Talk:Cost of Living in Ankh-Morpork

The division of the dollar

is assumed to be decimal, but I've seen 240 19th-century pence proposed, which makes sense with a large currency unit. There are references to shillings, sixpences, guineas and such non-decimal fractions through the books; no 10p or 25p coins. Is 12p about one-eighth of a dollar, or just a shilling? One twentieth of your £40 is $4, the very price of the typical cheap fast-food special here (nameless meat, of course.) On the other hand, the bill for an eavestrough downpipe at the Watch House is $16.35 so Pterry isn't making this easy, again. (It also seems like a lot. I wouldn't like to pay $600+ for 10 meters of tubing and four clamps. Government pricing, perhaps.)

Living and Living Large

The $30/mo. recruit should get $1.07 /day (decimal) or $1/1/5 over a (400 day) year of 350 working days. Whichever system is used, the few pence at the end will actually buy something. The five pence might buy a meal adequate to prevent starvation, a newspaper or a show.

Some prices sound like our (great-)grandfathers' day, as 5p for the Odium (a NickelOdium), but there seems to be a large trade in penny items and even less. Then there's a logarithmic rise to luxury items which seem pricey even to us. A-M's dense population and lively immigration keep commodity and labor prices down, but raise real estate prices and rents. The large lower-middle class can live tolerably in cramped quarters but with few luxuries. Early 19th-century European industrial cities should have had a similarly wide range between subsistence and even upper-middle class comfort.

Topsy Lavish may have been thinking of what she paid the scullery maid beyond board and room. The usual suggestion for working class wages is $1 a day or about $350 per annum. Still, $200 in tax is absurd; that might have been appropriate for a wizard (however difficult to collect.) --Old Dickens 15:25, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Why are boots so expensive? Even the $10 ones are like £ 290 to your modern low-wage earner. When people made $1/day here, $5 dollar shoes were the good ones. --Old Dickens 03:21, 15 January 2008 (CET)

Fist money?

either somebody put an unfamilar word through an unreliable (Microsoft?) spellchecker, or else they were doing a bit of low-level trolling for a Prince Heinrich-level- sense of humour hearty laugh, as I'm fairly sure I specified "fiat" throughout...--AgProv 11:35, 15 October 2011 (CEST) Hmm, I introduced the "fiat money" discussion on 25/3/09. At that point the word was written "fiat" throughout. Then on some subsequent occassion some but not all instances of "fiat" were changed to "flat". Then later somebody came along and corrected all instances of "flat/fiat" to "fist." Probably with good intentions, seeing a perceived typo and going for the first available word that made sense. (Working all week and then being shafted with a wheelbarrow full of worthless notes, as in 1929 Germany or modern Zimbabwe, must feel like being fisted...) I will not shame you by identifying you, as the intention was good. You know who you are... --AgProv 11:50, 15 October 2011 (CEST)

When was it "fist"? I don't see it in the history. --Old Dickens 16:29, 15 October 2011 (CEST)

Ah. Red face. Going into "history" brings up revisions in very small sans-serif typeface highlighted on a yellow or green background. Seeing the word "fiat" in very small print struck through with a bold black line makes the "a" look like an "s". Having expanded my browser screen view from 100% to 150% to double-check, I now see it was always "fiat" throughout. Except when it became "flat". Whoops....--AgProv 18:46, 15 October 2011 (CEST)