The 1/10 is pretty much what could reasonably be taxed from a simpler medieval farmer without them starving.
Also today we do have systems like social security. There are also quite a few things very similar to commons. Roads, parks, public land and so forth come to mind. I am pretty sure, if you created something like common land for farming most everybody would not use it. At least judging by the number of gardens trying to grow food.
Also today we do have systems like social security.
Not for much longer at the rate things are going.
Just don't try to live on public park land. They'll bulldoze your tent, sometimes with no notice. Sometimes they'll lie you into a false sense of security saying they will assist you with housing, then remove everything you own before said assistance is provided.
But now it's easier to shoplift. Markets used to be farmers selling stuff themselves, now its jusf a corporate chain. The employees of a corporate store don't give a fuck about you shoplifting, and it's much more ethical to steal from a corporate store than a farmer market.
good luck shoplifting a weeks worth of food regularly
Ohhh, I'd be happy to pay a huge chunk of income to a lord. Because they at least maintain infrastructure and such. Nowadays, however, we have random self appointed robber barons, who see a whole bunch of income that is supposed to go to the workers and say "nah, I'll take whatever I can get away with". ...maybe shit needs fixing.
Are you trying to make the case for indentured servitude? Serfdom?
Hey, but TVs are cheap, right? There's never been a better time to buy cheap plastic bullshit!
21st Century: ..... but I have an iphone and I get free wifi at the library ... check mate 13th century!
I mean there are some other shitty stuff feudal peasants had to do or had it harder than us, but it is kinda sad that there still are things peasants had that we don't (like shorter working hours and longer breaks). You'd think with the technological advancements we've had since the "death" of feudalism we would have more to distinguish ourselves from feudal peasants. I feel like the only major differences (at least in America) is the mass consumerism and that the feudal lords are capitalists rather than nobility.
the long work weeks we have today is because more work can be done.
in medieval age, you had to sow, half a year later you had to reap, and in between maybe idk milk the cows, though that takes a few minutes a day, not much longer. so they couldn't work more, because it simply wouldn't have made sense. That's why they didn't work more, not because they didn't need to.
The differences are a lot more than the current state of affairs. My great great grandparents were serfs, so I've heard quite a bit of stories about what it was like. As bad as stuff is right now, we are still worlds better off. Thanks to relatives that are still there today, I've been to where they lived during the serfdom, and saw the work they had to do. They slept on what looked like picnic table benches. Two people per bench face down with their arms and legs hanging over the sides. One tiny house, for a family with 7 children. They were constantly sick and weak from lack of food, despite growing it. Almost everything was taken from them from the insane taxes. Moving was not an option because they were bound to the land. Every day, they had to walk up and down a mountain to tend sheep. The one advantage over slavery is that they could only be bought and sold with the land they were bound to. So families couldn't be split apart. It was also illegal for owners to murder their serfs. Slaves, on the other hand, would have been legally considered dead in the court of law.
That said, the oligarchs absolutely want to bring back both serfdom and slavery. Prison labor will be the means of slavery. Freedom cities will be the path to serfdom. The fact that there is a long way to fall to get to that point should absolutely terrify us because YES, it gets MUCH worse, and yes, we are taking an express train straight to that dystopian reality. There is no bottom for billionaires. There is no road too low. The most horrible things imaginable are part of their plan. The road doesn't stop at late stage capitalism. Late stage capitalism leads to oligarchy, authoritarianism, and corporate feudalism. And the horrors of that we cannot yet comprehend.
