It makes me wonder how companies managed to stay in business when there was lack of purchasing power and goods usually cost way more than today compared to the average salaries.
So people wouldn’t buy a lot of new products and generally products lasted longer.
How did companies make money during this period before mass consumption became normal and products started to be sold by the millions?
In: Economics
Well small businesses and companies flourished, because you didn’t have huge overhead to start a business or giant international conglomerates to compete against. You could get land and buildings way more easily, access more raw materials straight from the land.
But more importantly: You could get by with way less economic activity in the olden days. Yes we are spoiled today by a higher standard of living, but also society raised the bare minimum you’re able to do. Vagrancy is criminalized, yet owning a house is out of the question for poor people. So you literally can’t just have a sewing business where you make enough for food and clothes and have a simple life, because now there is a threshhold of $200,000 to own a house in most cities. In my city it’s been illegal to build a house under 900 sq ft or with primitive materials or on a lot that already has another house on it for many many generations. Homeless people aren’t allowed to build a shack in their friend’s yard by law; they have to be homeless, pay rent, or somehow make hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a house.
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