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[Edited, too darn wordy.]

I believe I have solved one of life's great mysteries. No, really this time.

Several weeks ago, there was a of program devoted to pyramids around the world. One realizes how much effort it must have taken for the ancients to errect these monolithic monuments. Furthermore, there was a program called "Building the Impossible", which scientists of today attempt to recreate lost machinery and structures using nothing but tools and methodologies of the same time period. This one episode was rebuilding the ancient burial tombs of the Pharohs.

So anyway, the whole idea is that for these pyramids and tombs to have been built, many men were used over tens of years.

A quick side note. Although the pyramids were essentially crypts, the Egyptians also used underground burial chambers; made necessary because the pyramids were always being raided. The underground burial chambers couldn't be raided because in essense, the casket were two slabs of 100 tonne plus slabs of stones, hollowed out for the body, sandwiched, and finally buried in the sand. There was no way the thieves of yesteryear could penetrate the stone, let alone dig it up.

Okay, so I'm telling you all this, and why? Simple.

Imagine back in the day, where you had a population of 200,000 people. What do all these people do for a living? Food production was a big deal to be sure, and creating/maintaining shelter probably came second. But then what? How many people can you have planting in fields and making mud bricks? If half of the people had jobs, what about the other half?

So the Pharohs created these gargantuan structures to keep the whole population busy. Idle hands breed evil. If the Pharoh extracted taxes/tributes from the people, he better expect them to be able to pay. To afford the tax, one must earn a living. That's why the pyramids exist. It created jobs for the everyday peasant who otherwise wouldn't have a thing to do. You don't believe me, do you....

Scenario: As a business person living on an island of 10 people, where 5 have gathered in a central spot, and others are scattered throughout. Do you:
a. Build a taco stand in the middle of nowhere
b. Build a taco stand where 1 or two people reside, or
c. Franchise a Taco Smell right where the five live??

Of course the answer is C. It makes sense because that's where all the disposable income is located. We all agree, right?

So I was looking at where my annual tax return form gets mailed to, (having never noticed before) and I was surprised to find it as Sudbury, Ontario; whic is kind of far away from Toronto. If the largest city in Canada happens to be Toronto, doesn't it make sense to actually have a tax center in T.O.? Saves a lot of trucking of mail to and from Sudbury, doncha think?

Therefore the only logical reason is because our government needs to create jobs. By setting up the tax center in Sudbury, which quite frankly is in the middle of nowhere, they've employed hundreds of people who otherwise would not have a thing to do in Sudbury, save the nickel mines.

The ancient rulers came to the same conclusion. Let us erect huge structures (to please the gods of course), and Akbar Q. Peasant will have a way to earn a living, which we can then tax. Everyone will have a job, and nobody can complain about how terrible the world has become.

It's that simple, really.

....I could so be an Egyptologist. posted by losir at 7:21 PM