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> and owning that much would probably have made you a very weathly person when owning 300K USD today does not. I guess it depends on whether we want to measure

by qwytw 3y ago

> and owning that much would probably have made you a very weathly person when owning 300K USD today does not. I guess it depends on whether we want to measure relative wealth to the rest of the society or what can you actually buy with that money which would probably change the valuation 10-100+ times. This applies to goods rather than labor to a much higher degree. Permanently owning the labour of 10 people working 16 hours per days is worth a lot more today than 10 slaves back then.

lelag 3y ago
> This applies to goods rather than labor to a much higher degree. Permanently owning the labour of 10 people working 16 hours per days is worth a lot more today than 10 slaves back then. Yes, but that's also because of the productivity increase linked to the cheap energy and phosphate supply brought by fossil fuels. If cheap energy stop being available and human labour become again the main driver of economic output, you can bet that slavery will soon come back in fashion...