# The Outlet Story Arc 1: Sam - Redemption from bad acting/no remorse ### Sam is coming off the worst year of his life. He's not a good person but he's trying to do better. Sam committed a fraud that affected scores of innocent people. It wasn't that Sam was intentionally trying to hurt people who trusted him, but he has a hard time empathizing with anyone an abstraction layer or two beyond his tightest circle. And he is wildly confident of his own abilities. This is a potentially disastrous trait bundle. ### So to be honest, Sam didn't think about what might happen. Sam didn't entertain failure as an option, and he couldn't "feel" what failure might mean to those who trusted him. So recklessly, he gambled and lost. He lost big. ### Now it's time to pay the piper. Sam has been ordered to repay those he hurt — to give restitution to the innocent people damaged by his negligence. Restitution, in lieu of punishment when possible, is how peaceful societies take wrongs and make them right. And since this is a peaceful world Sam has the opportunity of a lifetime to rebuild his reputation and credibility. This does not mean Sam feels remorse for his actions, but that's the beauty of restitution over punishment. Neither can promise to change the heart of a bad actor, but restitution allows victims to be made whole, and aggressors a pathway to redemption. A win-win outcome. How long Sam remains redeemed is up to him. ### Burnt reputation But Sam has a problem. His public reputation is in the shitter. How can he possibly earn the funds he needs to pay back his victims if no one can trust him to do business? ### That's why Sam is on his way to The Outlet. The Outlet is a place where everyone starts fresh. A clean slate. Neither positive nor negative reputation. Neutral. So Sam has the opportunity to start small, and little by little earn his reputation back. For example, Sam has a skill that not many people know about. He learned plumbing while at school, and really took to it. Sam hopes to provide plumbing services to other vendors in The Outlet in exchange for restitution funds. ### But he'll have to start small. There are other plumbers in the Outlet with great reputations who make a very good living. In fact there are associations of plumbers whose members have to pass the strictest of requirements to get in. Sam hopes to do small, low-responsibility jobs in the beginning so he can earn enough plumbing reputation to one day get admitted to associations like these. And he's motivated to work hard to achieve that reputation so he can pay his debts and move on with his life. ### People in The Outlet are quite discerning. The Outlet is no free-for-all of bad actors. On the contrary! Everyone there has high expectations of quality and integrity. They are wary of anything that looks too good to be true. Anyone doing business with someone who has no reputation or bad reputation only does so in a favorable context — like when asymmetric escrow is present, or when jobs aren't critical. It's this environment where even someone like Sam, given the right context, can be trusted to do business. Patrons can have protection, and Sam can move forward unhampered by past bad reputation. It's this environment where his redemption can be earned.