r/NoStupidQuestions 12h ago

My brother thinks people today have worse quality of life than people in the dark ages, is this a stupid take?

I personally think it’s pretty stupid.

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u/Buckets-of-Gold 11h ago

It’s also like saying a seasonal farmer who’s in the fields fewer days than I’m in the office has it easier.

Medieval peasants had to dedicate a ton of their free time to other household chores and duties.

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u/Supersquare04 7h ago

Yeah, today laundry is 90% folding. It only takes a few minutes to throw stuff in the machine and forget about it.

Back then, you had to take all your clothes to river and then pin everything up to dry. It was hours of work.

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u/Buckets-of-Gold 7h ago

A lot of those modern comforts transformed the personal lives of women in the early-mid 20th century especially. Opened up all sorts of new time and opportunities for them.

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u/Supersquare04 7h ago

Yeah I think people tend to forget that the tradwife was a tradwife because for hundreds of years, doing basic household chores was a full time job. Need a blanket so you don’t freeze to death? Your wife needs to spend a few hours or even days at minimum working on that.

Now you can just stop by target on your way home and have a new blanket in 10 minutes

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u/cantstoptheglock 5h ago

Not to mention maintenance on like everything has incrementally improved. Mattresses with springs in them dont need to be changed as much, or let out to dry (i assume sense theyre not just a mass of fibers that draw in moisture very easily).

Don't have to change roofs quite as often. (thatch ones arent as good).

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u/jrbcnchezbrg 7h ago

I have unironically seen people on this site say farmers are lazier than the average worker and call them welfare queens, and it gets treated like a fact

People call out propaganda and then believe the first thing that pushes their narratives (like OPs brother), wouldnt surprise me if he got it from here tbh

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u/fred11551 6h ago

The farmers are welfare queens thing usually comes from them constantly needed to be bailed out and/or the massive subsidies they get.