Equality – Drop in the Ocean Fiction – Choices

Equality

The day had come, when everyone would have to choose everything they would eat, drink, read, watch and do, for the entire next decade. They’d be making these choices on their smart phones or computers, or, if they didn’t have either of those, they could go to a library. In 60 days, everyone will have needed to go through the process of making their decisions, and if they fail to do that, they’ll end up with the “standard,” Government Issued set of items.

They’d been warned. Slightly less than three quarters of the world’s population had so far complied.

The information urging people to act had been out for the past year, and ads and TV spots had angered many people with the government’s constant nagging to study all of the choices available, as soon as possible, because many people would choose something and then change their mind and want to exchange for something different. They were warned that waiting too long would carve away at their getting the best choices.

It was a pretty good and fair thing the government was doing actually. Those folks who plan well could continue to enjoy nearly as much variety as they do now, as they would use their time to plan correctly. Unfortunately, a relatively small percentage of people are good at planning anything, so a large number, possibly a majority, would be getting the standard Government Issued selections.

Of course, no one knew, (or had seen evidence that would cause them to assume), that the standard issue option would be a bad choice. It’s just that people generally still have the thought in the backs of their minds, that if the government is giving something away, it’s likely not of very good quality even if it’s nothing more than advice.

The idea wasn’t that there were going to be high-value items for some and low-value items for others. If they did that, it would tarnish the whole basis for why the decision was made to redistribute in the first place. You can’t have a system that promises to redistribute the world’s wealth and then also plays favorites. Under the new system, every single person on earth over 18 years old starts at the same level of worth.

The first days and weeks after the redistribution went into effect, saw lots of trouble in the ways people responded. Problems sprang up almost immediately, with the people who had the idea that because they now were as wealthy as all of the previous wealthiest people, they deserved red carpet treatment everywhere they would go, just like those former big shots who were now their equals got.

They didn’t understand that the redistribution was meant to level things out, not to bring one class down or push the other class up. It’s amazing how some still see economic equality as an opportunity for personal gain. Most also didn’t understand why this new system initiative of “shopping for the decade” became necessary once redistribution occurred.

Everything was now done by computational power and resources, robots and artificial intelligence. Jobs for humans had been completely phased out rather quickly - within 6 months actually.

Many had complained that former celebrities and other “rich” people were likely still getting favor over everyone else, without any evidence such a claim was true. Tackling greed seems to illustrate that good old jealousy also needs attention.

There was much more complaining from those former extremely wealthy individuals however, than there ever was with the former lower classes. That’s probably to be expected in many, but not all cases. Roger Glatt was one of the billionaires before the redistribution. He was the first former billionaire to support the redistribution.

The redistribution served another purpose, and it’s still up in the air whether it was a planned or unintentional success. We’re talking about the fact that practically everything has changed in the influence game. It had previously been plagued with sell-outs and deep pockets. Now, that blackmail had essentially been wiped out, some who once had great power had no choice but to accept equality.

Even though this new stage of economic evolution has seen surprising success in molding new lifestyles for the masses of humans worldwide to enjoy, there are still quite a few people who are very upset that the redistribution took place.

Their main beef? They complain that the redistribution made people “equal” to them, but it’s a lie. They claim “those people” will never actually be equal to them.

It may take a generation or two before new things become normal.

_{Equality © free-reign 2019}

Sources for images used in this post:

Choice: Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Shopping List: Image by 6519582 from Pixabay
Forklift: Image by LillyCantabile from Pixabay
High Quality: Image by Thanks for your Like • donations welcome from Pixabay

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