Topic: The Secret of the Pyramids

[Bonk]

I figured it out today, why it seems such a mystery to modern cultures. (As well as any other wonder of the ancient world...)

Canada has a population of roughly 30 million. (~25 million 10 years ago) Unemployment rates have been on average about 5% over the last decade. So take 5% of 27.5 million people over 10 years and how many man hours do you get? A lot. What are we doing with them? Nothing.

That is a conservative estimate, as unemployment rates are usually double national figures in most countries. (The majority of unemployed people have no reason to report it to the government and nothing to gain if they did - like me.)

So take that figure up to 10%. That's 2.75 million people. Lets take a conservative work week of 40 hours for 50 weeks a year. That's 2000 man hours per person per year. 10 years makes that 20000 man hours per person.

20000*2750000=55000000000  That's 55 billion man hours!
(lets put a dollar figure on that - minimum wage @~$8/hr --> 440 billion dollars)

Now the population of the US is about ten times that of Canada - so that's 550 billion man hours of unused labour in the last decade in the US. (4.4 trillion dollars)

Then there's this saying... something about "idle hands"...

We could do a lot for our country with 55 billion man hours. We have an excess of food. (tons and tons are ploughed under every year) Plenty to fuel a 55 billion man hour engine. We have an excess of space and materials for shelter...

We could easily build a pyramid to rival the Great Pyramid with 55 billion man hours. Though perhaps a giant beaver dam would be more appropriate for Canada... 

What set me off on this today, was discovering that there is actually an unemployment rate of about 4% in China. CHINA! 

It doesn't need to be something worthy... as that is fraught with political implications should anything significant actually be achieved... which is why something like a pyramid is perfect.

These people want to work, they need to work, yet we give them nothing, that is why we are constantly amazed by the greatness of our ancestors and wonder what happened to the greatest timeless works of man.

It is time to revive the wisdom of ancient cultures.

[Hexx]

Soooo you're saying the Aliens had better worker incentives?

[Centurus]

Bonk, ya got it all wrong me friend.

The pyramids are nothing more than large extraterrestrial taggings.  They came by, tagged the earth with physical graffiti, then took off.

Either that or most ancient cultures were obsessed with wanting more women with larger boobs.  Ahh the joys of silicon.

[Bonk]

I wish I could find the humour in it too. I tried to tell myself to stop thinking, but, I keep coming up with revelations like this. It might be best for the world if I were lobotomised... there we go, a little humour (?)

[Centurus]

I wish I could find the humour in it too. I tried to tell myself to stop thinking, but, I keep coming up with revelations like this. It might be best for the world if I were lobotomised... there we go, a little humour (?)

I can come up with a list of names of people here on D.net that would say they want me lobotomized more than you.

[Death_Merchant]

4% unemployment is considered to be full employment by economists.
The figure counts people temporarily in between jobs. At any given time, people quit jobs, switch jobs, etc.

This is about the only fact I remember from college Econ course I took about a bazzilion years ago.
I take that back: I also remember being astonished that the Prof had to take ANY ENTIRE DAY to teach the class how to read a simple 2-D chart...

Oh, and the pyramids were constructed at the cost of thousands of lives, and with slave labor.
I think we can do without such "ancient wisdom", don't you?

[marstone]

4% unemployment is considered to be full employment by economists.
The figure counts people temporarily in between jobs. At any given time, people quit jobs, switch jobs, etc.

This is about the only fact I remember from college Econ course I took about a bazzilion years ago.
I take that back: I also remember being astonished that the Prof had to take ANY ENTIRE DAY to teach the class how to read a simple 2-D chart...

Oh, and the pyramids were constructed at the cost of thousands of lives, and with slave labor.
I think we can do without such "ancient wisdom", don't you?

Actually there is still a heathy debate as to wether it was slave labor or not.  It was to long ago and no real records to say, it is all speculation.  I can agree with the thought that it was public service style work, kept alot of people busy.  How many guards would it have taken to keep a group the size of the builders under check if they were slaves and misstreated as some say.  Heck most of them had weapons (carving tools) they could easily have overpowered a rather large group of guards.  Can't say that they weren't in good shape, moving multi-ton blocks around would keep you strong.  Just because now adays it to get people to work as long and as hard on a project they would have to be slaves doesn't mean it had to be back then.  It is something we will never truely know the answer to, we can only think we know it.

[Bonk]

Yes. most recent stuff I've seen on the subject seems to indicate that the workers were well treated, fed and housed. I think we can use that ancient wisdom. I would be more than happy to get food and housing for work. It is also painful to see the homeless and aimless on the streets of our cities, particularly knowing it is a real possibility I will end up there with them, though I'll stay in the woods until they drag me back...

Even if they were slaves that were starved and worked to death, I would still prefer that to the modern options. It would at least have some meaning.

I would venture to say that unemployment in the modern environment is more hazardous than manual large scale masonry work in the ancient world. I bet the mortality rates of the two demographics are quite comparable.

I can comment no further as we tread on the edge of politics at this point, leaving stats and history behind. I expect many would disagree with me, (that is okey-dokey with me) and there is no point in arguing such things, it is generally pretty futile to try and change other people.

[marstone]

Yes. most recent stuff I've seen on te subject seems to indicate that the workers were well treated, fed and housed. I think we can use that ancient wisdom. I would be more than happy to get food and housing for work. It is also painful to see the homeless and aimless on the streets of our cities, particularly knowing it is a real possibility I will end up there with them, though I'll stay in the woods until they drag me back...

True it is hard to see the homeless and aimless on the streets, many need help.  But many are there because they do not want to help themselves.  Many a begger have chosen that lifestyle instead of sweeping a floor at McD's.  There are foreseeable ends to the choices people make, don't finish school, be rebellus against others, you're choices lead you down your path.  It isn't my job to work hard to put money (etc. . . ) in the hands of those who don't want to work for themselves.

But for those who truely need the hand to help them back on there feet, I am right there for them.  That is the social responsibility, you help others until they can help themselves.  If they don't stand up, let them fall.  Hard, but law of nature.

[Dracho]

Based on other Egyptian practices involving what they considered to be "unclean" and their building practices, it is very unlikely they used slave labor to construct the eternal resting place of Pharoh.  Additionally, recent archeological evidence of the villages used by the work crews points to their being Egyptian citizens as opposed to slaves.

Slaves could have been used to gather the raw materials, however.

[NJAntman]

To hell with building a modern day Pyramid or even a beaver dam. Think practical.

Have the Canadians chop the polar icecaps into little ice-cubes and then take it all south. Send the Mexicans north with Sangria. Meet us Americans in the middle and we all party! This would be a make-work project that no one could argue with, and do more for North American unity then NAFTA ever did..

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 
The Egyptian tour-guides say that in the agrarian society people would be out-of-work for ~ 3-4 months each year between harvest & planting season, so what better way to keep up morale than to put the peoples to work building your eternal home?

Either way, modern society is a little different than back then so even though there are quite a few unemployed citizens floating about, they do not belong to the government to simply put them to work, even if they were willing to work...  You'd still have to find enough money somewhere to pay them to build your pyramids, and I think money doesn't exist in Canadia, eh?

Oh, and +1 to Bonk for the Alan Parson's reference!