Rendering unto Caesar

A turn of phrase that reflects my understanding of a conversation I just had with my eldest brother, who I refer to here as number one.

BTW, my policy on this blog is to not use actual names for privacy purposes.  I use my own name, but nobody else's, unless they are already well-known names that are "out there".  By disclosing names already known, it isn't invading their privacy, or so the thinking goes.

So number one says that it is hard to make a living as a mechanic these days because of the system.  The system has rigged it so that it is hard to make money doing it profitably.  You have to have a lot of tools, as he mentioned.  He said his tools costs more money than what I'd like to discuss here.  Just saying, in order to have these tools represent a large investment of money.  Without these tools, a mechanic cannot do his job.

However, the system favors other lines of work.  He mentioned that an electrician may do pretty well these days.

For want of a better expression, I call the system "Caesar".  Caesar runs the system, and you have to do what Caesar says, or you run afoul of the system.  If you run afoul of the system, then you will be punished by Caesar.  In the mechanic business, one way of running afoul of the law is to screw customers.  If you were to get caught at that, you would have a lawsuit or possibly even jail time.  An honest mechanic has a hard time with the way Caesar has it set up these days.  The system is rigged against the honest mechanic.

Actually, that is a shame.  I admire his work.  Evidently, he likes doing it.  Or else, why bother with it since it doesn't pay so much?

I try to relate that to what I am trying to do out on the ranch.  I want to live without the need for a lot of money.  Now anything having to do with money involves the system, which is otherwise known as Caesar here.  The question is this: will Caesar let me do what I want to do, or will Caesar, by his rules, make my project infeasible?

Another aspect of this occurred to me.  If my project became famous or popular, then Caesar would want to tax it.  But since there is no money exchanging hands, how does Caesar do this?  That's what I mean.  Caesar wants to rig things so that you must play his money changing game.  To get by without money is to go against Caesar.  Caesar may not be pleased.