News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Why It's Safe for Founders to Be Nice (2015) by Mz on Saturday August 19, 2017 @09:41PM (#15056560)
It used to take around 20 farmers to support a single non farmers, such as a noble or black smith. We now have many people supported by each farmer in the modern world.

If people are too "nice," we can totally go back to a hunter-gatherer way of life instead of keeping modern institutions alive. I imagine billions would die to get there from here. But, at least we would no longer need to make hard decisions like which poor sucker to fire.

Re:Why It's Safe for Founders to Be Nice (2015) by PeanutCurry on Sunday August 20, 2017 @12:47AM (#15056990)
I'm not entirely sure I understand your metaphor in this case. I appreciate that it had something to do with efficiency but then I got lost because a 20:1 farmer-to-other feeding ratio seems incredibly unrealistic and made it hard to understand whether the ratio was relevant to the metaphor's point or was just an off the cuff sort of detail.
Re:Why It's Safe for Founders to Be Nice (2015) by Mz on Sunday August 20, 2017 @09:12PM (#15061234)
It isn't a metaphor. Without modern farming technology and techniques, the world cannot support 7 billion people. We deal with that fact or we die in droves. Those are our options.