I mean the artisans who worked on the pyramids were payed quite well. They even got buried nearby when they eventually passed away.
And no, slaves were not the ones building a the pyramids.
From what I have seen the newest consensus seems to be that they were essentially a massive jobs program.
Should have just called it the pyramid scheme.
*paid
Somebody once advanced the theory that the pyramids may have been public works projects, to keep the whole economy from collapsing. The pharaohs had accumulated so much of the available wealth, they spent some of it to put people to work. I think that’s an interesting speculation.
So trickle down eventually works. You just have to let them get to godhood first. Got it.
Capitalism probably
Workers were paid. More interesting to ask why they built the pyramids.
Religion.
It was a public works project, just like government jobs, infrastructure, and the military are for the US.
The ROI was outstanding if it facilitated their journey to a good afterlife well.
Glory and worship is equally addictive as profit. The whole point was to have a badass setup in the afterlife. So you could consider this “profit”
Death
Motive was someone’s huge fucking ego to be remembered forever.
Wasn’t there some archeological evidence that many of the workers and their families were actually compensated?
It’s real estate. They were playing the long game
Ancient superyacht
The profit motive was covered by the Pharaoh’s exploitation of the entire nation of Egypt as his personal plantation and palace; each Pharaoh’s Pyramid was the resulting useless passion project wasting all that accumulated profit. Albeit at reduced cost, considering the widespread use of corvee and legal limits on the ability of worker’s to negotiate contracts with the agents of the Pharaoh compared to with non-government notables.
Slaves
I believe the most recent understanding is that the builders would have been paid, actually.
We have the receipts and the village for the artisans. While it was difficult work they were well taken care of and well compensated.
So are/were a lot of slaves.
Being forced to do something with room and board is just slavery with a justification.
They have the receipts for their incomes and weren’t listed as slaves by the the Egyptian state at the time.
They weren’t forced they were hired.
That’s a distinction without a difference.
Slaves were bought as well, they have receipts as well, it’s just a way to make it “legal”. Even though the end purpose is the same.
Just because you’re paid and have a room, doesn’t remove the forced aspect of it, do you think they were free to say no and be able to do something else?
Why would you pay slaves?
Why would you pay slaves?
Slaves in most of history receive payment - and considering that the payment in this discussion is in bread and beer…?
To make it not seem like slavery and give them more motivation.
Oh hey, yeah you’re totally not slaves, you can buy your freedom in 25 years, but how many make it that far as well.
Why not pay slaves, the money is all yours and comes right back. So why not in that situation?
Were they free to say no and do something else? You didn’t answer this question.
I wonder if, because that’s how most of the world got things done for a little bit, we retroactively apply slavery as the only solution to how the ancients got stuff done?
Thats only part of the answer. There were slves in Egypt, everyone had them. They just weren’t the labour pool for the pyramids as all the recently uncovered (last couple of decades) records indicate.
The vast majority of people who built the pyramids were paid laborers.
Nope, well paid workers who got vacation time and sick pay for such horrible conditions "stung by scorpion” (probably a metaphor for hangover), “bleeding wife” (wife on her period).
Oh.
Not slaves, that is a myth.
Oh!
