You don't have to visit the New England Economic Adventure at
the Boston Fed to use the Adventure game, activities, or quiz. They're for
everyone, and they are all intended to reinforce the idea that
the material standard of living has improved greatly for most
Americans since 1800 or 1900, or even 1950. If you have activities like these that you'd like to share with
others, please
let us know, and we may be able to put them on our web site.
(We can't pay you, but we will certainly give you credit.)
Great Idea!
Colonel Albert Pope, the 19th century bicycle tycoon, used
the patent system to gain an advantage over his competitors.
But how does the patent system work?
Your Task: Get together
with the other people in your class and come up with one idea
that is a possible moneymaker and worth protecting from your
competitors. Then determine if your idea meets the criteria
for a U.S. patent. To learn about the criteria for design
patents, visit the web site of the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office http://www.uspto.gov
and click on "How to . . . " button.
Help Wanted
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the American economy
is "an economy of ideas."
And an excerpt from a report issued by the Institute for Museum
and Library Services noted: "The most valued employees
are those who continue to learn, who are able to think for themselves,
apply problem-solving skills, and adapt rapidly."
So, here is your task:
You're hiring an employee in 1800, 1900, and 2000. Compile
a list of the skills and traits you are looking for in each
time period.
Just Hit "Enter"
Back in 1980, the phrase dot.com would have sounded like random
nonsense. There was no context for it. No one knew what a DVD
or an e-trade was either.
A host of new words and phrases have come into everyday use
since 1980. See if you can come up with ten.
Letter from the Future
With or without a crystal ball, look ahead 50 years and try
to predict what life in your community will be like. Pay
particular attention to the economic aspects of everyday
life. How will people be earning their living? Will the main
businesses and industries be the same as they are today or
will new ones have taken their place? Will most people have
a higher standard of living or will they be worse off?
Near and Far
If you'd lived in New England during the early 1800s, most of
your possessions and almost all the food on your table would
have been homemade, homegrown, or locally produced by people
you knew. But by the end of the century, you would have been
able to choose from a much wider variety of products and foodstuffs,
many of which were mass-produced by other people in factories
outside your local area. And today, of course, everything we
use seems to come from someplace far away -- not just outside
New England, but outside the United States.
Try this exercise: To
get an idea of how much less local our lives have become,
go through your home and try to find ten consumer goods, apparel
items, or foods produced within 50 miles of where you live.
Not ten of each, but ten altogether. Chances are, you'll have
a tough time finding five.
Reality Check
Are you one of those romantics who thinks it would have been
fun to live "back in the day"? Well, then this exercise
is for you. You don't actually have to do these things; just
think about them.
Task One: When you wake
in the morning, reach under your bed and remove the chamber
pot brimming with "night soil." Grasp it in both
hands, take it outside, and dump it.
Task Two: Share a crowded
trolley car with dozens of other people who bathe once a week
and don't use deodorant. (Be sure to try this one on a humid
summer day.)
Task Three: Spend an
hour in an iron lung so that you can recall the days when
people were terrified of polio.
Task Four: Take all the
screens off your windows so that mosquitoes and flies can
easily find their way into your house.
Task Five: If you live
in the North, turn off your heat and hot water for the month
of February. If you live in the South, try to make it through
August without air conditioning.
Task Six: Ask your legislators
to roll back the clean air laws so that we can once again
see the air we breathe.
Task Seven: If you're
an older person, give up your Social Security and rely on
your children to support you.
Task Eight: Kids, limit
your television viewing to ABC, CBS, and NBC; and listen only
to AM radio.
We could go on and on, but you get the point.
"When Every Day Was a Bad Hair Day"
Most of us would have a tough time coping with everyday life
in the 19th century -- chamber pots under the bed, infrequent
baths, and all that other fun stuff. Just read this excerpt
and you'll see why:
Early nineteenth century Americans lived in a world of
dirt, insects and pungent smells. Farmyards were strewn with
animal wastes, and farmers wore manure-spattered boots and
trousers everywhere. Men's and women's working clothes alike
were often stiff with dirt and dried sweat, and men's shirts
were often stained with yellow rivulets of tobacco juice.
The location of privies was all too obvious on warm or windy
days, and unemptied chamber pots advertised their presence.
Wet baby "napkins," today's diapers, were not immediately
washed but simply put by the fire to dry.
The Reshaping of Everyday Life
Jack Larkin
It's hard to read that passage without wondering how people
could have lived like that. But we shouldn't be too smug because
200 years from now people will almost certainly wonder how we
could have lived the way we do.
Your Task: Get together
with the other people in your class and try to figure out:
1. What aspect(s) of 19th century life would have been the
most difficult for a modern teen to handle?
2. When people look back at the early 21st century, what aspect(s)
of our lives will cause them to ask, "How could people
have lived like that?!"
