>price we pay as a society for having a system where we pay people to give us what we want. This notion of convincing someone to do something for you (even for

>price we pay as a society for having a system where we pay people to give us what we want. This notion of convincing someone to do something for you (even for pay), while it seems very natural and common sense on the surface, actually entails a whole social arrangement which must be penetrated to understand it. The seemingly naive question "why do people work for others?" may have been more obvious in the past - when there were no such things as government safety nets - but now the question has changed and become a lot more interesting... as has the question of why people go above and beyond the call of duty for sometimes no perceptible reward. It turns out this topic is very much related to social psychology and the nature of desire, which is a favourite of philosophers. Frederic Lordon has a great book, Willing Slaves of Capial: Spinoza and Marx on Desire in which he tracks the recent development of capitalism through its stages. Here's a word from the blurb: >To complement Marx's partial answers, especially in the face of the disconcerting spectacle of the engaged, enthusiastic employee, Lordon brings to bear a "Spinozist anthropology" that reveals the fundamental role of affects and passions in the employment relationship, reconceptualizing capitalist exploitation as the capture and remoulding of desire.