
How to Own a Slave (2016) - chmars
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/07/nassim-nicholas-taleb-how-to-own-a-slave.html
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Animats
That's Taleb, trying to be an expert on everything.

 _" About in the 1990s, people suddenly realized that working as a company man
was safe… provided the company stayed around."_

1990s? That's when being a "company man" ended. Taleb uses IBM as an example,
but IBM had their first layoff in 1993.[1] IBM made it through the Great
Depression without laying off anybody.

Then he goes on to an argument that only autocrats are free, because elected
leaders are subservient to their electorate. He mentions Putin, but not Trump.
In the last century, autocrats haven't done all that well; they mostly lost
wars and headed countries that went downhill.

[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/16/business/first-layoffs-
see...](http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/16/business/first-layoffs-seen-at-
ibm.html)

~~~
inops
How is Trump an autocrat? The congress, the supreme court, the individual
judiciaries of states?

His dealings with these so far have been him backing down at every turn.

~~~
maxxxxx
I think he would love to be one in the same way he is probably in his
companies. Thank God he is not very good at it.

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bognition
TL;DR life is chaos. Slavery is giving up your will for the illusion of safety
and protection. Freedom is only found by taking on the risk of self-ownership.

