(nothing new going on here, just writing it down, and trying to avoid blogging about the election.)
Lord:
Owns hundreds of acres of land
Owes allegiance/tribute/tithe to king/church
Has 3-10 full time domestic servants and oversees dozens or hundreds of serfs
Has plenty of kinda boring food, decent nutrition
Is moderately well educated
Is in good physical shape
Is prone to diseases he doesn't understand
Expects to live a total of what, 40-50 years?
Some intellectual freedom
Travels by horse
Writes letters to friends and family
Me:
Owns no land
Pays taxes
Zero to 0.05 domestic servants (a gardener comes by every 2 weeks? I don't service my own car?)
Has a huge variety of tasty and affordable dietary options, excellent nutrition
Extremely/over educated
In ok physical shape
Is not afraid of getting sick
Expects to live 70+ (possibly ++) years
X-treme intellectual freedom
Travels by car, plane, bicycle, train
Communicates instantly with any of his acquantances
So, while I'm a lot poorer in terms of real estate, and in terms of the number of other lives I control, I'm much richer in almost every other meaningful way. Or, while my relative position in society is much lower, my absolute position, in terms of freedom and quality of life, is much higher. At least in my opinion. So, I can scoff at the lord, and the lord can scoff at me. Scoffs for everyone!
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