The dissertation does not conclude that the economy is "built on deception," nor that it is fundamentally honest. It concludes that the economy is a **dynamic equilibrium between trust and its exploitation**, historically self-limiting, but currently subject to a technological shock that lowers every barrier the immune system relied upon. Whether the equilibrium re-stabilizes at a new, more deceptive baseline — or whether the immune system (regulatory, reputational, technological) adapts — is left as the open empirical question, appropriate to a descriptive thesis.