[kennywinker]

Depends, was ditch-digging a well paid job that people enjoyed? Did your business grow 10x and you offered excavator training for those 10 ditch-diggers to become machine operators?

[delichon]

Ditch digging is a crap paying job that most people hate, they just need it for food and stuff. After the mechanical resource arrived, I didn't need the other nine guys and just let them go, since I didn't suddenly get 10x the business. How does that change the calculation? Should I have kept paying them until I could find them work?

[bluefirebrand]

You don't have to keep paying them, but you probably shouldn't sneer down at them and call them "low value human capital" or whatever

[phs318u]

Exactly. What most humans value highly (though not always highest) is being treated with dignity.

[kennywinker]

> Should I have kept paying them until I could find them work?

Yes.