Kerby Anderson

The electoral buzzword these days is “affordability.” As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, politicians need to take seriously the concerns of average Americans who are having a difficult time economically.

But the other side to affordability is affluence. In a recent commentary, Kelsey Piper reminds us that “Medieval kings would envy you.” We live in a world of affluence that people in other centuries could not even imagine.

She walks you through her house and counts 27 varieties of tea in a cupboard stuffed to the brim. She looks at her bookshelf and reflects on the fact that when the Library of Congress was founded, it had 740 books. She has more.

She walks by glass windows, which were “a luxury adornment for the homes of the ultra-wealthy since the time of Rome. Though, that’s underselling modern windows; they weren’t transparent back then.” She also talks about her refrigerator and flush toilets.

When she talks about her children, the comparison with the English royal line is stark. “King James I and his wife had seven children and buried five. His son Charles and his wife had nine children and buried five. His son James had eight children by his first wife and buried six, then had seven children by his second wife and buried five—not including several miscarriages and still births.”

She concludes, “We are rich beyond our ancestor’s wildest dreams. We casually discard things for which they would have worked all their lives.”

This is a message we need to tell ourselves frequently. We live in a world of affluence and need to stop from time to time to remind ourselves of the blessings we enjoy every day.