3 ms·

> He could secure forthwith, if he wished it, cheap and comfortable means of transit to any country or climate without passport or other formality. What? No TS

• leobg 5y ago
  Stefan Zweig in The World of Yesterday wrote about his first visit to the United States in the time before WWI: “No one asked about my nationality, my religion, my origin, and what was more—an amazing thing to imagine in our modern world of fingerprints, visas and police permits—I had travelled without a passport. But there was work waiting for people to do it, and that was all that counted. Fabulous as it now seems, a contract could be instantly agreed without today’s inhibiting intervention of state formalities and trade unions.”
  • EdwardDiego 5y ago
    > a contract could be instantly agreed without today’s inhibiting intervention of state formalities and trade unions Stefan Zweig was a novelist, poet and playwright, born of a wealthy family, so we can forgive him his lack of understanding of why state formalities and unions exist. (People don't generally form unions if they're being well paid and well treated, as my first piece of evidence, look at the thorough lack of unionisation in software developers).