Edward Quince's Wisdom Bites: When Leverage Turns Human

 Mitchell’s corpocracy is not built by villains; it is built by efficient people who forgot why efficiency exists.

Leverage—the financial kind—is merely a metaphor for the deeper risk: moral leverage.
The pressure to enhance:

• earnings
  
  

• throughput
  
  

• utilization
  
  

• shareholder return
  without enhancing humanity.
  
  

The true danger isn’t debt on the balance sheet; it’s debt on the social ledger.

A corporation can borrow against:

• worker well-being
  
  

• environmental resilience
  
  

• public trust
  for years before the margin call arrives.
  
  

But it arrives.

Just as markets misprice tail risk until the tail devours the system, societies misprice moral risk until collapse becomes inevitable rather than unthinkable.

Mitchell’s future isn’t dark because systems fail—it’s dark because they succeed at the wrong aim.

The Financial Takeaway:
Leverage is less about interest rates than existential rates.
If returns accelerate while dignity decelerates, the liquidation moment is scheduled—even if unknown.

Build capital systems that do not require sacrificing humans to function.