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Comment by Godel_unicode | Hacker News Reader

I don’t understand your point. It’s not a zero-sum game where some people are forced to clean houses. If they want to not clean houses they can change career.

If you don’t pay them you’re not somehow freeing them up to realize their potential, you’re just giving them fewer customers. At least where I live a lot of professional house cleaners are small business owners.

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Sure, I'm probably going to extremes. There are definite economies of scale to specialize in house cleaning and the like. I'm thinking more about the stereotypical rich person type of service with multiple dedicated servants for a single household.

I also think you should grow your own vegetables, keep your own chicken and generate your own electricity. I mean, I’m thinking more about the stereotypical first world person that can just go into a supermarket and buy whatever he wants.

Unfortunately the majority of people in the first world live in areas where that just isn't possible. Outside of a potted plant or two.

But yes, victory gardens FTW! :) At the very least they build in more resiliency.

I think you're being tongue in cheek, but I responded to a person elsewhere online a while back from India who was basically justifying hiring servants as being beneficial. I disagree and think that that's a sink of human resources. The economy, and capitalism, can come up with better uses for most people who are full-time servants.

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