At the time of the article (1932) many families in London lived in slums, several people in one room, and worked from morning to the evening for really poor wages.<p>Today, they live in an apartment&#x2F;house where everyone has a separate space, and work at jobs that compared to the people from 100 years ago would look as high class idling.<p>So, I&#x27;d say that people will always spend huge sums to get the housing and services that are within their reach. They just get better housing for the comparable portion of their earnings.