The Smiths and Joneses (46 page)

              “Huh? How can you say that?”

              “They’re not paid enough to support their families; they can’t get a better job because there aren’t any better jobs to be had. They’re slaves to the business owners. Your system was designed to keep them down and controllable.”

              “Wolf what the hell are you saying? This isn’t the 1850s; we have no slaves here.”

“Why don’t you figure a way to help those on the lowest rung of the ladder? The USA is still the richest country in the world, why don’t you spread the money around a little? You figured out how to create science fiction laser weapons and put men on the moon, yet you can’t figure out how to improve the lives of many of your people? What kind of country are you?”

              “Wolf, we’re a free country, one that allows people to make their own choices. No one ordered the workers to take those jobs. No one put a gun to their head. No one told many of them to drop out of school. There are many programs available to help them learn to improve themselves. We provide all types of opportunities for people.”

              “Bob, I’m sure you believe that. I don’t, and I know millions of viewers don’t either. Let’s take the last racial incident when a white police officer shot a young black child.”

              “Wolf, that young black child as you call him, was an adult who outweighed the officer by more than 100 pounds, he tried to beat up the officer, who’s in the hospital with a broken nose and jaw. He didn’t listen to the officer. No matter what happened, there was no reason for the minorities to riot and burn a third of the city down.”

              “Bob, they had the right to express themselves.”

              “Wolf, express themselves? They went wild; they burned a third of the town down. They didn’t wait for the legal system to work. They attacked everyone they encountered. They refused to listen to anything. They made up their own story, believing their own bullshit. When many of the stores and homeowners said they’re not going to rebuild, the community went wild again. They feel entitled to whatever they want. They refuse to work and earn it like others. They’ve been educated by progressives like you to believe it’s not their fault they can’t get a decent job; they’ve been educated to believe they are entitled to everything. The truth is no one is entitled to anything. People have to earn what they get.”

              ‘Bob, we believe that people are entitled to certain necessities, like a decent place to live, three meals a day, clean air to breath, clean water to drink, a decent job that pays a living wage, and clean and safe streets.”

              “Wolf, who pays for all of these entitlements? Why does everyone else have to pay to support the desires of these people? Why can they make demands from others? Isn’t them making demands from others and the state forcing those who earn more to pay for the less wealthy make the wealthy slaves to the less fortunate? Aren’t you creating a new class of slaves?”

              Leon pushes his way into the conversation, “Hey, you guys are getting into some heavy stuff. I want some screen time. I need to say hi to all of my FB friends. I want to give a big shout out to all of my friends and followers out in viewer land. I got a new hair cut today; you’re getting to see it here first. Like it? Post on my page what you think about it. I made the first team yesterday; we’re going to win state. I’m starting to work out with weights to bulk up for spring. I’ll be posting new pics tonight. Check out my updates. Love you all. And, hey, when the program is over, please keep following me. I hope to see you all soon.”

              Sean says, “Leon, I see the instant fame hasn’t gone to your head has it?”

              “Mr. Sean, I’ll be honest, I love it. I wish the program would continue forever. I’m number one at school. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before.”

              “Leon, take some advice, don’t let the instant fame go to your head. Fame is funny, it can hit you real fast taking you up like a rocket and turn around and forget you in an instant too. You’re too young to let it go to your head. At your age, fame can ruin your life.”

              “Mr. Sean, I hear you, but when you’re my age and girls chase you, there’s nothing like it.”

              “Leon, my best advice to you is you should concentrate on your school work and your sports. Being really good with either can get you scholarship to a really good school putting you in a great position for your future. Don’t put your faith in this quick fame, it burns out as quickly as it lights. When the program ends, you’re going to be in for a large fall, prepare for it now. Don’t let yourself get trapped in instant anything.”

              “Mr. Sean, I hear you. I’ll think about it.”

              “You do that.”

              Wolf asks, “Bob, can we talk about your tax burden?”

              “Sure, we have federal and state income taxes, like most, I think there’s still one or two states without a state income tax.”

              “What about a sales tax, and gasoline tax, phone tax, TV tax?”

              “Yes we have those, the sales tax here is very low, I think it’s about 3%, I have no idea what the tax on our phones are. I don’t think I ever looked into it.”

              “What’s the percent of income tax you pay?”

              “Our tax rates have been reduced in the past five years. President Cruise lowered the corporate tax from 35% to 15%, with dramatic results. He also allowed the companies to import their international funds without paying tax on them.”

              “I remember, we all laughed at him, all of the revenues he lost. How did it turn out for everyone?”

              “Most of the companies brought their money home, I think Apple alone brought over $5billion home. Many companies used the money to build factories here and added employees. All of them increased hiring which increased our labor participation rate. We’re at the best participation rate since the second-world war. This enabled our own taxes to be reduced. I think we end up paying a net of 20%. It’s worked out really well. We have more people working paying taxes. The government has taken in more revenue every year since they reduced taxes. In addition, innovation is off the scale. Companies can write off their R&D expenses; this has spurred an explosion in new products and services. I think we’ve jumped generations of products. Take Carol’s Mercedes for example, she has a midsized car with all-wheel drive that makes 400 HP, yet returns 35MPH on the highway. I think you could hit it with a garbage truck and she would open the door and walk out without a scratch. It’s driven our auto insurance rates lower every year. Look at President Brownstone’s new toy, his car can break 200 MPH and return 30 MPG. Look at our smart phones. Most people don’t have stand alone cameras any longer; my iPhone 12 has 50 megapixel cameras with 3D images and videos. It has battery life that lasts a full week. I do everything with it. They’ve finally figured out the AI software; it assumes many things I want to do and does them for me. It remembers things about me; it hears our conversations and reminds me of things it’s heard in the background. It senses if something is wrong, it even checks my body temperature and sends reports to my doctor’s office. Sometimes it senses I might be sick, the doctor’s AI calls me to suggest different things. I don’t know how I lived before this technology. The country’s revised tax programs enabled this to happen.”

              “Bob, not everyone has access to this wonderful new technology do they? The poor have to make do with hand me downs or last year’s generation. You’re not all starting from a common starting line which is something the USA has said they do. We ensure everyone is equal, while the USA said you ensure people are equal at the starting gate, but using your own words; you don’t give everyone the same opportunity to start equally. As technology advances the rich, who can afford it, move further ahead of the poor expanding the breach between the two classes.”

              “Wolf, everyone can afford the technology, it’s not really expensive. My new iPhone costs me less than $100.”

              “Bob, people who earn minimum wage can’t afford that.”

              “Wolf, there are many assistance programs to help them. Hell, I’ve seen these kids wearing $250 a pair sneakers, wearing heavy gold chains, they can afford the technology to help them get ahead if that’s one of their priorities.”

              “Bob, who are you to say what these people can and can’t have or should have or not, you sound very racist knowing what’s best for them.”

              “Wolf on that note I think we need to call a break.”

Chapter 28

              While the show is being broadcast from the Jones’ home, President Paul is meeting with his closest advisors. President Paul looks around the conference room, “We’re sure on the results?”

              The Director of the FBI replies, “Mr. President, we’re 100% positive; the formula was developed in Russia. FSB agents gave it to the LSA DepLIES who blackmailed people working in our schools who had relatives in the LSA, to put it in the school lunches. It was designed to make people ill but not kill them. The theory being a wounded or ill person takes up much more resources than a dead person. A new illness requires a lot of resources to determine a cure. We got a little lucky that our computers are generations ahead of either Russia’s or the LSA’s.”

              President Paul nods, saying, “We can be very thankful that Presidents Brownstone and Cruise invested so heavily in building our technological base. They were very wise in preparing us for the future. The question is how should we respond.”

              The Secretary of Justice says, “Mr. President, we could do nothing. Just let it go. Russia has enough of their own problems; we don’t want to expand our conflict with them. As to the LSA, they will self-destruct soon enough.”

              The Secretary of Defense says, “If the people find out we know who caused the kids to get sick and did nothing, they would vote us out of office due to no confidence. I’m not so sure we should have allowed that change to pass. The people have us on a short leash, we might not even have a full four years to full fill our promises.”

              President Paul responds, “We have to respond in order to show they can’t screw with us. I’m open to suggestions how we should respond to put both on notice not to mess with us again.”

              “The chief technology advisor says, “Mr. President, we could take their grids down. Putting them in a full blackout, unlike the brownouts they’re currently experiencing due to a lack of fuel. I hear that Russia is shortly going to announce an agreement with Bloomberg to supply them with oil. This would allow the LSA to return to full power. Even if Russia does supply them with oil, we’ll bring their grid down.”

              “How could we do this?” 

              “Our network can easily hack into their systems, causing their grid to collapse.”

              “Will they be able to bring it back up?”

              “Yes, it may take them anywhere from two to twelve weeks to find the source of the crash and correct it. If we use a special type of worm, as they correct the problems
we
the worm can wait until they turn their grid back on before it takes it down again. We can keep doing this until they agree to leave us alone.”

              “What about their hospitals?”

              “I’ll see if we can program the worm to leave their hospitals alone while taking down the rest of their systems.”

              “Program the worm to leave their hospitals, nursing homes, and any outpatient surgery centers alone. I don’t want to be the cause of deaths of the old or ill. Other than those conditions, I like this, when can you be ready to launch it?”

              “A couple of days.”

              “You have permission to move forward, just let me know before you release the worm so I can tell our close and dear friends what’s going to happen.”

              The Secretary of Defense asks, “Sir, is that wise?”

              “The LSA doesn’t have a military; their DepLIES is no match for us, Russia would have to move their forces to the LSA in order to attack us, or they would have go nuclear. If the tests are accurate, none of their missiles will reach us. Make sure the ABM system is online before we release the worm. Put our defenses on DEFCON 2 when the worm is released, they will see us increase our defense readiness which give them pause. I also want the program Wolf and CNN are producing, shut down, I don’t want any of our people getting caught on the other side of the divide before we launch our cyber attack. I’ll call Randolph to explain it to him. Does anyone have anything else to they’d like to say?”

              The Secretary of HHS says, “Sir, I think it would be a good idea to send a message to all of our people who, for one reason or the other, may be behind the divide, to come home. We can inform them of a national emergency condition. Our emergency conditions law which replaced the DHS, calls for everyone’s phone to receive emergency signals from us. Our people know they may have to return when asked to, if they ignore the return home signal we’ve made it clear we’re not coming to get them.”

              “Do they have a way to communicate with us in case they can’t return for whatever reason?”

              “Yes, Mr. President, if they touch their number one button, they can speak directly or text us if they have a reason they can’t return. A couple of examples we practice for are someone stuck in the mountains, very sick relative who can’t be left, they are injured.”