How was it possible for an average middle class man to support

>>3187821
>How was it possible for an average middle class man to support a wife and kids by himself from ~1815 to ~1970
It wasn't. In the 19thC 90% of the population were in, by modern standards, third world poverty.
The vast majority of women went out to work, as did the vast majority of the children.
The lifestyle you describe was enjoyed by a tiny minority.

>>3187821
Husband, wife, and children all worked 14 hours a day in a factory in the 19th century.

>>3187886
>>3187844

>R*ddit """""history""""


>16% of white women worked for pay in 1890

https://www.bu.edu/econ/files/2012/11/olivetti_chapter_November2013_complete.pdf

>>3187936
of the total population or urban population?

>>3187949

Total population, according to census data. Note that I'm clearly talking about women becoming wagecucks as opposed to working the family farm/business.

>>3188013
>women becoming wagecucks
That's a slightly different proposition to women not working at all. Does the census record agricultural labour, casual labour, sweatshops, domestic help?

>>3188041

They're counting working for any kind of pay.

>>3187821
>1875
>No water company
>No gas
>No electricity

If you're rural like 3 out of 4 Americans at the time:
>Build house out of blocks of sod
>Feed family from your garden, chicken coop, and fishing pond
>Repair and mend everything.
>EVERYTHING!

or if you're in a crowded eastern city
>Live in a 14ftx12ft tenement with your wife, your three kids, and your mother-in-law
>Sleep in the same bed with everyone
>Work 12 hours a day 6 days a week in a sweatshop
>Can't believe your good luck. Sundays off!

File: 4962000947_1edea6765b_b[1].jpg (136KB, 1024x698px) Image search: [Google]

136KB, 1024x698px

>>3190382
Pic related. This, and not OP pic, is the dwelling of the American everyman of this era.

>>3188013
Wow, it's almost as if the majority of rural labor wasn't made for pay but for essential shit that a household needed to live, and also i doubt that the book could include activities like the small scale trade of textiles and distribution of surplus to local markets, unpaid jobs associated with rural women in non-industrialized societies.

t. Thirdworlder who has a family that works the fields in a country where most of the farmers haven't even seen a truck.

>>3187821
In the 1930's, my Grandfather made $1 per day as a mechanic at the cotton mill.

>>3190391
Comfy desu

>>3187821
>Ok, why did they start working?
In a purely economic sense locking off half your possible workforce out of tradition is not a particulalry good idea, plus working allows you to gain money, which you can exchange for goods and services.

>>3187821
The labour pool has increased, and technological innovations have eliminated jobs, where previously they created jobs, meaning there's a surplus of labour and a deficeit of jobs, meaing that labour has become devalued, lowering salaries.

>>3187936
wow you really showed them amerishart, a study of the united sharting of ameriburgeristan, thats TRULY the world

fuck you and die in cancer

>>3190560
A middle class only existed in the developed western world, reddit roastie

File: a88.png (61KB, 500x514px) Image search: [Google]

61KB, 500x514px

>>3190531
>In a purely economic sense
>shilling for lower wages

>>3190560
Foreigners are retarded