Hacker News Reader

Comment by gregallan | Hacker News Reader

Is this an attempt at humor? If so, it fell flat for me. Tech and finance workers are some of the most highly-compensated people in the world today. Comparing them to Roman slaves, who were considered property, had no freedom of movement, and were subject to brutal corporal punishment, shows a callous disregard for the real human suffering occurring around the world.

View on HN

That's not what I'm saying. I'm making a relative comparison - tech and finance workers are to the average worker in the world what the intellectual or the higher household slaves in Rome were to the average. By the way, those slaves had freedom of movement and, especially later in Roman history, some legal protection, as well as in many cases the right to work for a wage outside of the purview of their masters.

I am trying to underlie the fact that we have many privileges and the ability to change social strata compared to the average working person, which is an interesting parallel. Of course even Roman slavery was horrible.

GPs point is that under "capitalism" everyone is effectively a slave - working on someone else's terms, and it's only a few elite jobs where you really make enough to potentially buy your way out of the system. It's an opportunity that people working in a coffee shop or something don't have.

(Edit- well nearly, the GP clarified his post in a sibling post)

Yes, this is essentially what I meant.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com