Other things catch my eye. Reading of slavery in ancient Rome and Greece, I think of India's untouchables. The theme of surplus built upon slavery runs constantly through human history, until it blends into an industrial model of market utilization of the "The Weak".
Yeah, progress happens. I'd choose a minimum wage job in Norway, or even in Minnesota, over slavery.
So what's next? In a globalized post-industrial world, does the labor of the "Weak" have sufficient value to support a life of health and balance? If it does not, if within the framework of the post-AI world 20% of the population is effectively disabled, then what do we do?
Slavery was one answer to the problem of the weak. Industrial and agricultural employment was another. If we are fortunate, we will provide a third answer.
See also:
- Slavery and religion - Wikipedia
- A taxonomy of American politics 2/2011
- Mass disability goes mainstream: disequilibria and RCIIT 11/2011
- The AI Age: Siri and Me 12/2011
- Gordon's Notes: Life in the post-AI world. What's next? 9/2011
- The subprime mortgage story: a problem of the weak 11/2007
- Unemployment and the new American economy - with some fixes 1/2011
- Median male earnings - declining since 1969? 3/2011
- Political theory and the original position (Rawls) 6/2006
- DeLong, Mankiw and the Problem of the Weak 10/2006
- Noblesse Oblige and the Problem of the Weak: Buffett and Gates 6/2006
- French universities and the revenge of the weak 5/2006
- The market answer to dementia: Soylent Green 9/2007
- Attacking Inequality: Redistributing wealth 9/2006
- The WSJ, the American Right, and the Protestant view of sinful poverty 6/2006
- Seeking Dickens: mental illness and prisons 1/2007
- What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It? 2/3005
