Journeyman physics isn't all bad, and in fact can be quite good. Not only do you not have to worry about the social, administrative, political and funding headaches of academia, you are also not suffused in the always reasonable-sounding groupthink that persistently tells you what can and cannot be done, what should and should not be questioned. I strongly believe that the next truly big shift in physics, if it ever comes, must come from an outsider. (And if that happens, ironically, we'll have another period of fruitful professional academic physics, and later another iteration of this same discussion).
We are so good, that we have an epidemic of people consuming too many calories.
There is no way for me right now to get social security and being allowed to be in university. But i would be able to get social security.
Officially universities throw you out after x years, but no one will bat an eye if you sit in a big lecture because there is plenty of space. But the documents/video recordings etc. is protected by some passwords for no particular reason.
Imagine were you could go to a campus for a few years and have enough for feeding yourself, paper, pen and books and basic oversight (not blocking the space for someone who would use it to learn while you only sit in your room gaming).
That's quite a claim; is there a basis for it? Is there data? Research? Did manual labor really leave no time for other things - I've heard otherwise too.
And why do all those people working need an elite few taking most of the capital for themselves, e.g., to build massive homes and to guild their castles and churches? That capital could have been invested in the population and greatly improved the standard of living, technology (reducing the need for labor), knowledge, etc.
The elite few spent a lot of that capital fighting each other over power and land, not only consuming capital but destroying it - destroying much of what that labor built. They also use it to oppress many who could have raised humanity to greater fredom, knowledge, and prosperity.
We reside in a living example of the far, far more successful alternative - no authoritarian country, now or in the past, comes close to the prosperity of free, advanced democracies.
The justications for authoritarianism are popular these days.
I was quite clear that I'm not defending past or present inequality. I said nothing to defend the lavish lifestyles of feudal lords.
I'm not a historian, but here's a description of the day-to-day life of a medieval peasant:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/mcgog5/comme...
How is that reconciled with (from GGP):
> for thousands of years, the human labor required to feed, clothe, and shelter a family wouldn't have allowed anyone to learn, preserve, and advance human knowledge without the labor of many being exploited one way or another by an elite few.
That seems to advocate for or justify exploitation of the poor by the wealthy?
The biggest such evidences are still there: The pyramids and other huge monuments, which took 100s of thousands or more of manhours to build. Many cultures had temples with ample evidence that people spent a lot of time engaging in religious activities there. Everywhere you evacuate, you see art pieces that had to be made by people spending time there. The dead were often buried with weapons and food. There is plenty of evidence of people engaging in massive yearly festivals with lots of food, drinks and music.
How is all of this happening if humans were like cattle spending all their looking for food?
Sure, in some places and times there was enough slack to allow common people to celebrate festivals or partake in elaborate religious activities. But I think you underestimate how costly education was when every book had to be painstakingly copied by hand.