How would you earn a living?

[Fading Fast]

That makes sense to me. I bet my lifestyle, based on what I know of the career I have now and what I think I could have had then, would be surprisingly similar (adjusted for what middle class New Yorker meant then versus now). Less space, but a part-time servant seems the tradeoff of the time.

It's funny to see old movies where a single person or couple is literally barely living paycheck to paycheck, yet they'll have a live in or full-time servant and no one even questions it.

 

[dh66]

Fortunately I learned the plumbing trade before plastic pipe became the de facto material.of choice, so I could still do my same job working with the old iron and steel and copper pipes.

Maybe though, at 6'3", 230 lb, and fairly covered in tattoos, I'd have stuck out enough from the Joe Six pack of the time (as opposed to now) that I could've had a pretty good career with the traveling sideshow. Wouldn't that've been a cool way to see the country back in the day.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fortunately I learned the plumbing trade before plastic pipe became the de facto material.of choice, so I could still do my same job working with the old iron and steel and copper pipes.

Maybe though, at 6'2", 230 lb, and fairly covered in tattoos, I'd have stuck out enough from the Joe Six pack of the time (as opposed to now) that I could've had a pretty good career with the traveling sideshow. Wouldn't that've been a cool way to see the country back in the day.

That's a great point. How many of us have careers that we'd basically have to re-learn as the new technology has superannuated the old skills. Like you, I got into my career when it was still "old fashion." I learned how to calculate returns by hand, how to figure arbitrage in my head, etc. I know how to gauge another trader's reaction on the phone and how to sense a crowd on the floor of the exchange is chaining its opinion. I can carry insane amounts of numbers in my head and can remember prices from a year ago - all things done by computers today. Today's traders and money managers are very talented people, but drop them back in the '30s and they would have to re-learn their trade.

You'd probably be mistaken for a former sailer with your tattoos back then as that seemed to be who had tattoos then.

 

[dh66]

That's a pretty funny observation. As recently as the late 80s, the (very)occasional curious observer would ask me if I had been in the navy. These days nearly every time I go to the store someone asks me if I work in a tattoo shop. Funny how perceptions change, and even more so how people's inhibitions about getting into a strangers business have gone by the wayside.

But perhaps that discussion belongs in a different thread.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I learned to type in school on a manual typewriter, and used one for my entire career in radio. Not much to relearn there. And I learned film projection on the old carbon-arc projectors, so I could slide right back into that without a thought.

I can also operate a linotype, and set type by hand with a compositor's stick, both skills which would be handy around a newspaper office.

 

[Harp]

Today's traders and money managers are very talented people, but drop them back in the '30s and they would have to re-learn their trade.

I would take Teweles and Jones' The Futures Game; and Teweles' other work, The Stock Market with me. :coffee:

 

[Edward]

My academic expertise would still be of use - there were certainly law faculties around then, if fewer of them. Assuming my credentials could be convincingly reproduced for the period, the main thing I'd have to do would be to relearn the law in my area. My field being Media Law, a surprising amount of what I now teach is radically different now than when I was an undergraduate in the mid nineties. In one of my key areas, though - defamation - prior to the Defamation Act 2013, there was virtually zero change in the law for about eighty years. I'd probably be able to use my knowledge of future legal developments in a way which would inform my writing and make it seem a lot more visionary than it actually is.

I'm not sure exactly how well paid I would be - though likely it would still be significantly better than the average wage. Certainly I'd be much more likely to have administrative support to a greater degree than I do now. My lifestyle in general would be much less pressured, with much less pressure to publish in quantity and in the 'right' journals. Teaching would be much more important than the sector has viewed it over the last twenty years, and there would be much less pressure brought to bear in financial terms. There would be none of this "student as customer" nonsense.

For the most part, I'd hate to live in the thirties, but I suspect my working environment would be much easier all round.

 

[Dragon Soldier]

I'd starve.

 

[Fading Fast]

I learned to type in school on a manual typewriter, and used one for my entire career in radio. Not much to relearn there. And I learned film projection on the old carbon-arc projectors, so I could slide right back into that without a thought.

I can also operate a linotype, and set type by hand with a compositor's stick, both skills which would be handy around a newspaper office.

Of all the people on earth - all of them, every single one - my money is on you adjusting the best of anyone if we were transported back to the 1930s. Hands down, no questions asked, no time needed to think about my answer. If you would give me your number, I'd be calling everyday for guidance: "Lizzie, how do I do this, wash that, fix this, interpret that? Great, thank you, I'll call again in about an hour when I need more help."

 

[LuvMyMan]

I'd starve.

So far, a real honest answer! lol!

 

[LuvMyMan]

I would have to work for any large firm doing auditing or accounting.

My Husband would have either owned a machine shop, or commercial building as he has of late.

Back in the day however, some could make extra for competition dancing....we would have been out there shaking a leg as the team we have always been, even if it was to only make a few extra dollars.....

 

[1930artdeco]

For me I have three options. One of which pays better than the other two. The first option I have is the Good ol' USAF and working on aircraft. Does not pay all that much but it is a solid job and it has good benefits. The second one is going to work for Boeing or some other aircraft manufacturer pays really well and is union. My last option is working for the Feds. Again does not pay much but has a good retirement. Don't forget at the same time I am adjusting to my new job I will also be in full freak mode adjusting to the times (i.e. language, markets, communication etc.). And if none of the these pan out there is always the local Ford Dealer as a salesman or mechanic.

Mike

 

[DesertDan]

The technology/tools/techniques differences would not be an issue for me. Working around/with asbestoes would be.

 

[Guttersnipe]

That's a great point. How many of us have careers that we'd basically have to re-learn as the new technology has superannuated the old skills. Like you, I got into my career when it was still "old fashion." I learned how to calculate returns by hand, how to figure arbitrage in my head, etc. I know how to gauge another trader's reaction on the phone and how to sense a crowd on the floor of the exchange is chaining its opinion. I can carry insane amounts of numbers in my head and can remember prices from a year ago - all things done by computers today. Today's traders and money managers are very talented people, but drop them back in the '30s and they would have to re-learn their trade.

Reading through this thread, I was thinking about this. While I was taught calculate NPV, FV CAGR, etc. by hand, I seriously doubt that I could do my job without Excel. I'd need a serious refresher course in what I learned my first year of business school.

Another issue is, how many 21st century office workers could function in a typewriter world? No spellchecker, no grammar check and no backspace. Honestly, I'd have no hope.

 

[Two Types]

As an author whose work is out of fashion now, I'd be really struggling in the late thirties - my style would be even more unpopular. My chances of living well off my wife (my current situation) would be fairly unlikely. It looks like I might be another one on the breadline ....

... so with no job, no prospects and a naturally rebellious streak, it looks like I'm heading off to fight in Spain.

 

[Guttersnipe]

... so with no job, no prospects and a naturally rebellious streak, it looks like I'm heading off to fight in Spain.

Only after trying your luck in the Imperial Indian Police, of course

 

[LizzieMaine]

Reading through this thread, I was thinking about this. While I was taught calculate NPV, FV CAGR, etc. by hand, I seriously doubt that I could do my job without Excel. I'd need a serious refresher course in what I learned my first year of business school.

Another issue is, how many 21st century office workers could function in a typewriter world? No spellchecker, no grammar check and no backspace. Honestly, I'd have no hope.

This is along the lines of what I mean about not having been born into this world -- the gulf between those of us who were adults pre-computer age and those who've come of age since is far more vast than the years would indicate. It's a matter not just of technology, but of mindset.

I still keep a collegiate dictionary at my desk, and I can't stand spellcheck, grammar check, or any kind of check that doesn't come in the mail once a month. I've got all those modern tools available, but it just doesn't feel natural to me to use them. Someone who came to adulthood in the '90s would likely be just the opposite.

 

[Shangas]

Backspace exists. It just doesn't do what people think it does.

 

[Shangas]

An apartment like that in the Era would probably have been occupied by two or three single petty white-collar workers as roommates, or a family with the parents in one bedroom and the kids in the other. It would have been very much a working-class type of residence -- a step up from the lower-class tenements that were torn down to build it.

The middle class in the Era was defined as families employing at least one servant, usually a cook-housekeeper. She wasn't necessarily a live-in, but she would be there. A wife who "did her own work" was considered working-class.

...

Most people in the Era lived very simple, quiet, entirely non-glamorous lives and made less than $1500 a year. That's the equivalent of about $25,000 a year today. But they also didn't have the standards of consumption that modern people have -- you weren't considered an oddball if you didn't own a car, a house, or a telephone.

I would be quite happy living alone in an apartment of my own. Keeping things simple. I hate complexity. I wonder if you could buy your furniture secondhand back then? If so I'd probably have a lot of that stuff. Our family has a history of having domestic service. We used to employ a housemaid but dad thought it wasn't worth the money. We haven't had one for years. My uncles and aunts all have their own housemaids/cooks.

Back in the day, my grandmother and grandfather had their own housemaid/nanny to work for them, and they certainly weren't what you'd call 'rich'. They got by, but it was a struggle.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Secondhand furniture stores -- called exactly that, not "thrift stores," not "consignment boutiques," or any of that nonsense -- were extremely common and popular during the Era. It was very common for the average working-class home to be furnished with second-hand pieces dating back to the days of Grover Cleveland, mixed in with hand-me-downs from parents and the occasional newly-purchased item from Sears and Roebuck. Few real-world homes had that glossy decorator-styled look you see in the household magazines, especially during the Depression. And during the war it didn't get much fancier, with most people making do with what they had until the war was over.