this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago

Ancient superyacht

[–] oxysis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 90 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I mean the artisans who worked on the pyramids were payed quite well. They even got buried nearby when they eventually passed away.

And no, slaves were not the ones building a the pyramids.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 week ago (2 children)

From what I have seen the newest consensus seems to be that they were essentially a massive jobs program.

[–] cattywampas@midwest.social 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is speculation but I'd bet there was some amount of less-than-voluntary aspect to the construction of at least some of the pyramids. As in "we'll pay you, but this is your job for the next 30 years while you're not harvesting."

[–] shneancy@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago

to be fair, there was fuck all to do inbetween harvests. if someone came up to me as i'm bored out of my mind watching grains grow and said "hey wanna help build a huge fucking triangle? the pharaoh pays well" i'd say yes in a heartbeat. i doubt they had trouble finding workers

[–] InnerScientist@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

Should have just called it the pyramid scheme.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago
[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 80 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The ROI was eternal life

Do people just forget religion exists and believers take it fully seriously?

[–] pirateKaiser@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago

I honestly forget that frequently. My general attitude when any type of believer says something I consider obvious bullshit is to spend a couple of seconds thinking we're in on a pretend joke until it hits me.

In my experience the overwhelming maj{rity of believers don't. Theyll say they do and argue and gwt offended, bit its just an identity/social thing to them.

It's kinda sad,

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] RQG@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

So trickle down eventually works. You just have to let them get to godhood first. Got it.

Capitalism probably

[–] user_name@lemmy.world 36 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Workers were paid. More interesting to ask why they built the pyramids.

[–] OfCourseNot@fedia.io 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

'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.

[–] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 week ago (9 children)

remember the 'workers' were paid in housing, bread, and beer.

That's more than many people will get today from a single job. 💀

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[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

🖐️Aliens🤚

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 week ago
[–] loomy@lemy.lol 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

tourtue: a more direct version of capitalism

[–] Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

they were actually paid labourers, the slave thing is a victorian invention i believe

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[–] AreaKode@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago
[–] sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

The ROI was outstanding if it facilitated their journey to a good afterlife well.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It was a public works project, just like government jobs, infrastructure, and the military are for the US.

[–] wabafee@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago
[–] Lucky_777@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

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"

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Motive was someone's huge fucking ego to be remembered forever.

[–] MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's how the labour caste paid their taxes

[–] SippyCup@feddit.nl 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

In medieval times that's certainly true. Egyptian laborers were paid. Generally in food and housing, as coinage wouldn't be introduced for quite some time. Especially skilled laborers were sometimes given land. Egypt had a very routinized farming season and most laborers were farmers with nothing to farm in the off season.

Skilled stone masons could kinda go wherever so locking them in to work with taxes was a great way to get them to leave.

Fun fact, they had a daily meal of a particularly thick beer that had chunks of bread in it. And one time they went on strike when they ran out of wigs.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I mean the pyramids were wholly improductive multi-decade undertakings, so that's not making the point you think it's making.

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[–] balderdash9@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In other words, capitalism is in no way necessary for human civilization.

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Of course it's not necessary. The democracy +capitalism combo is just the least worst setup we figured out so far.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

The democracy +capitalism combo is just the least worst setup we figured out so far.

That's what the state propagandists tell us, anyway.

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[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wasn't there some archeological evidence that many of the workers and their families were actually compensated?

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[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

It's real estate. They were playing the long game

[–] omgboom@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago
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