The document discusses how modern luxuries and technologies have improved the lives of even poor people compared to kings in the past. It provides examples such as: - Anyone can now have access to hot running water, global communication, the world's information, transportation, and banking with just a smartphone. - The costs of electricity, water, communication, transportation, and work have dramatically decreased due to technologies, free services, and reduced marginal costs of production. - In contrast, kings in the early 1900s required many servants and resources just for basic needs like bathing, communication, education, and travel that are now easily accessible to all.

1. The King and the Peasant
How the poor have not been mistreated by
Capitalism in the 20th and 21st Centuries
A story by David Lipschitz
17 02 20 18
And how the average poor person
is better off than the average
rich person was 30 years ago
Ie only one generation ago,
And we are rapidly catching up
In order to do anything, one needs land,
electricity, water, and brains
The luxuries in my life
My ultimate luxury is my
hot morning shower
I open a tap and hot, clean, running water,
comes out and washes me clean, and then
this water is taken away and recycled so that
it can be used again
My smart phone
I can contact anyone, anywhere in the world, and talk to
them. I can even see them. And I can send and receive
documents, including quick short messages (sms,
wattsapp, etc), to and from them
I have access to all the
information that has ever been
available to anyone anywhere
I have access to Wikipedia, a free online
encyclopedia which was created by
volunteers, who contributed over 100
million hours to its development
I can see photos and diagrams
and I can make anything
I can see my friends and colleagues and
family anywhere in the world
If I want to see a movie, or watch a play, or
go to a concert, or attend a conference, I
can do this free of charge
If I want to see what the rich are
discussing, I can get free online reports
about what happened at Davos
If I want to travel to work, I can get a taxi, without
needing to worry about maintaining the stage coach
wheels, or feeding the horses, or towing enough water
for them so that they can drink
If I want to travel 1000’s of kilo-meters, I don’t need to spend
months in preparation, months in travel and subject myself
to sickness, starvation, high-jacking, piracy, etc. I just jump
on a jet and whizz my way there in hours. And I can even get
loans and pay off the lump sum over several months or
years
If I want to pay someone, I can log into my bank and pay
them. I don’t need to get a bag of gold or silver, hire a
trusted courier to take it to them, and fret and worry about
my money until a month later when I get a reply that they
have received this money. And who knows if they actually
received it!
I can tap into satellite data and see the world and
oceans and buildings and maps free of charge. I
can get directions and route plans to and from
anywhere free of charge.
Reducing costs
The cost of making my own electricity has fallen
dramatically. In 1960, 1 watt of Photovoltaic (PV)
panels cost R700. Today it costs R7.
Marginal costs are coming
down all the time.
Marginal costs are the incremental
costs, ie the cost of making the next
item on the production line
Desalinated water costs have dropped dramatically
over the years and 1000 litres (1 kL) of Water can be
made for R12.50. Consider that bottled water costs
R3000 a kL, and water from the City of Cape Town now
costs R36 per kL for up to 6 kL and R1000 per kL over 35 kL
Communication is free and the
world’s library is freely
available at my fingertips
I can work for anyone,
anywhere, from anywhere.
With my computer or laptop or with a freely available
computer at my library or school or university,
I can do almost any kind of work for anyone
anywhere in any language
I can do Programming, psychology, politics, accounting, call
centre, administration, etc, all from the comfort of my bedroom,
and I can have meetings in air conditioned coffee shops who even
give me free Electricity so that I can work there all day. And I can
do this for R25 per hour, the cost of a cup of coffee or tea or a a
couple of litres of water or a sand which, and technically by
buying this product, my rental and electricity cost becomes zero
Google Translate translates
almost any text from any
language to any other language
I can hire people to do designs and work for me
without leaving my bedroom, or my coffee shop or
library, for example at Fiver, where for R70, I can get
1000’s of different jobs done
Wired Electricity and piped water are
luxuries. Luxuries are “robots” that do work
for us. Eg the King example and how the poor
really have not been mistreated in the age of capitalism
In 1900, the king needed people to grow forests, people to cut trees,
people to cart the trees to his castle, people to make fires to heat water,
people to build boilers for heating water, people to fill those boilers with
water, people to pump that heated water to the third floor of the tower so
that the king could have his morning shower or bath, and then other
people needed to take the waste water away. There would also be a cold
water requirement for the water closet and there would be Waste from this
WC. Perhaps 200 people would be involved in this operation. Today 1000’s
of “Kings”receive the pleasure of a hot shower and a toilet and there are
very few people running hot system
In 1900, the King didn’t have access to the world’s
library, and even if he had the huge library in his castle,
he needed a team of people and the Dewey System to find things
“quickly”. Today anyone with hand held device can freely search the entire
world’s library, and even add to that library, without needing a doctorate
In a particular subject
In 1900, if the King wanted to communicate with someone in another part of his castle,
he send a page-boy or courier with a message.
If he wanted to communicate with his army or his farms, he used a telegraph (Morse Code).
If he wanted to communucate with his empire he send ships and if storms
and pirates didn’t sink his ships and if his sailors didn’t die from scurvy,
he was lucky to get a reply 3 months later.
Today communication is free from a hand held device for everyone
In 1900, the roads that connected cuties
and the bridges that the connected the high ways to the cities were tolled.
One had to pay to use them.
Today there are freeways that anyone can use
As a poor or
“indigent” person, I
get
Free
Electricity
Water
Education
Healthcare
Medicine
Subsidized
Transport
Food
Children
Housing