telephones because we are all monitored by Big Brother via our interactive tv sets and communicate in that fashion with each other as well.

Onyly 1.4 million of California's residents are LEGAL US citizens. The rest are illegal immigrants Bush and Co allow to work in the state for big multinational corps at less than 22 cents per hour, adjusted for inflation.

The American Flag has 45 stars because the Northeast has seceeded and become part of Canada.


Eighteen percent of households have two or more persons employed as domestics, which is one of the few job opportunities left in a world without a middle class.

Only about 230 murders are reported annually in the US, because anyone not in the top percentages of the US population is unworthy of being counted as a statistic...the rest of us are just 'resources' for the wealthy, like steel, iron, computers.

Canada forbids any American to enter their borders, as diseases and illnesses and poverty are rampant.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

1. Excellent response

Is your sister a freeper-type or a liberal?

[DebJ]

3. a liberal.

[Pig_Latin_Lover]

2. Debbie Downer!

Sorry, had to do it. Good post. :)

[DebJ]

4. Yes I even depressed myself. Thought twice about posting it

but what the hell. Gotta bitch once in a while!

[candy]

5. MY mother was born in 1904 and died in 1995---exceeded the life expectancy

My father died in 1938 of tuberculosis---he was 35.

We have it easy today compared to those days.

[Yupster]

6. True Candy

As an old history teacher, one of the things that always amazed me were how much people did back then when they were sick all the time.

S many people lived with chronic diseases and still did more than any of us today.

[hfojvt]

7. the good old days

I have a cousin William H Kiekhofer who wrote economics textbooks in 1936 and 1951. In both editions he quotes the sociologist E.A. Ross:
"Only at the bottom steps of the social staircase do men compete from hunger. Above them men work themselves into the madhouse or the grave, not for bread, but for jam on the bread."
In which year was Ross writing? - 1905
On the matter of the average life expectancy - I think it is artifically low because of higher infant mortality. If a child lived to age five, they lived about as long as we do today.For my ancestors for whom I have dates and who were born before 1820, their age at death were: 90, 78, 81, 82, 80, 64, 75, 43, and 79. In my family history research I find it quite common for people to live to be 60 or 70 in the 18th and 19th centuries.

[Ducks In A Row]

8. Email her this one change

The American Flag has 45 stars because the Northeast has seceeded and become part of Canada.

Change that to 42 stars, because the west coast is going to do the same.