Why do we have to "Work so Hard" to make a living?

[AlbertCat]

81. SLAVE OWNERS????

I don't think 18th & 19th century zeitgeists are of much use today. "Gone With the Wind" is not a documentary.

I used to design costumes, and when you do research into clothes, you get into people's daily, personal lives and activities.
I cannot imagine living in the 19th century! And the 18th century is even more unfathomable! Few of us would understand much less approve of what the most ordinary life was like back then. Some of the most common things we do now ...like, say, taking a bath, getting dressed or even writing a letter... are a huge labor intensive deal back then. Every "civilized" culture of course had a need for many servant-types. Slavery in the South, wage-slavery in the North, Upstairs-downstairs in England....The daily protocols expected of every class are mind boggling to us. There are, like, manuals on how young ladies should stand in public, youth should address older people... and so on.

I'm not defending slavery or servants.. but slave owners "always" complaining is not true. And wealthy people up North didn't "fritter away their days" or complain about the help?

Sounds like a pretty lousy and not very scholarly talk you remember.