>>10165
Actually there is an excuse for that.
everyone could afford reasonable living standards even in the Victorian age, hundreds years ago. there was enuogh of resources for everyone But government deliberately made extra effort to make lives miserable by spending extra money on making them miserable. and it was because otherwise nobody would be doing jobs where your life expectancy is less than a year before you get sick and die.
So they did everything to make life bad enuogh to make people think that taking that kind of job is preferable to living on welfare.

Not much changed today, just that modern jobs let you stay alive for a little bit longer.