okmatewanker

Yeah, that's probably true for some farmers. Life was terrible, but life in the city was even worse.

the Industrial Revolution ground such people up and oiled the machinery of progress with their blood (literally so for his maternal grandfather).

Literally? I wouldn't think blood would make for good oil for machinery, I'd have thought it was too sticky. And, since it's water based it will evaporate quickly at high temperatures, so it's not really suitable for most machines where temperatures can easily exceed 100C.