The Unincorporated Man
by Dani Kollin · first published 2009
71% recommend24% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
Science fiction that explores a society where people are incorporated at birth and trade shares in one another's future earnings; readers who like economics-driven speculative ideas find its premise thought-provoking.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2021–2026A Memory Called Empire
Arkady Martine
Recommended by 25 · mentioned by 3225 recommend · 32 mention25 recommend · 3225 recommend
2009–2025Chasm City
Alastair Reynolds
Recommended by 19 · mentioned by 3119 recommend · 31 mention19 recommend · 3119 recommend
2008–2026Old Man’s War
John Scalzi
Recommended by 42 · mentioned by 8342 recommend · 83 mention42 recommend · 8342 recommend
2007–2026Down and out in the Magic Kingdom
Cory Doctorow
Recommended by 31 · mentioned by 8831 recommend · 88 mention31 recommend · 8831 recommend
2007–2026Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
Recommended by 202 · mentioned by 708202 recommend · 708 mention202 recommend · 708202 recommend
2007–2026Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
Recommended by 169 · mentioned by 436169 recommend · 436 mention169 recommend · 436169 recommend
2009–2026Blindsight
Peter Watts
Recommended by 214 · mentioned by 294214 recommend · 294 mention214 recommend · 294214 recommend
2007–2026The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
Recommended by 123 · mentioned by 481123 recommend · 481 mention123 recommend · 481123 recommend
In the "give this a read" category... The Unincorporated Man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unincorporated_Man // https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4025200-the-unincorporat... It has some intriguing ideas that... bear thinking about. I'll note that this…
on “Sanders calls for minimum salary of $60000 for public school teachers” ↗The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin & Eytan Kollin. It's a sci-fi set a couple hundred years in the future where everyone is incorporated at birth. Just like you can own shares in a company, you can own shares of another…
on “Ask HN: What are some good books?” ↗This dystopian idea was predicted in a pretty good book called "The Unincorporated Man" by the Kollin brothers in 2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unincorporated_Man
on “Education without loans: How income-share agreements can reshape education” ↗If you're interested in this concept, you may enjoy the novel "The Unincorporated Man" which is set in a future where everyone (except the protagonist) has personal shares traded on an open market. It's a bit thick on ideological propaganda of the extreme capitalist/libertarian type,…
on “The Ponzi Career” ↗Another interesting SciFi exploration of economics is the Unincorporated Man (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4025200-the-unincorporat...). Everyone is incorporated at birth, and trades shares in themselves (paying dividends once they are earning) to advance in life. People…
on “The Star Trek Economy” ↗There was an interesting book about this, The Unincorporated Man. Fellow basically gets put in cryostasis and wakes up in future where everyone is a stock venture like this article. There's some fun ideas in there. Parents in the story get something like a customary…
on “The Man Who Sold His Fate to Investors at $1 a Share” ↗Go read The Unincorporated Man. This isn't a novel idea; it was explored in a novel published in 2009.
on “Is Selling Shares in Yourself the Way of the Future?” ↗Highly recommend reading 'The Unincorporated Man' for anyone interested in this.
on “Two brothers selling shares in themselves” ↗May I suggest a science-fiction novel, The Unincorporated Man?
on “The Absurdity of Income Tax” ↗That would've been totally illegal except that the JOBS Act just passed into law. Now...maybe. There's a pretty good recent scifi book about this sort of thing, called The Unincorporated Man. Basic premise was that everybody is partly owned by other people. Own 10% of someone's shares and you get 10% of their income. Everybody's ambition is to get hold of 51% of their own shares.
on “I have 404,772 users. Now what?” ↗If you're interested in this idea you may like The Unincorporated Man, a book partially about a future where people buy and sell stocks of each other. Taxes, for example, are replaced with the government receiving 5% of a person's stock at birth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unincorporated_Man
on “It’s impossible to work your way through college nowadays” ↗Have you read The Unincorporated Man? It's a sci-fi novel about a society like the one you're suggesting, where "investors" in humans such as parents and educators own shares in the person's future earnings. The novel/series casts this in…
on “Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market” ↗The Unincorporated Man (Ender's Game too, but haven't read the sequels, but I also recommend Ender's Shadow - a parallel novel from a different character's perspective.)
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?” ↗Somewhat lesser-known sci-fi novels I read in the past: The Unincorporated Man (and three sequels) Cross between science fiction and fantasy: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality ("HPMOR") - the premise is that Harry Potter is raised by a good aunt and uncle, and is taught…
on “Ask HN: What sci fi books are you reading now?” ↗Life imitates art. Has anyone else read The Unincorporated Man by Dani and Eytan Kollin? "A brilliant industrialist named Justin Cord awakes from a 300-year cryonic suspension into a world that has accepted an extreme form of market capitalism. It's a world in which…
on “Entrepreneurs offer their life’s future earnings for an investment” ↗