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eairy t1_j9x0z1a wrote

Replying to Infamous-Anybody-693 (#1,984,169)

In 1800s Britain receiving welfare (i.e. free stuff) was seen as extremely insulting/embarrassing, and there was very little in the way of state provision, poor people were just left to die. The attitude was that even charity ought to be earnt. Hence the system of The Workhouse came into being. People were given really really horrible jobs to do in return for some food and a place to sleep. Workhouses were seen as a place for the completely destitute, they stigmatised those that lived in them and The Workhouse became something to be avoided at all costs, especially as they were seen as a trap that once entered was hard to leave.

Thus when economic hard times struck and lots of men ended up out of work through no fault of their own, local rich people would pay them to work constructing esoteric things, often referred to as 'a folly', to keep them and their families from falling into the workhouse system. These follies were usually some kind of stone tower on a local hill, but there was lots of variation.

It was busywork that was a fig leaf for receiving charity.

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316kp316 t1_j9x58ce wrote

The palace in the city of Jodhpur in India was similarly commissioned by the king of Jodhpur to help his subjects suffering from drought and lack of livelihood.

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Oznog99 t1_j9xaodu wrote

Nobody knew who they were, or what they were doing

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quarkman t1_j9xgr40 wrote

The guy paid a bunch of people to build a fancy garden for himself.

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LBraden t1_j9xin3a wrote

Replying to Infamous-Anybody-693 (#1,985,862)

A direct example I can give is one from my family during the US Civil war when cotton was stopped.

The managers of the cotton mills in the local area (and going to the same churches as their workers) decided the best option was to give each man the job of planting 5 flowers a week.

Another that happened to a neighbour of the family was that the Husband died after falling off a ladder cleaning the clock face on the market building, the children got a job as "cheer-uppers" just to bring in some extra income until they where old enough to actually work.

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KindheartednessIll97 t1_j9xk727 wrote

The History of Mummification in Venzone> In the 14th century, Venzone was hit by a deadly plague that killed many of its inhabitants. To prevent the spread of the disease, the bodies of the deceased were buried in a special soil mixture that was high in calcium. This helped to dry out the corpses and preserve them, leading to a unique form of natural mummification that became more common over time. By the 16th century, mummificationwas a widespread practice in Venzone.

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lu5ty t1_j9xnuxd wrote

Almost all works like this are simply jobs programs. There are those who say that NASA and their counterparts are nothing more than jobs programs for intelligent people whom would otherwise be dangerous left with nothing to do.

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nubsauce87 t1_j9xtbbk wrote

Son of a bitch... I went there in 2015 while visiting my then girlfriend's family... They took us there, telling us it was a druid ruin, and never told us it wasn't real (if they even knew)...

... god dammit...

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damp_s t1_j9xxkut wrote

Lmao I grew up near there and never knew this

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Darknessie t1_j9xy5s9 wrote

They are still building new sanctified druidic circles in England. There is one near my house.

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Shas_Erra t1_j9y5rl1 wrote

To an archaeologist, the term “Druid” is a bit like physicists and “Dark Matter”. It’s a catch-all term coined by Victorian antiquarians to basically sum up anything vaguely Bronze Age and/or “Pagan”. There was never any single culture called “Druids”

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chargernj t1_j9y7nb7 wrote

The idea that the ruling class needs to keep the workers busy is why we have the pyramids in Egypt.

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snorom t1_j9z1nn7 wrote

Went there with friends when one got his driving licence. Must've been around midnight, they all went and hid behind rocks and scared the life out of me by jumping out from the darkness in the days before phones had anything brighter than the illuminated keypad.

Felt like I was about to see Aslan sacrificed or something!

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ReasonableOutrage t1_j9z2tn4 wrote

It’s like a Terry Pratchett story.

Oh yeah that mysterious Druid temple?

It’s a temps’ office.

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ItDoesntMatter59 t1_j9z8yxw wrote

Replying to eairy (#1,985,661)

Although the workhouses were not great they were not exactly as you say. In my family research i have found several relatives who were born lived or died in one. They were the closest thing many had to medical facilities. The idea was to make them a home for the destitute but not be so comfortable people wanted to stay.

You also had to go to the town of your birth to be accepted in one.

A hospital in my town in north London until recently had buildings that were originally from the workhouse it started out as

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Clanstantine t1_j9zcla1 wrote

Replying to eairy (#1,985,661)

The United States did a similar thing during the Great depression. They founded the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was a program that provided jobs for unemployed young men. They went and built a lot of our national parks. Last year I went to a birthday party hosted in a stone pavilion in a national park that had photos taken of people from the CCC building it.

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subtlebulk t1_ja0otxd wrote

Replying to eairy (#1,985,661)

This reminds me of how in the U.S. during the Great Depression, Huguette Clark, daughter of Gilded Age Mining Baron William Clark, paid workers to demolish and rebuild her and her mother’s California mansion to help keep people employed.

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