Liquidsun
Culture Jamming
Streetlife
Life on the streets is hard and dirty. If you're on the street, you have no SIN, at least that you're prepared to admit to. Which means no source of credit. Hard cash or barter are the only things between you and starvation. And when you run out of cash, or things to barter...
But starvation is the least of you're worries.
There is the Red Plague - a fatal airborne disease that, start like a back dose of the flu, and, if left untreated, kills within weeks. A painful, demeaning death. And there is no cure - only regular does of 'suppressant' can keep it at bay.
There are the Go Gangs - neo-tribes of youths who run wild in the decaying bordertowns. Easily identified by their colours and their propensity for violence, the gangs vary in nature from neo-nazi organisations to the foolish (but dangerous) Clowns. Recently, the more stable gangs have started to work with the BFA to distribute plague suppressant.
There are the PlexPolice, who seem to believe that being SINless equates to being a criminal. While not illegal yet, it is increasingly difficult to survive on the streets without breaking a few of the Plex's laws. And there are the Paycops, who will only hassle you if you look like you can afford to pay them off.
- You watch
- Pirated Aztech Sim/Stims, stolen Tri-D channels, pirate 2-D TV
- You read
- NewsNet, FTL (before it folded), Job adverts, not very well
- You buy
- Food, drugs and alcohol (when you can afford to)
- You eat
- Whenever you can, cheaply and poorly, mostly tinned food.
- You believe
- Survival of the fittest, religion of choice, information wants to be free, whatever you want to.
Plexlife
Life in the Plex is easy and clean. If you're living in a Plex conurb, you have a SIN, and all the benefits thereof: access to credit, healthcare plans, unemployment insurance, or an instant trace on your whereabouts.
A Plex citizen (or consumer) is likely to live in a conurb associated to a Plexmall, unless they reside in a MetroPlex, where the whole city centre is one huge Plexmall. They will have a job, often with Plexcorp, but possibly with another corporate. Larger corporates provide their own living and working spaces within the conurbation - they may form part of the community, or more likely, be totally self-contained arcology.
Being a Plex citizen is easy - as long as you don't think to hard about who you are or what you want. Follow the crowd, be average at your job, don't stand out, and don't ever complain. You might just make it big one day.
- You watch
- Aztech Sim/Stims, Tri-D Oprah Reruns, How to Get a Promotion sitcoms, Bob Violence
- You read
- NewsNet, Catalogues, Very little else
- You buy
- Clothes, fancy meals out, a new entertainment console every year, more clothes, presents for your boss and his wife, anything you want
- You eat
- Whatever you want, when ever you want, frequently at restaurants
- You believe
- Whatever you are told to
Money
In 2059 the most common form of money is the credit. All transactions are carried out through electronic funds transfer. Everyone has a Plexcred account by virtue of citizenship, and if you're not a citizen, you're nobody. A Plexcred account is keyed on the owner's SIN number. If you're SINless, then you can't own credits.
The "White" (i.e. legal) market runs on credit. Invisible, indivisible, a credit is no more than a bit of information, stored on a smartcard or hoarded in a banks mainframe. As "everyone" has a Plexcred account, credits are used for all expenditure - at least that's what you're supposed to believe.
The smallest unit of currency supported by the Plex for Plexcred account to Plexcred account transfer is 0.01 credits. Greater than 2 decimal credit, however, may appear on bills for services or goods charged to an account and settled (in 0.01 credit units) at regular intervals (i.e. a "tab").
The New Yen would have become the global currency, had not the Plex intervened. It is still legal to own and spend New Yen, but its really hard to buy anything legal with it. The New Yen was the currency of the Grey Market, until a massive crash in the New Yen's value in 2057 brought the currency into disrepute. As the prime currency of the grey market, it had been widely used in semi-legal and illegal trading. It is untraceable and forgeable (although not easily).
Before the crash, one New Yen was worth roughly half a credit. In 2059, if you can exchange them, you'd probably get 0.01 credits for a single yen, but the actual rate of exchange varies depending on who, whereby and when the transaction takes place. The only way to exchange credits for New Yen is by purchasing Yen for credit, or vice versa, from a suitably disreputable agent. The supply of New Yen bills in any one area is finite, so (unfortunately) the rich cannot convert all their credit into New Yen to avoid taxes. It is speculated that the value crash was caused by parties unknown flooding the market with fine forgeries or hoarded notes. The crash stated in the UK, causing massive hardship for those outside of the Plex's control.
New Yen bills are often used in small stakes gambling, often halved or quartered to provide suitable stakes. The smallest denomination is one New Yen, and the largest, one thousand. There is no coinage associated with the New Yen.
Illegal to own, difficult to exchange, but completely Plex free, hard cash is the currency of the Black Market. To own pounds, dollars, deutchmarks or francs is to brand a person as a complete subversive, outside the domain of the Plex and refusing to be subject to its laws. "Real" money is only ever used, and can only be used, for illegal purposes. All coinage or banknotes are valid in the Black Market, which sets its own prices and its own rates of exchange. It is usual to find that £1 = $1 = 1 FF = 1 DM etc. £1 is roughly worth 0.25 credit.
The crash of the New Yen has seen a rise in the usage of Old cash, effectively criminalising the spending patterns of a whole segment of society previously reliant on the New Yen.
When cash is illegal, only outlaws will use cash.
Old-fashioned barter has made a massive comeback, especially since the crash of the New Yen. Some parts of the grey economy operate almost exclusively on a barter system. Barter means only trading you gods for what you think they are worth, and effectively eliminates the increasingly despised money-changers out of the equation. however, it is, as always, a cumbersome method of trade.
Get your own Free Home Page