For millennia the average pay for a 12 hour work day was 1/10 or .1 Troy OZ (roughly 3.11 grams) of silver. The origins of this weight system are currently unknown (Much was lost in the fall of Rome. It will be discussed; your patience is appreciated) but theories state that it was a measurement protocol that was maintained through the European Dark Ages in a Northeastern French town of Troyes(1). This was money. A physical, rare-resourced, long lasting material that could meaningfully represent mans’ most precious commodity: Time. As of mid-June 2017 the average price of .1 OZ is between $1.70 and $1.71. Many NGO’s and non-profits complain about roughly two billion people living on less than $2.00 a day. This is close to the pay for the average 12 hour work day. I do not mean to disparage those who only operate on a presents pay, but spilling wealth will not help. I will explain why in another article.
Right now though let’s apply an example. A Middle Age knight’s armor could only be bought outright by Royalty (the governing) or Nobility (the sovereign). However, royal or noble, you could only wear one suit of armor at any given time. Which is why you would hire a strapping young farm boy to join the army and become educated. In order to protect him when he became a knight he would be fitted for a suit of armor. Looking at the modern cost (including 21st century technology bringing down the cost) armor costs (mid-June 2017) anywhere between $2,000.00 and $11,000.00(2, 3). Now let’s apply the cost in silver. We’ll first make the average armor worth $6,500.00 then use the average 30 day spot price of 1 troy ounce of silver, which is $17.05, to divide it by. That gives us 381.23 troy OZ of silver. Remembering that .1 troy OZ of silver is the average man’s store of time in a 12 hour work day we have to multiply 381.23 by 10, giving us the number of days a man would have to work to be able to pay back the investment the royal or noble put forward. 3,812 days and a morning is what it would take to pay back the armor. That is almost ten and a half YEARS! Just for the armor! Never mind food, housing, training, weapons, horses (you always had more than one horse), pleasure and entertainment. Keep in mind this was based on a modern price. How many blacksmiths took how many weeks or months to procure metal (costing gold/silver), harden and form the metal, fit it too the man, and then ensure that it would indeed keep him alive.
Then let’s compare that price in reverse to buy the average set of AR500 steel body armor. Let’s say I work 60 hours a week for a 5 day work week. Let’s also assume I make an easy round figure of $10.00 an hour. That will give you $600.00 for a week of work. A set of steel plates and a carrier runs between $250.00 and $750.00 depending on the package deal and all the cool things you can attach to MOLLE gear, plus an anti-spall coating and having them curved to fit better(4). We’ll agree on an average of $500.00. That is a little over four days of work. 4 days. Compared to a decade and 6 months of working every single day. Since we’re in a comparative stature, we could forgo the armor and buy silver.
$500.0/$17.05=29.32 troy OZ.
29.32*10=293.2.
293.2/365=0.803.
If you followed that math you’ll see that in a week’s time of working a cushy, air conditioned/heated job, you will have earned the equivalent of 8/10 of a year’s work of the vast majority of anyone who has ever lived doing hard labor with menial technology and fighting the elements with close to no protection from them. I want to impart to you in this article that you simply being a United States citizen makes your time much more valuable than almost everyone else on the planet that has ever lived. This is not born out of privilege, nor spite for people of “other races” (notice U.S. CITIZEN), nor was it looted and plundered. It was the virtues, principles, and philosophies of a civilization that accumulated this wealth. It was the adherence to that trivium that has allowed those with wits enough to become sovereign to beat the royals at their own game WITHOUT the body count. This “slovenly concession” was developed for the price of BILLIONS of our forefathers lives. Your life has value. Your time has value. If you take one thing away from what has been stated it should be this: Get after your time.
1- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_weight#History
2- http://www.medievalcollectibles.com/c-61-full-suits-of-armour.aspx
3- https://www.medievalarmour.com/c-822-full-suits-of-armour.aspx
4- http://www.ar500armor.com/plate-carriers/plate-carrier-packages-w-armor.html
Suggested reading- Universally Preferable Behavior by Stefan Molyneux, Rights of Man by Thomas Paine, and Anthem by Ayn Rand.