PugJesus
@PugJesus@piefed.social
- Comment on 6 hours ago:
Wage labor, usually.
Despite the widespread use of slave labor in Roman society, unskilled slaves were overwhelmingly used for tasks that were either considered ‘demeaning’ (like domestic servants), did not require any real precision (like mill grinding and monocrop farm labor) or needed a constant application of labor (like mines). The Romans recognized that people work better when offered carrots rather than sticks - some slave who only barely cares if he lives or dies isn’t going to put much effort into aligning the brick with the mortar properly unless you watch him like a hawk - which is more labor you have to put in. Manual labor for construction is not a task that requires a doctorate, but it is a task where you have to do it right the first time, or you waste everyone’s labor and effort.
Construction, furthermore, is only intermittent work in most places. If you own a bunch of slaves, you don’t stop paying for their food and shelter when they aren’t working - if you want them to be profitable, you’ll have to find other work for them to do the rest of the year. And at that point, it’s probably not less profitable to just have them do that year-round instead. You could, potentially, have your slaves as a traveling construction crew, but travel is not only uncertain and expensive, but offers opportunities for unmotivated workers (like slaves) to simply… slip away, and choose to no longer be one of your workers. Even if you try to hunt them down. Even just transporting building materials from Point A to Point B includes a lot of very dangerous unsupervised time - perhaps something you’d trust a household slave with, but not one of the faceless slave numbers on your business ledger!
Funny enough, it would be more likely, if anyone was a slave on the job, that it would be potentially a few of the skilled positions. Skilled slaves were often given more trust and responsibilities precisely because they were offered more ‘carrot’ than ‘stick’ - payment, privileges, and the possibility of freedom for a decade or two of labor were on the table. Skilled slaves were thus less likely to run away - and unlike free wage laborers, especially skilled ones, wouldn’t (or rather, couldn’t) demand more pay at the prospect of being dragged from one of the empire to another - very handy if you’re a small construction firm going from place to place, and hiring local labor for most tasks!
- Comment on 11 hours ago:
Interestingly enough, construction wasn’t a usual avenue for applying slave labor in Ancient Rome.
- Comment on 20 hours ago:
That’s fvcked up, man
- Submitted 21 hours ago to science_memes@mander.xyz | 48 comments
- Comment on What I feel like every fucking time I wake up and read this morning's news of a superpower becoming its worst. 2 days ago:
This is why organizations are so damn important, and why the decline of unions has been so damaging to US political culture.
- Comment on From our family to yours, merry Christmas! 1 week ago:
If this was an imitation of a happy holiday… a perfect imitation… would you know? Would I?
- Comment on Thanks :) 2 weeks ago:
I thought he was fond of plentiful mangos
- Comment on Fear not, for I am watchful. You have been chosen. 3 weeks ago:
Stand up, there you go. You were dreaming.
- Comment on PSA 3 weeks ago:
literally me
- Comment on Prequel dialogue 4 weeks ago:
THEN YOU ARE LOST
- Comment on you need to be doing this 4 weeks ago:
Don’t tempt me
- Comment on Hope 5 weeks ago:
Mood
- Comment on Shout out to my engineering homies. 5 weeks ago:
Yes, that’s me. Maybe the bit you’re missing is that if you work at a company, the company’s products are your products.
I’ll be sure to tell the janitor.
It’s like you don’t even understand the core moral dilemma of being an engineer working for a military supplier.
No, that’s not what I mean, and I’d appreciate you not putting words in my mouth.
So this isn’t you?
We were at “working for companies profiting from genocide is wrong” and we’ve started right there.
There is a material difference between providing Israel with military equipment and with some random consumer product that is just distributed everywhere. Sure, I’d argue it’s still wrong to do the latter, but it’s still a huge difference.
Ah, of course, if you’re enabling the genocide through non-military means, it’s okay. I mean, it’s not like supplying Israel with goods frees up more of Israel’s resources for military production and action.
- Comment on Shout out to my engineering homies. 5 weeks ago:
You could’ve just said “yes, I think that’s where the ethical line is”, instead of linking logical fallacies wikipedia like a fourteen year old atheist.
We haven’t moved anywhere.
This you?
If you’re working for a western arms manufacturer you can be pretty certain your products will end up in Israel too.
Sorry that you can’t remember what you said a whole comment ago.
We were at “working for companies profiting from genocide is wrong” and we’ve started right there.
So what you mean is “If you’re working for a major Western company, period, you’re evil.” Since the list of Western companies that don’t do business with Israel is very small.
- Comment on Shout out to my engineering homies. 5 weeks ago:
- Comment on Shout out to my engineering homies. 5 weeks ago:
How many Eurofighters does Israel operate?
- Comment on Shout out to my engineering homies. 5 weeks ago:
Weapons can be used for defense or offense. Just be sure that you can sleep at night with the potential consequences - and that your work may be used on the wrong side just as easily as the right side.
On the other hand, if you’re working for an Israeli defense company, you can be pretty certain where your results are going to go, and should maybe just… not.
- Comment on Moisturize me 1 month ago:
Keep moving.
- Comment on Disapointed 1 month ago:
There are raccoon bobbleheads in RE2 REmake
- Submitted 1 month ago to science_memes@mander.xyz | 14 comments
- Comment on I can fix them by driving them to abandon me. Fear conquered! 1 month ago:
“Amigo, you’re hosed.” - an online friend when he found out that I have a weakness for girls with tattoos, piercings, and technicolor hair (he has the same weakness)
- Comment on Gots your stuff 1 month ago:
A classic
- Comment on What the democrats just did. 1 month ago:
Yes, it should be. I was trying to shitpost in peace
LMAO
You commented on one of my conversations in this thread, not the other way around.
Are you a pathological liar, or just a habitual one?
Or are you so detached from reality that you can’t tell the difference?
- Comment on Um, actually, Neville Chamberlain didn't "cave" to Hitler, he actually got a lot out of the deal. 1 month ago:
Schumer is still opposed to ending the shutdown to my knowledge.
- Comment on Um, actually, Neville Chamberlain didn't "cave" to Hitler, he actually got a lot out of the deal. 1 month ago:
They’re much less common than they used to be back in 2023, at least on the ‘decent’ instances. Hopefully genocide denial will be completely dead on the non-tankie instances given a little more time!
I hate seeing shit like this passed around, and the “Milk Before Meat” approach is how they soften their image, so I try to call it out when I see it.
- Comment on Um, actually, Neville Chamberlain didn't "cave" to Hitler, he actually got a lot out of the deal. 1 month ago:
Bro you come into this thread, guns blazing, attacking me and trying to get me into a debate,
I never tried to get you into a debate, lmao. I just pointed out the humor of a pro-imperialist genocide denier who advocates for appeasement pretending to be opposed to appeasement of imperialism and genocide. :)
- Comment on Um, actually, Neville Chamberlain didn't "cave" to Hitler, he actually got a lot out of the deal. 1 month ago:
(That video is literally what you’re doing in this thread lol)
Damn, so it’s not just your literacy that’s bad, but your media comprehension in general.
Sorry that you think that explicitly refusing to debate you is asking you to debate me, lmao.
Sorry that you think you’re entitled to debate the well-recorded genocide of minorities with anyone who isn’t a genocide denying piece of shit, thinking just like the Holocaust deniers you ape.
- Comment on Um, actually, Neville Chamberlain didn't "cave" to Hitler, he actually got a lot out of the deal. 1 month ago:
I’m sorry that you think you’re entitled to a debate, genocide denier, like the Holocaust deniers you mimic
- Comment on Um, actually, Neville Chamberlain didn't "cave" to Hitler, he actually got a lot out of the deal. 1 month ago:
- Comment on What the democrats just did. 1 month ago:
