Dwarkesh Patel

And the employees who work for you look to you for their safety net as well as their political representation.

So we're very accustomed in the modern period to thinking of government as being our big safety net.

And if we wonder who is going to fund the hospitals, whose job is it to take care of orphans?

we think government or maybe the church.

But in this period, if you're killed and you leave orphans behind, it is your employer whose duty it is to take care of them.

If you are injured and can no longer work, it is your employer who will support you for the rest of your life while you are disabled and find you work that you can do with that disability.

A huge portion of the safety net is your employer.

Are you in trouble with the law?

Your employer will supply your defense attorney.

And your employer will supply the persuasive note to the judge that they would very much appreciate if their person got off.

This is the system known as the patronage system, and it existed in ancient Rome.

It exists and saturates the medieval and the Renaissance worlds.

in which everyone is in a very interconnected hierarchy.

So if you're a brewer and your son gets in a barroom brawl and punches somebody out and the person's nose breaks and they die in the brawl and your son is suddenly in trouble and you say, oh no, I don't want my son to be executed.

You turn to your landlord.

Your landlord turns to his landlord.

They turn to one of these major families.

And these major families are massive landowners that own dozens of apartments within the city.

Hundreds or thousands of people work for them.

And so it makes sense to everyone to be represented that way.