The speaker discusses the concept of "Pirate Incorporated," a business model where a pirate crew operates as a business, seizing treasure and providing services to customers. The crew members are paid in shares of the profits, with the captain receiving two shares and the quartermaster receiving one and a half. The crew members are all equals, with no special privileges or titles. The crew operates under a contract that sets rules of conduct, voting methods, and punishments for violations. The captain serves at the pleasure of the crew and can be replaced by a majority vote, except during battles. The quartermaster oversees the crew's quarters, rations, and punishments. The crew is not paid in wages but with shares of the profit. The business model is designed to avoid the costs of repairs and personnel, which can be high. The crew members are motivated by the prospect of making a lot of money directly from their labors.
1. To be a pirate, you need to understand that it is a business. You can't have a crew, a ship, or a brand without a business model to support them.
2. The pirate business works like any other business. You make a product or provide a service to your customers in exchange for money, then spend that money on equipment and personnel to make more product for more customers for more money.
3. The difference with piracy is that Incorporated is our customers. They don't wish to be serviced no matter with the correct spending on equipment and personnel. The business will service them regardless.
4. If we don't service our customers, someone else will, and the reward for our abstemious will be poverty in our societal and technological environment and economic niche exists.
5. The pirate company's income means seizing the biggest booty seizing the biggest treasure while provoking the least cost inducing resistance.
6. The captain is not our boss but serves at the pleasure of the crew. If they are unhappy with his strategic decisions, the crew can replace him at any time by a majority vote.
7. The quartermaster keeps the ship running, overseeing the men, their quarters, their rations, their agreed-upon privileges, and punishments.
8. The cost of labor for crewmen is low, indicating that they are not interested in traditional employment.
9. As a crewman on a pirate ship, you are not paid in wages but with one share of the profit. The captain gets two shares for the strategic decisions he makes.
10. On a pirate ship, we are all equals, achieving a common goal.
11. The incentive for pirates is great. They are not here to sell their labor to distant and disinterested owners but to taste the fruit of their labors directly to make money.
12. The only thing standing in the way of the pirate business is the cost of ship repairs and people repairs.
13. The rules of supply and demand work against pirates. They can't sail into a port of the Empire seeking repairs without raising questions.
14. The contract lists generous compensation for lost legs, arms, hands, eyes. After the treasure is seized, the injured are compensated, the ship is repaired, supplies are replenished, and the remainder is profit.
15. After one successful voyage with the pirates, a crewman will be worth years of labor with the Empire.