Somebody once advanced the theory that the pyramids may have been public works projects, to keep the whole economy from collapsing. The pharaohs had accumulated so much of the available wealth, they spent some of it to put people to work. I think that’s an interesting speculation.
So trickle down eventually works. You just have to let them get to godhood first. Got it.
Capitalism probably
Workers were paid. More interesting to ask why they built the pyramids.
‘Paid’. When some egyptaboo tells you that “there weren’t slaves in Egypt at this time”, remember the ‘workers’ were paid in housing, bread, and beer. And were kinda bound by their duty to the God-Pharaoh. Totally not slavery!
Tho now thinking of it it’s not like my wage stretches farther than that either…
Edit: spelling and punctuation are hard.
remember the ‘workers’ were paid in housing, bread, and beer.
That’s more than many people will get today from a single job. 💀
You can’t be fucking serious.
I am. Feel free to talk with people about this who live in old vehicles, on a friends’ couch or literally on the streets despite having a “job”. Or those who only have proper housing and food by working two or more jobs.
Oh, one precision : people in the USA
Or other third world countries.
The only reason we don’t have this shit in more rich countries often is that people receive welfare despite working a full-time job because it doesn’t pay properly. In Germany we call this “aufstocken”. Basically another way to create wage slavery and redirect money from the state towards the private sector. The US is just very obvious and very loud about everything. Other third world countries indeed don’t have it any better.
🖐️Aliens🤚
Religion.
tourtue: a more direct version of capitalism
they were actually paid labourers, the slave thing is a victorian invention i believe
it might be more biblical but I’m no historian
The ROI was outstanding if it facilitated their journey to a good afterlife well.
It was a public works project, just like government jobs, infrastructure, and the military are for the US.
Death
Motive was someone’s huge fucking ego to be remembered forever.
Glory and worship is equally addictive as profit. The whole point was to have a badass setup in the afterlife. So you could consider this “profit”
I mean the pyramids were wholly improductive multi-decade undertakings, so that’s not making the point you think it’s making.
Probably brought in some tourism revenue
In other words, capitalism is in no way necessary for human civilization.
Of course it’s not necessary. The democracy +capitalism combo is just the least worst setup we figured out so far.
The democracy +capitalism combo is just the least worst setup we figured out so far.
That’s what the state propagandists tell us, anyway.
The global south would disagree with you.
Its working out pretty well for the wealthy in colonialist countries though.
Why does it sound like you think “least worst” is synonymous with “good”? And you are also combining your opinion of the type of system with specific implementations of it. The two are related, but separate. For example, an autocrat can be a fantastic leader, and overall great for their country and everyone in it. That doesn’t mean an autocratic government is a good system in the general sense.
By what metric is capitalism the “least worst” system? Most of the people who defend capitalism have to sell their labor and own zero capital. The result is a two-tiered system where the obscenely wealthy exist right next to a vast majority who don’t have enough savings to survive a minor emergency. This is the situation in rich countries. The ongoing exploitation throughout so-called “third-world” capitalist countries also speaks against capitalism.
Moreover, if socialism is such a bad system, why did America fight tooth and nail to stop it? Diplomatic isolation, trade embargos, propaganda, political assassinations. It is because socialism actually threatens the profits of the wealthy. The west can’t exploit the land, labor, and resources of nations that place the workers in charge of their own workplaces. Maybe if the most powerful country in the history of the world wasn’t working against it the system could prove its worth.
All of the democratic socialist countries would like a word. Unfortunately, the CIA already killed them all.
Edit: To clarify, capitalism + democracy goes out of its way to fuck any other burgeoning system from getting its legs. So, I don’t think it’s fair to state “it’s the least worst”.
The profit motive was covered by the Pharaoh’s exploitation of the entire nation of Egypt as his personal plantation and palace; each Pharaoh’s Pyramid was the resulting useless passion project wasting all that accumulated profit. Albeit at reduced cost, considering the widespread use of corvee and legal limits on the ability of worker’s to negotiate contracts with the agents of the Pharaoh compared to with non-government notables.
Aliens
Ancient superyacht
