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Many obligations are dominated in local currency, as such, we must acquire local currency to discharge those obligations.

To a certain extent, being able to rent a flat that someone else has built is a carrot -- a luxury -- but to a certain extent, anti-vagrancy laws mean that there are whips -- consequences -- that I may incur but not having a flat. Social norms are constructed, but they are still real.

I should hope the average Joe is not viewed as a work mule to be compelled to action with whips and carrots.

Whip is a means of signaling and carrot has utility of it's own. That's an important distinction.