I’m not sure that works. There were 20 shillings to the pound.

So £0.75 a week.

This inflation calculator:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

£75 in 1843 is equivalent to £8,310.96

So 15s then is equivalent to £83.11 a week, £4321.72 a year.

40 hour week (which is implied to be too low). ~£2.08 an hour

So if he worked over 40 hours you’re talking a sub £2/hour wage. Around $2.70 in US money.

I suspect the stat relies on converting to dollars before applying inflation as GBP to USD was about 1 to 5 then instead of about 1 to 1.33

It’s fun but I wouldn’t want to denigrate Dickens by saying he got poverty wrong to make a political point.

Because Biden paid them with grants to build in the US. It’s that simple.

Beyond that there’s stability and the likelihood of not being invaded or facing natural disasters.

There’s meant to be government, legal, and financial institution stability too.

As well as intellectual property defense, trade secrets and NDAs.

Material supplies are meant to be stable too.

When you’re investing in something as specialised as chip manufacturing, labour is a fraction of your concern. Both short and long term.