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Which other times and places? I have the exact opposite impression. Human life and dignity weren't valued until the last 200 years or so. There were no worke
by jf22 11y ago
Which other times and places?
I have the exact opposite impression. Human life and dignity weren't valued until the last 200 years or so.
There were no worker protections until very recently you were treated like shit if you weren't a member of the ruling class/race/religion.
Much kinder? Not giving a shit if a chinese laborer was killed was building a railroad isn't exactly kind...
- omegaham 11y agoYep. The Blazing Saddles model of employment was the norm for a very long time. Life was cheap.
- wpietri 11y agoSure, but most people didn't have jobs until recently. A lot of human history is subsistence agriculture in small villages. And a lot of human prehistory is various sorts of nomadic life. The boss-as-tyrant model is only possible when somebody makes their living by controlling others, which only works in times of substantial free resource scarcity and low opportunity.
- hackuser 11y agoA good point in general, though I'd add that, 1) slavery has been around for a long time and in many cultures family members are/were treated as property, especially women and children; and 2) for much of history[1] power, including ownership of land, has been concentrated in few hands, who often were not very kind to their subordinates. I wonder what the historical distribution of self-employed (including subsistance farming) vs employed by others. [1] Of course it depends how far back we go in history. Until 10,000 years ago we all were hunter gatherers.