:reddit-logo: never fails to disappoint.
fuck all was done before capitalism
:thinking-about-it:
the history Channel has t.v shows about ancient aliens building the pyramids since it's
not profitableimpossible to build them todayaliens building the pyramids since it’s not profitable impossible to build them today
It was unhelpful to build them then
And the Old Kingdom was able to do it because they had (as cloase as you could get to in their time) a command economy, and lost the capacity for monumental public works as they became less centralized.
I think a lot of economies in antiquity are considered command economies, although I could be wrong.
People being employed is not in itself a good thing. It would actually be better to run society with less work as then people would have more free time.
That's a fair point, but they did not yet have the capacity to make the entire population literate and educated, which I think is necessary to give people lots of free time. I'm not trying to say anything like dumb workers need to be kept busy or evil ensues, I just mean that people need something to keep them engaged, and they'd get bored of everything in their little village after a while and probably start breaking things or rioting. If they have an education, they can read and write and put on plays or skits and travel and do all sorts of other things to keep themselves engaged.
The devil finds work for idle hands.
generally this has been the purpose of sports
The roman roads, which have endured for over 2,000 years while still working in some cases, are just not as good as the asphalt roads that break every winter. Glad to know capital has saved us from reliable, functioning infrastructure.
Just yesterday I was reading about how Australian techniques for combating wildfires have been very inefficient. Well what do you know, the aboriginals have been dealing with this shit for hundreds of years so let's appropriate their knowledge without compensating them properly
It's the same way in america. They still don;t want to admit we are just now barely coming around to understanding what Native Americans have known and been trying to explain and practice for centuries. But they'll let thousands die every year in California wild fires before acknowledging that maybe it isn't good to try to build a home in a place that catches fire a lot and then keep it dry,
When you said "Australian techniques for combating wildfires" I thought "But indigenous Australians have been doing it for thousands of years". I read weirdly.
Okay sort of a pet peeve but while cobblestone roads such as the romans built are incredibly long lasting they suck shit for anyone in a wheelchair, with a pram or on a bicycle.
Asphalt theoretically good folks. Just gotta apply it correctly instead of for vehicles that fuck it up in no time flat.
Seeing as those roads were not designed around those three things, but asphalt roads were definitely designed around cars, I still have to give the win to the Romans on this one. I do see your criticism, and it's a valid point when it comes to city planning, but the Roman roads have done their jobs so much better than the modern roads.
Seeing as those roads were not designed around those three things, but asphalt roads were definitely designed around cars,
Asphalt roads were not designed for cars lol. They just use them, much to everybodies detriment.
Oh. Regardless, asphalt roads are being put down for cars to use, so they are doing a really bad job at that.
That's like, the point though.
Do cobblestone for cars and above - it'll keep forever - do asphalt for everythhing below that and it'll keep forever.
OK but try driving with a car on a roman road. Or using a bike/wheelchair/what have you.
That's a fair criticism, but it worked great for what it was designed for. It was a much better investment than the roads we have now.
I really don't think it was better. It was just designed to do something completely different. Asphalt does what it needs to do as well and efficiently as anyone has figured out so far at least.
the roads were built for people and carts to travel on, and people and carts have traveled over them for the last 2,000 years at least. Asphalt is built to be driven on, and needs to be repaired every 5 years at best. They both are being used for transportation, one has just held up way better than the other.
Yes but again, have you tried driving on a paved road? With carts it wasn't too bad because they don't go very fast. There is no way you could use paved roads for cars going fast, and if the road gets any wet it becomes prohibitively slippery for driving. It's not like we could stop making asphalt roads and just start paving them instead.
The roman roads, which have endured for over 2,000 years while still working in some cases, are just not as good as the asphalt roads that break every winter
A better example to me is how this fucking Roman aqueduct is still delivering water to Rome. Same with a lot of 3000-years old Qanats in Iran, still in use today.
They pretty much peg the start of capitalism as the bartering stuff between human tribes somewhere x-thousand BCE. Which is obviously pretty dumb but as far as I remember is also supported only by a bunch of capitalist thinking how society could've worked back then (like capitalism) and then deciding this must be true because the central axiom is without capitalism there is no innovation and then you just reason backwards from there.
Which was obviously invented by John Barter in 15000 BCE, who was the first capitalist
David Graeber wrote a lot about this. The thing about "primitive" societies who haven't invented money yet doing barter instead has no empirical foundation. It was literally made up in the 18th century by British guys sitting in their studies imagining how native American people might do things. Then it was uncritically copied by other authors until it became common sense.
The known examples of money-less societies used various forms of gift- or favour-based economy instead. Barter-based economies are only known from situations where people who are used to using money suddenly can't use money any more, like in prisons or warzones.
Just apply the same logic, a tribe of humans that has bartered is obviously a corporation because these people without fault believe in the alpha/beta-human distinction and the tribe leader ist just a CEO
God said "Let there be Capitalism" and thus it (and the rest of the universe, I guess) was created.
Aw, shit, where'd I put the delete button? Never mind, I'll just go somewhere else. They'll figure it out.
We did not figure it out.
grug have sticks. grug have flint. but grug no make fire because there is no profit motive
I think this is standard education in North America. Rome was cool but fell the. people bathed in their own shit for 1000 years before some west-european guys said "lets use reason and logic" and invented democracy/capitalism.
Nah even by lazy American education this guy's wrong because we learn about the renaissance
I'd expect libs to at least pay some lip service to Greek "democracy" once in a while though as if that gives it some form of legitimacy.
so they explicitly said corporation---you cant even launder that into that ridiculous 'capitalism always exist cuz trade' bullshit
written language? maths? cities, plumbing, engineering, philosopy, most forms of art, etc etc etc are "fuckall" according to :reddit-logo:
Just picturing the American Revolution happening with people wearing loincloths and using spears.
