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A comment on Why wasn't the steam engine invented earlier? Part II. Parent comment

Re:Why wasn't the steam engine invented earlier? Part II by bluGill on Friday July 15, 2022 @03:02PM (#32111650)
Sure you can - so long as you have a police force that will check up on things once in a while. Or at least you have convinced the slaves that the police force will catch them and life will be worse after they are caught.
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Re:Why wasn't the steam engine invented earlier? Part II by BurningFrog on Friday July 15, 2022 @06:13PM (#32113332)
Up to a point, sure.

But I think there is a point when it makes more sense to just pay the guy a wage, instead of running a big expensive police state controlling everything...

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Re:Why wasn't the steam engine invented earlier? Part II by kortilla on Friday July 15, 2022 @07:45PM (#32113934)
Depends on the scale of the slavery. Once it’s systemic you can even have slaves even enforcing the rules on each other (see military conscripts).
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