Wasn't there some archeological evidence that many of the workers and their families were actually compensated?
this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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Im not sure if its the great pyramid but I know some of the Egyptian great works were used as a jobs program during the off season of harvest.
Im sure the majority was slavery, but there was a tiny bit of good in those.
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.
Ancient superyacht
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.
From what I have seen the newest consensus seems to be that they were essentially a massive jobs program.
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."
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
Should have just called it the pyramid scheme.
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The ROI was eternal life
Do people just forget religion exists and believers take it fully seriously?
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.
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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.
In Estonia it's just solved by the minimum wage being high enough to afford rent, even if it's just a tiny studio in the larger cities for that wage.
We also have a minimum wage, and if it was implemented the way social democrats and greens wanted it it would be fine. Unfortunately we also have "Christian" democrats (think US Republicans from 10 years ago) and Libertarians, who managed to fuck it up so there are quite a few "exceptions" for who can be underpayed below the minimum now. Long-time (>6 months) jobless people for example (they can also be fired just before gaining the "privilege" to receive said minimum, resetting the timer for them). There are more exceptions of course, can't have the "wrong" people get enough money to life from.
Tbh if some people working full-time in Germany can't afford rent on minimum wage, I suspect it's an issue with the rent, not the minimum wage. Minimum wage in Germany is more than 2x what it is in Estonia. I think your minimum is around our average (a bit over 2k euros per month pre-tax)
You can afford rent (although it costs about 60%-70% of what you have) mostly, outside of city centres. The rent costs are indeed abysmal though. Main problem is the constant fight of right-wingers (incl. "Christians") and libtards to make exceptions who's eligible for minimum wage and keep the minimum wage as low as possible. With welfare they already managed to get it as low as human rights and our constitution allows, they literally can't reduce it as this would clearly violate human dignity according to our highest courts. So they punch holes in the minimum wage to make sure as many people as possible are stuck at welfare-level. The housing market in that bracket basically collapsed, to quote someone working at a federal agency: "These emergeny vouchers (for housing) aren't worth shit anymore." (Those vouchers, lit. "Dringlichkeitsbescheinigung", were originally meant to be the the last line of defence to prevent people from landing on the street).
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tourtue: a more direct version of capitalism
they were actually paid labourers, the slave thing is a victorian invention i believe
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Religion.
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
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"
Motive was someone's huge fucking ego to be remembered forever.
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