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> History has shown us that as societies get richer / more productive people work less. For most of history, when a society gets richer, the rich enslave more
by SquishyPanda23 5y ago
> History has shown us that as societies get richer / more productive people work less.
For most of history, when a society gets richer, the rich enslave more people and consolidate power, and then ultimately try to be worshiped as gods until the masses push back enough, and then become content with simply having absolute earthly power.
Maybe this trend is over, but given the amount of effort into putting out "God Emperor" memes in the US, my guess is that some people are at least willing to still try at it.
At any rate, I'm not sure a graph from the US starting at 1950 is sufficient for establishing historical trends.
- flerchin 5y agoI've got my finger on the pulse of spicy memes, and I've never seen a God Emperor one. Is this some kind of Trumpist thing?
- harryh 5y agoFor most of history, when a society gets richer, the rich enslave more people and consolidate power This is not true. The enormous rise in wealth of the world in the 20th/21st centuries has coincided with large increases in personal freedoms as well. At any rate, I'm not sure a graph from the US starting at 1950 is sufficient for establishing historical trends. The trend is consistent with other datasets: https://ourworldindata.org/working-hours https://ourworldindata.org/working-hours