Jack Howse is an author of speculative fiction, born in south-east London, where he still lives.
President William Turner Smith lost yesterday’s election. Christopher Charles Morpeth Donner is our new President— President-elect. So what are we in for? Donner has already said that as soon as possible after his inauguration next year, he’ll begin to dismantle the “wasteful, pointless, unnecessary” moon and Mars programs. Near space programs dealing with communications and experimentation will be privatized— sold off. Also, Donner has a plan for putting people back to work. He hopes to get laws changed, suspend “overly restrictive” minimum wage, environmental, and worker protection laws for those employers willing to take on homeless employees and provide them with training and adequate room and board.
What’s adequate, I wonder: A house or apartment?
A room? A bed in a shared room? A barracks bed?
Space on a floor? Space on the ground? And what about people with big families? Won’t they be seen as bad investments? Won’t it make much more sense for companies to hire single people, childless couples, or, at most, people with only one or two kids? I wonder.
And what about those suspended laws? Will it be legal to poison, mutilate, or infect people — as long as you provide them with food, water, and space to die?
