03 - How to Legally Own Another Person скачать в хорошем качестве

03 - How to Legally Own Another Person

The gyrovagues were itinerant medieval monks who roamed freely, living off begging with no institutional affiliation. They possessed ultimate freedom—not through wealth but through lack of wants, achieving the equivalent of f*** you money by being at society's lowest rung. The church systematically banned them across centuries, with Saint Benedict establishing rules emphasizing "stability, conversion of manners, and obedience," explicitly removing all freedom. Organizations require employees deprived of freedom, owned through conditioning and skin in the game—something to lose if they disobey. Consider Bob the pilot contractor who abandons your Oktoberfest flight for a better Saudi offer, leaving you facing bankruptcy and lawyer-filled planes. Contractors are free; they fear only law. Employees fear losing their payroll, that monthly envelope without which they'd act like babies deprived of mother's milk. Employees exist because they have significant skin in the game—you're buying dependability through shared risk. The employee signals domestication by enduring years of ritual punctual arrivals, denied personal schedules, and suppressed rage after bad days. They're obedient, housebroken dogs. The company man once dominated—identity stamped by his firm, wearing IBM's mandatory white shirts and dark suits, social life invested entirely in corporate culture. Leaving meant banishment-level penalties. The system worked when corporations outlasted nation-states. But the 1990s technological revolution destroyed this stability; IBM's "lifers" discovered their low-risk positions weren't low-risk when layoffs arrived. They were unemployable outside—even their sense of humor failed beyond corporate walls. Today's "employable person" replaced the company man—owned not by one company but by the terrifying need to remain employable across an industry. They fear upsetting not just current employers but all potential future ones, ensuring they'll never appear in history books because they're designed to leave no mark. Ronald Coase explained firms exist because market transaction costs exceed benefits of internal employment. But he stopped short of recognizing employees as risk-management strategies. Romans understood this: they used slaves as treasurers because higher punishment was possible than with free persons. You needn't rely on law when you can inflict direct penalties. The expat system represents curious modern slave ownership. Multinational corporations send employees to foreign locations with country club memberships, drivers, villas, gardeners, and first-class family trips. The employee earns multiples of locals' salaries, builds social life with other expats, becomes addicted. Returning to headquarters means reverting to middle-class suburbs, commuter trains, and sandwich lunches—terrifying loss of status. Ninety-five percent of their mind focuses on company politics, exactly what the company wants. Ahiqar's tale captures the dilemma: the dog boasts comfort and luxury to the wolf, who flees upon seeing the collar. "Of all your meals, I want nothing." The wolf still runs. Freedom entails real skin in the game—freedom is never free. Don't be a dog claiming to be wolf; Harris's sparrows experimentally darkened to fake dominance get killed because "you need to walk the walk." A dog's life appears stable but without owners, dogs don't survive. Wolves are trained to survive. Some employees aren't slaves: traders and salespeople whose profits/losses or client relationships made them unmanageable when profitable. Traders making money grew so disruptive they required isolation from other employees. Freedom associates with risk-taking; risk-takers are wild animals feeling part of history. Traders cursed like sailors, using foul language as expensive signaling of freedom and competence. Ironically, the highest status (free man) adopts mores of the lowest class. Loss aversion dominates: what matters isn't what you have but what you fear losing. The more you have to lose, the more fragile you are. CIA Director Petraeus couldn't have an extramarital relationship—you can risk people's lives but remain a slave. Civil service structures around this principle. Putin exemplifies the autocrat's advantage: possessing f*** you money equivalent, projecting visible "I don't care," he mesmerizes followers while NATO heads need committees, approval, and press calibration. Domesticated animals can't stand against wild predators regardless of military capability—it's the trigger that counts. Bureaucrats whose survival depends on qualitative job assessments cannot be trusted for critical decisions or emergencies outside their designated function. Vietnam War, Saudi Arabia policy post-9/11, and 2009 bank crisis all demonstrate how bureaucrats lacking skin in the game continue absurd courses rather than make hard decisions optimal for countries but suboptimal for their careers.