"The entire economy of almost everywhere runs on coercion in various forms. Hell, more than half the economy of Osirion runs on coercion on a really basic level, between their women and their slaves, which Osirians also have plenty of. Cheliax has more coercion in the form of the state telling people what they ought to be doing than some other countries, but it also has fewer people starving to death because they made stupid decisions about what work to do and how to do it, which may well be the alternative."

"Paid halflings sound like an easy fix, until you realize that lots of people seem to hold that unowned halflings are inherently nomadic - or, worse, inherently criminal, without a whip over them - and that if Keltham ever encounters evidence that leads him to believe that those people are right, it's going to seem very implausible that they choose to work as farmers in greater numbers than humans do."

"The entire economy of almost everywhere runs on coercion in various forms. More than half the economy of Osirion runs on coercion on a really basic level, between their women and their slaves, which Osirians also have plenty of. Cheliax has more coercion in the form of the state telling people what they ought to be doing than some other countries, but it also has fewer people starving to death because they made stupid decisions about what work to do and how to do it, which may well be the alternative."

"Paid halflings sound like an easy fix, until you realize that lots of people seem to hold that unowned halflings are inherently nomadic - or, worse, inherently criminal, without a whip over them - and that if Keltham ever encounters evidence that leads him to believe that those people are right, it's going to seem very implausible that they choose to work as farmers in greater numbers than humans do."