Submitted 3 weeks ago by Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net to [deleted]
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/bfa036d9-7f44-4f46-aac9-5cb861d14479.png
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get my cancerous scrotum looked at coughs up chimney dust
I pulled up the Wikipedia article for the 4 penny coffins and found that George Orwell is one of the references for it. Thought that was interesting. Here’s the page en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_penny_coffin
The reference is from his first book which was all about his experiences living with the downtrodden in Paris and London. In fact that’s why he used the pen name George Orwell - he didn’t want to risk harming the reputation of his middle class family.
… the coffin house was popular because it offered an economical and mid-range solution for homeless clients …
What a nice humanitarian gesture these are. Something Bill Gates would do instead of paying his taxes.
Another great source is Henry Mayhew’s “London Labour and the London Poor”. …wikipedia.org/…/London_Labour_and_the_London_Poo…
If you let capitalism go unrestrained and unregulated and uncontrolled.
Capitalist would be more than be happy to reintroduce slave labour, child labour and farming humans for slavery much like they do cattle or horses.
And do you own a house? A car? Property? … even if you think you do, are you paying a mortgage or loan payments for these things? … then you are not a capitalist. Even if you do own these things without any loan, chances are that if you are not a millionaire, you will eventually lose these things anyway.
You and I would end up being one of those people that would end up as slaves to be bought and sold.
People don’t want to work anymore, they just want to lay in wooden boxes all day.
I wanted to lay in a wooden box all day before it was cool
Remember, kids! Unregulated capitalism is not your friend!
That was a nice read. Thanks for sharing!
14 gallons per year? Rookie numbers! I drank more than that on a single 7-day binge!
This quote is from a later period, but it reminded me of it:
When he was a serf, they said to him, “Let me find you in this field: I will hang you if I find you in anyone else’s field.” But now he is a tramp they say to him, “You shall be jailed if I find you in anyone else’s field: but I will not give you a field.” They say, “You shall be punished if you are caught sleeping outside your shed: but there is no shed.” If you say that modern magistracies could never say such mad contradictions, I answer with entire certainty that they do say them. A little while ago two tramps were summoned before a magistrate, charged with sleeping in the open air when they had nowhere else to sleep. But this is not the full fun of the incident. The real fun is that each of them eagerly produced about twopence, to prove that they could have got a bed, but deliberately didn’t. To which the policeman replied that twopence would not have got them a bed: that they could not possibly have got a bed: and therefore (argued that thoughtful officer) they ought to be punished for not getting one. The intelligent magistrate was much struck with the argument: and proceeded to imprison these two men for not doing a thing they could not do. But he was careful to explain that if they had sinned needlessly and in wanton lawlessness, they would have left the court without a stain on their characters; but as they could not avoid it, they were very much to blame.
The desperate man to-day can do nothing. For you cannot agree with a maniac who sits on the bench with the straws sticking out of his hair and says, “Procure threepence from nowhere and I will give you leave to do without it.”
(GK Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils)
Damn, that rope’s pretty posh by 2025 standards…
George Orwell wrote about his experiences with those in Down and Out in Paris and London. It’s a decent book and an interesting look at poverty of the day.
Is that true? Did they really sleep on the ropes like that?
I find that hard to believe. The ground would be more comfortable.
except, the ground is outside in the freezing london winter, during an age with draconian ‘move along’ laws that mean you’d be hassled by cops all night. ground would be more comfortable, that’s why the coffin costs 4 pennies.
There would be blood loss to the limbs and nerve damage from any appreciable time strung out like that.
No, it’s a scene from a movie.
Not like the picture. The rope was more to stop you falling off the bench where you were sitting up asleep.
For an extra penny [than a one penny sit up] you could pay to sleep literally hanging over a rope. This was possibly marginally more comfortable, as if you fell asleep the rope would prevent you from slipping onto the floor or head-butting the bench in front of you.
This was basically like Victorian pre-mobility (trains/metro) for this class, so people could commute only as far they could reasonably walk in a day. And offerings & prices prob varied.
The rope trick sounds like a good idea to out on a plane
Oh great, thanks for that suggestion. 6 months from now when airlines bring out the “no seat just a rope” economy option, we’ll know who to blame.
Well sitting is bad for your health anyway! Human body wasnt meant for sitting
Libs: Is this Abundance™?
This is an example of capitalism providing an economical solution where no one else did.
Sure it sucks, but at least they can get a minimum level of safety while on the 10 year wait list for government housing.
What the fuck? This is an example of the extreme commodification of poverty and the state’s failure to protect its citizens.
It’s neither. I don’t remember the context exactly but none of the text on the picture is true.
As compared to today, where we humanely let homeless people sleep under bridges instead
Its a states failure to protect its citizens but its not a commodificaton of poverty. Poverty has always had value and always been a commodity. They aren’t creating the poverty or the circumstances that would perpetuate it. They’re just fulfilling a need so its really no harm.
You’re getting massively down voted. I really feel like this is a huge obstacle to mitigating poverty in the first world. People focus on appearances; getting rid of things that look poor even when they actually help people.
Yes, it’s upsetting to see people taking such desperate measures. But those measures were taken in response to desperate need. If you fixed the need, then they would go away on their own. If you need to apply force to remove them, then you have not.
It’s the same reason people oppose public transit, dense housing, and informal businesses. Things that are just part of life in the third world. But wealthy and middle class westerners have decided on behalf of poor westerners that poor westerners are top good for them.
nice try comrade!
idegenszavak@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
The lower photo is a BTS from the Great Train Robbery movie, from 1978:
www.snopes.com/…/hangover-drunken-sailors-ropes/