A new venture caught my eye this weekend, in a story of four tech-entrepreneur siblings who are in the process of raising money from investors. But this is no ordinary fundraising round. Rather than selling shares in a conventional company, the Libermans are selling shares in themselves.If this idea strikes you as uncomfortably reminiscent of times when it was commonplace for people to be traded as assets, I’m right there with you. But sinister as it may sound, it is worth remembering that the Libermans are doing this of their own volition. Furthermore, they believe that what they call a “People Company” — which they hope to float on the stock exchange — will not only benefit them financially: it could also “stem 21st-century inequality”.
I should come clean right away: I think that is a naive and foolish idea and it will do nothing of the sort. The notion that turning people into holding companies will somehow make the rest of the world more equal smacks of a particularly dopey and deluded form of techno-utopianism, and it shouldn’t be taken terribly seriously. Nor are the Libermans the first to think of this.
But I do think it is worth exploring the separation of the present self from that of the past and future. The supposed value of “Libermans Co” derives not only from the profits of the siblings’ current endeavours, but also from the money they will make over the next 30 years. The idea is that Daniil, David, Anna and Maria, who grew up in poverty in Moscow, should be able to benefit not just from their current selves, but from their future versions too.