Self as Property

This month’s free book from U Chicago Press: Down and Out in the New Economy: How People Find (or Don’t Find) Work Today, by Ilana Gershon

I love the book’s dedication:

To Friedrich Hayek.
   If his philosophy had not been so influential,
   I would never have had to write this book.

This passage in the introduction made me think of Lifebusiness:

Metaphors matter. They are frameworks that strongly influence how you classify and analyze your experiences. Employment metaphors help us decide the proper relationship between employer and employee, how to improve this relationship, and the strategies that should be used when someone wants to change jobs or a company wants to change working conditions. These metaphors are vague and often contextually and historically specific. So when people think of themselves as property, for example, what do they have in mind—a field of wheat, a car, or a suburban house? And when they think of themselves as businesses, do they have in mind start-ups, mom-and-pop stores, or multinational corporations?