>> When I was young one of the "economic principles" I was taught was " As long as you are making 'the man' money you can do almost anything and you will still have a job. But, if you stop making 'the man' money, no matter how much he likes you, you will eventually get fired.

I learned a few others.
The first was that no one was doing me a favor by letting me work for him.
In fact, I was probably the one doing the favor - but at the worst - it's an even trade.
Second, I never really cared whether boss liked me. I cared whether I liked the boss.

I often think about what one of my fellow execs told the principal shareholder when he was leaving the company.
The shareholder said "Why are leaving - I treated you like a son?"
The exec said "You paid me well because I earned you a lot more than you paid me. If you paid me a fortune for doing noting, then you'd be treating me the way you treat your sons."