Take up citizenship and the conversion it entailed, send a couple of your sons to the levy when they were of age, pay taxes calculated not to drive you and your family into penury or the mountains and the life of a bandit. Oh, and while you’re at it, steer clear of debt and disease. Chances were — mostly — if you did all that, you’d never starve, never have your home burned down and your children raped before your eyes, never have to wear a slave collar.

Auteur: Richard K. Morgan