The Arthashastra Was Not Written for Kings Alone
Chanakya's core argument in the Arthashastra is that an employer who underpays a capable, loyal worker does not save money. He loses it, slowly, invisibly, and in ways that do not show up until the damage is done. The text was addressed to rulers managing vast state machinery, but the logic holds at every scale. A household that employs a cook, a driver, a caretaker, or a domestic worker is running a small economy with the same pressure points: wages, trust, continuity, and the cost of starting over.
