Very melodramatic, but inaccurate. The American portion of the New World offered significantly higher hourly wages for unskilled labor than the industrial heartland of Europe, by the late 1800s.

And these wages grew at record rates all through the latter decades of the 1800s, in the midst of the largest influx of penniless workers in US history (causing the foreign born portion of the US population to reach 15% by 1890).

That wages grew as fast as they did, with such a massive increase in the supply side of the supply and demand equation for labor, is testament to the opportunities that the principal nation of the New World was generating.

Both you're points and the gp's are good, but yours aren't refuting his, only pointing out that the master grew more generous.

What's worth refuting in gp's post is the notion that humanity is "plundering" nature. Humanity is nature, that's what there's no escaping, unless you believe in the supernature.

I really don't think PoS or PoW are going to change what you guys are talking about.