And after meeting that person you thought, "wow I wish this person didn't have an alternative income stream that allows them to feed their family"?

Many people in this world wish they could do something different with their lives, but to blame the activity they're currently doing is shortsighted.

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nashashmi 3 days ago | parent [-]

lol. Sure I felt happy that he had something else to keep his family fed. But I as a tourist with more valuable cash come into this country with an artificially low value cash, take up the very resources of that country to … give me a tour! This guy is probably a skilled archeologist who made a huge effort to learn history of an ancient civilization and was actually able to translate whatever we asked him to translate.

And here he is could be doing something so much more valuable … than giving this idiot (me) a “tour”.

I am appreciative that I met him. And that he was my guide. But my money didn’t give him an income. It took away the finite resources of his country.

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AlotOfReading 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

People generally become tour guides because alternative jobs don't exist. It's extremely common for the local workers who help with excavation to become tour guides for the areas they've helped excavate. Many of these people are more knowledgeable (in certain respects) than the archaeologists they're helping.

I'm fairly certain you weren't taking him away from something more valuable that he would have been doing in your absence.

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shawabawa3 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If there was less tourism there would be even less demand for archeologists and the guy would have likely been forced into an even lower skilled job

	▲	nashashmi 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		In Egypt, archaeology is funded by foreign governments and universities who use the discoveries to write papers. Before they would also extract the treasures until a law was made that prohibited that.

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0xDEAFBEAD 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Nothing stops you from giving the guy a donation.

	▲	nashashmi 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		What stopped him from doing his work? A more lucrative alternative field. Only one of the works is more worthwhile.