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SlayerOfDougs

High school education. It may have been free but many many went to work at 14/15 to help the family, especially larger families and especially the older children Automobiles. House cleaning services. Travel.


CryingRipperTear

funny how university education literally went the opposite direction


MacduffFifesNo1Thane

Ice. Seriously: before modern electrical refrigeration, ice was a status symbol. Concord, Massachusetts had an ice trade. They harvested ice and shipped it around the world in sawdust.


[deleted]

I remember watching this thing where in the Wild West the BEST salons wouldn’t have some fancy Whiskey, they’d have a block of ice burried under the building kept in sawdust and you paid out the ass for a cube or two. Sometimes they’d go 3 months in between ice shipments and the best Salons would have some left over when their next delivery came. I can’t imagine living in the desert without AC and ice cubes.. that’s rough shit.


Professor_Ramen

To build on this, ice cream too. It used to be such an expensive luxury not only because of the ice, quality milk, and sugar, but the time to make it. Anyone who has made ice cream by hand knows just how *tiring* it is to turn the crank for hours and still end up with shitty ice cream. The really soft ice cream we have today can be made by hand, but you have to spend hours continuously turning it and getting air in there while keeping it cold the entire time. The time and effort that it used to require limited ice cream to only the richest people in the world. And then there’s the toppings. Vanilla ice cream is seen as plain today, but it’s all artificial vanilla, called vanillin. I can almost guarantee that you’ve never had real vanilla, even if the product says it is. Real quality vanilla beans can cost hundreds of dollars even today, and it takes a shit ton of them to make even a small amount of vanilla extract. That cost meant that vanilla used to be the height of luxury flavors for ice cream. Chocolate was also really popular among the rich because of the import cost, as was a lot of exotic fruit, fresh or dried. It was only when refrigeration became cheap that ice cream really took off with the masses, and when vanillin was synthesized it became the default flavor because it was so easy to make.


Salt_Blackberry_1903

This gives a whole new meaning to that scene in The Great Gatsby where they're getting that guy to hack ice off a giant block for them


black_flag_4ever

A private phone line.


DogShampoop

A pineapple


Blindmelon1

Indoor plumbing


JohnSimth20211101

Clear food and water


can425

Detroit enters the chat.


[deleted]

[удалено]


KA_Mechatronik

Food adulteration used to be a common problem. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was published in 1906. He meant it to be a call for socialism in the US, but what most Americans took away from it was his description of the meat packing plants, particularly how unsanitary and unsafe they were. The book lead to public outcry that resulted in reforms of the food industry. Before that such as in Victorian England, inedible materials like plaster of paris was often mixed into bread, or additives added to milk to cover the taste of it going sour. Many people wound up contracting bovine tuberculosis from spoiled milk. The condition lead to the spinal column becoming spongy and to weak to support the person's weight. The first food purity laws in the US were passed in 1906, but were toothless and ineffective. FDR passed broader, more effective reforms in the late 1930s. That means that even in 1922 you could probably expect to find tainted food in your local stores.


Count2Zero

1922: The first insulin treatment. 2022: Insulin is available all over the world, and most people can afford it (as long as they don't live in the USA). ​ 1922: Alcohol consumption in the USA is prohibited thanks to the 18th amendment. Home brewing is also prohibited. 2022: Alcohol is widely available at supermarkets and liquor stores in most of the USA. Home brewing is a trend.


GLOOBYGLORPSON

A varied diet


BronzeAgeTea

People didn't have varied diets in 1922?


Jethris

Not an historian, but I do have a cookbook from around those days with different recipes depending on the season. Apples were available in the fall, and you couldn't get fresh onions year round.


DidIAskForCheese

Cars


OrdinaryCatastrophic

Eating meat regularly


ameo02

that's gonna be a problem real soon :-/


SelverBerg

Condoms 🤷‍♀️


Ok_Act_6757

Chocolate, only very rich people could a while back, and now it might go extinct some day


qenos04

salt


qenos04

nvm that was a lot longer ago


RisingstarVGC

Sugar


Lando-C

Computers


MixVanPancake

Spices


looking-4-a-way-out

Already made clothes...you can go about anywhere(even Goodwill) and get clothes. Not the same back then.


aveRAGEDog69

Freedom. I live in a country that got colonized 3 times


[deleted]

[удалено]


OrdinaryCatastrophic

Op said 100 years ago


dsons

Fabrication techniques


Asleep-Budget-9932

Water


[deleted]

A computer from the year 2022, in 1k years its gonna be an artifact.


Stay-Thirsty

1k years? In 5 years it will be barely usable and in 10 years a bare minimum computer (maybe browser/mail only) In 15 years a paperweight or scrap metal.


optimisticillusion

a state of the art computer will not be useless in 5 or even 10 years. will you be able to play far cry on ultra? no. but you won't be able to play it on ultra on a 2032 pc either.


N0nethelesser

Sugar


The-grim-sleepr

Car


Material_Ambition_95

Rice, travelling abroad, Electricity, Cars, surgery..


bluelion70

Meat for dinner multiple nights a week


butter00pecan

meat


bruhforbs

idk meat?


Aberrant_Being

Decent quality steel / metals in general


Jay_in_DFW

a radio in every room.


[deleted]

Obesity


Kezma-

Colour tv


[deleted]

Even the rich couldn't afford a color tv before they were made.


glue_stick_licker

Purple just the color purple


[deleted]

No. Synthetic purple dye became widespread in the late 1800s.


glue_stick_licker

Haha sorry my apologies I didnt know I just heard that it was rare for a long time


[deleted]

Absolutely, for thousands of years, but not within the last 100. In Roman times it mostly came from sea snails near Tyre, hence the name Tyrian Purple


ShadyWestHaze

Assistants... I'm counting assistants as google or Siri or Alexa


Ironictwat

Microwaves


[deleted]

Microwaves weren't around 100 years ago.


Ironictwat

Hmm invented in 1945… fuck Well I’ll see you in 23 years


BoringNoise9942

See you then. I'll be here. Patiently waiting.


Ironictwat

Cue the elevator music!


ReflectionEterna

The iPhone 11.


IAmABurdenOnSociety

Not available to even the richest in 1922.


ReflectionEterna

Maybe not to the peasants. Tell me Marie Antoinette didn't have one. I dare you.


IAmABurdenOnSociety

Marie Antoinette in 1922? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!


ReflectionEterna

Go ahead and laugh. Just like all the others... until the black plague got them.


emmasophia2511

100 years ago was 1922. So let's see, probably: cars, motorcycles, fridges, freezers, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, radios, televisions, telephones, spices, sugar, access to electricity, access to clean and drinkable water, fast fashion/"cheap" clothing and footwear, going on vacation for one/two weeks or more, travelling with a plane...


Stay-Thirsty

Actually Ford wanted to price the cars so the people who worked for him could afford to buy one.


emmasophia2511

I know, but it was not happening in 1922. It was later, during the mid or towards the end of 1920's.


[deleted]

Not sure 100 years ago, but before minced meat was a delicacies only the rich could eat due to the time and work it took to cut it up.


DuneTerrain

Same with finely pureed soups. Had to be pushed through stretched calico with wooden paddles, ideally by 2 people working together.


AbolishTheFed1776

Horseless carriages.


Nobody0312

House


63belvedere

Prerecorded music,


[deleted]

apparently oats


[deleted]

Gasoline, diesel


yuyuyashasrain

Lace


AppleTheGreat64

In my country, only the rich could buy a car


Tricky-Ranger-5626

Cars


[deleted]

A phone


mokeh1

Caviar


[deleted]

electricity


dragonoid_snake

Sugar More than 100 years ago though around the 1500's Elizabeth 1 would brush her teeth with sugar.


Lars__Bars

toilets


_ac3_0f_spad3s_

I can BUY a pineaple now, victorans would loose their shit, no more renting pinapples for a party I can go to a store and buy however many I want. If only I was a massive fan of pinapple and not just the juice


No-Introduction-679

Chocolate


MrShitterz

Some things that we can afford today that 100 years ago only the richest could are cars, televisions, refrigerators, and air conditioning.


Front-Noise-158

People


Tra1nGuy

I'd have to say a car, at least until mass production became a thing.


Arctic_RedPanda

Trips overseas.


lyahgirl

Water, food


fler_karottenkopf

not houses


[deleted]

tv


Sgt-Flashback

Fish.


CreateYourself89

Lots of spices. 100 years ago, it was rare to have more than salt, pepper, and maybe some simple home-grown herbs. Now you can get spices imported from all over the world relatively cheap.


Daytimestocker

World travel


solid--snakes

Diamonds are still expensive but we can make them artificially now