kiteracer

You can extend this metaphor to employment and job performance as well, as explored by Marshall Brain in his short story "Manna" [0]:

You can imagine what would happen. Manna fires you because you don't show up for work a couple times. Now you try to go get a job somewhere else. No other Manna system is going to hire you. There had always been an implicit threat in the American economy -- "if you do not have a job, you cannot make any money and you will therefore become homeless." Manna simply took that threat and turned the screws. If you did not do what Manna told you to, it would fire you. Then you would not be able to get a job anywhere else.

As we get better at collecting and analyzing data on employees (a hot topic whenever tech interviews are discussed on HN), we should remember to exercise a certain amount of "social forgiveness."

[0] http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

There are some interesting quirks in the data if you click through the 'see a random occupation' button enough times. I wonder if they're artifacts of the sample size, or of the way certain professions are classified. Of people in the following professions who left their jobs -

Power plant operators, distributors, and dispatchers:

* 33% became Food batchmakers

* 11% became Bakers

Veterinarians:

* 46% became Actuaries

* 36% became Software developers, applications and systems software

Fish and game wardens:

* 87% became Detectives and criminal investigators

Psychologists:

* 25% became Urban and regional planners