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Did your servants get comfortable room+board and some time off, besides their wages? If so, that's not quite the same as "incredibly low" as in a slum-residing factory worker. It is insecure, though, but, say, if there are cultural or legal norms around lifelong employment of staff, that would provide security.

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"Did your servants get comfortable room+board and some time off, besides their wages .. cultural or legal norms around lifelong employment of staff"

Sounds uncomfortably close to slavery.

The way I heard it described to me was that it was considered very bad to hoard your wealth by, say, cooking or cleaning for yourself, rather than providing jobs for the less fortunate.

Granted, that's a pretty rosy way of viewing the arrangement, but, as usual, some income is better than none.

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