The industrial-era employment contract turned work into a binary: • Show up 40–60 hours/week, exactly as told, or get zero income and lose health insurance. • No middle ground: 20 hours? Not allowed. Seasonal? Not allowed. Sabbatical? Rare. Surplus effort for surplus pay? Almost never. This creates the illusion that “retirement” is the only escape hatch. What people actually crave is flexible sovereignty over their time and energy.