A Cautionary Tale

Just finished a really good book titled The Water Thief, the corporate version of 1984, a cautionary tale describing what the impact would be if unbridled capitalism ruled the world. 

“But when I saw the price of water I nearly choked. In the last hour it had gone up tenfold. Buying some more information, I learned that there had been an attack, this time at a water treatment facility in Brookhurst. A corporation from a competing Karitzu paid a mercenary firm to blow it up, and raw sewage was now spilling into the aquifer.

My God! Did this happen before my shower? What about the toilet? Christ, I may have just blown six hundred caps on a single flush!

Hell, for the next few hours I couldn’t even afford to wash my hands.”

Soutter also succinctly defines the proper role of government as well.

She sighed. "Compared to people now, yeah, I think they were happy. Republics caused problems too, but for the most part they were an impartial third party that protected people. They had laws-rules nobody could break no matter how much money you had and a system to enforce those laws. And people did cheat the system, but enough power was left to the public that you couldn't leverage the whole thing. At least that was the theory of it all."

Any questions?