You know what they used to call it?

Slavery.

Then some very smart people in very expensive suits sat down and had a meeting about the word. And they came up with better ones. Forty-five of them, actually. "Employment." "The gig economy." "Financial responsibility." "Entry level." "Competitive market." "Bootstrapping." "Hustle culture." You know — words that make the cage sound like a lifestyle choice.

This audiobook is about the cage.

Not the cage they built in 1619 — that one at least had the honesty to call itself what it was. This one is newer. Shinier. Comes with a participation trophy and a LinkedIn profile. This cage lets you pick your own lock— sorry, your own career path. This cage tells you that you chose this. That the reason you can't afford to get sick, can't afford to have children, can't afford to stop working until you die is because you simply haven't wanted it badly enough.

Spoiler: you wanted it plenty. They just built the cage before you got there.

Inside you'll find: the history of how free people were turned into inventory, the forty-five names they use so you don't notice, the mathematics of a system designed to extract everything and return as little as legally required, and the very specific list of people who decided this was fine.

They're the ones holding the strings.