From: David Dunham (ddunham@radiomail.net)
Date: Sun 03 Apr 1994 - 04:27:59 EEST
James Polk wrote
>in any society which spends 90+% of its time trying to
>keep themselves alive (Nomads in the Wastes, the RQ 2 Balazarlings)
On Earth, hunter-gatherers currently live only on marginal land (e.g. Arctic or Kalahari Desert). Nonetheless, they spend fewer hours per week on economic activities than do non-industrialized agriculturalists. Furthermore, I see no evidence from a quick look at Griffin Mountain that the Balazarings have a hard life.
Agriculture is a lousy lifestyle that nobody enters into willingly -- you adopt it because you're so densely populated you have no other choice. On the plus side, you do sometimes end up with surpluses that hunter-gatherers don't. On the minus side, if there's a localized drought, you generally can't just follow the game (or grazing). On the plus side, you can aspire to lead many men. On the minus side, you almost certainly end up getting led (hunter-gatherers are almost egalitarian).
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