There's an echo of something I remember Marx saying here, about the futility of trying to abolish capitalism, in private, behind its back. Ultimately, the two s

There's an echo of something I remember Marx saying here, about the futility of trying to abolish capitalism, in private, behind its back. Ultimately, the two stress points ruining the whole project are that the workers have to be productive, and non-productive workers must be fired. That drives both the crunch, and the lurking threat of being fired. These both have the same source - whatever organizational structure Valve chooses, it is a for-profit company with a limited hiring budget. If nobody was being paid, nobody had to be fired, and nobody was worried about money, their system probably wouldn't give rise to any cliques, barons, and so on - simply because there would be no need for this sort of defensive politics.