[gv83]

yeah, it was way better when you worked the fields for a duke who had dibs over your underage wife for the first night of marriage. and don't forget the round robin slave labour in the castle! and don't forget to set aside some grain for the taxes, who cares if this year has been bad and it all goes to the duke...

capitalism has its faults, but these platitudes about rotten systems really miss the mark.

[marnett]

I could get behind your general sentiment perhaps in the context of 19th century industrialism, or maybe even 20th century robber barons, but what paradise for the masses does the 21st century of “billionaires with no nation-state allegiance” bring exactly?

Also, concentration of wealth doesn’t reverse without action - so your initial remarks on fiefdoms and feudalism may not be too far from where we find ourselves in this century, which king do you bend the knee to: House of the dragon, Zuckerberg, or House of the camel, Musk?

[gv83]

I agree with your sentiment - I simply don't have a specific answer or I would be a very important person as I would have "solved" one of this century hardest problem.

I just believe that technology and innovation and creative destruction (in the schumpeterian sense) can (as they did) bring better resource usage which in turn drive better lifestyle for everyone.

I'm not sure where I would go from here; my brain is wired to my country problems (which is not usa, I hail from europe) which are completely 0 opportunities to actually get rich + complete domination of old money due to compound interest unstoppable force.

Heavily taxing inheritance in every form could be a start, but I'm not an expert in policy.

[scarecrowbob]

I mean, I suppose we're not chattel slaves or sending our kids into mines.

I mean, someone is, because that is the only way to get billionaires.

But it's not us or our kids, at least.

HN is great for getting a little window into how the rich sociopaths in this culture live.

When folks write ahistorical fantasy, as you've done here, it's a very useful picture to help understand what kinds of really bad things folks are capable of thinking about the world.