Liquidsun
The State of the Union
The Way Things Are
"Its a Big Bloc Party Baby"
Once upon a time in the 20th there were national governments who looked after the interests of their citizens. This was followed by the decay of the national states and the rise of the corporate state. The corporate state could not make the grade and it too passed away.In the post-corpse world cartels,trading blocs and a small group of national bodies maintain the reigns of power.
Five large megacorporations managed to evade extinction during the economic dark ages.Exotika,Kromozone,Holz-Polytek,Marrier-Ashwood and Spirex.These combines hold pools of vast resources. They have both the financial stability and the monopoly in each of their markets to be able to maintain a good deal of political clout. however, they are no longer masters of all they survey.
Exotika controls the sens-U-ality market. They have a monopoly on the production of senstim technology.
Kromozone controls the production of parthenogenetic persons and metabolics/pharmacia .
Holz-Polytek maintains the lion's share of production of interface technology for the new wirenet, and also in the development of AIs.
Marrier-Ashwood is the biggest trading house of currency and financial underwriting. They are the biggest player in inter-bloc, and inter-corp financing.
Spirex continues to maintain a hold on the Genetic Alteration field. It holds the bulk of the patents on gene-alts.It maintains a steady cash flow through its legitimate ventures as well as being affiliated with a major Columbian cartel, and with its orbital enclave in an L-5 orbit is secure from reproach..
Politics
Although there are several ultra powerful corpses remaining on the economic scene, they no longer hold the political sway they did before the Crash. Cities and countries, left in the lurch by the dissolution of the corp that looked after things ,had to fill the power vacuum somehow. The end of the chaos resulting from the Crash saw the re-emergence of local politics. People realized that the situation now existed to establish legitimate (and not so legitimate) governing bodies, free of corp control.
However, there was an understanding that the system could not just be a repeat of what had come before. With the Combines still wielding as much economic power as they did, stronger bargaining groups would be required to negotiate with them.City and Nationstates subsequently decided to gather as economic blocs, a group of governing bodies that would be able to wield much more power in their dealings with the corporate combines, as well as with the other developing blocs.
There areseveral economic blocs which act as the major players on the world political stage. They are as follows.
Pacifica
"Pax Japanica" The economic and political giant known as Pacifica came about as a result of a failing Japanese population and a burgeoning Chinese export market.North Korea did not wish to join the newly formed alliance, but Thailand was zealous in its application for admission. The combination of Japan's technical and production expertise with the massive human and natural resource pool of the Chinese provided the basis for the most powerful economic bloc on the globe. realization was there that the system could not remain as it was.All is not well in Plex UK. The British Free Army is increasing its activity. Since they deprived a large proportion of London's populace of drinking water by destroying the desalination plants on the South Coast, the Plex has started to consider them a major threat. Every day dozens of disaffected youths flee the horrors of the projects to join the BFA in the wilds of Wales, Yorkshire and Scotland. As yet, they are but a thorn in the side of the Plex, but the wound is turning septic, and starting to hurt.
Life streetside is hard and dirty. Chances are if you are on the street you haven't had your GRC registered. No GRC means no legitimate property ownership, no corpse job, no security, even with the the metroPol.Most importantly, you have no legitimate source of "unis", so all that is left is what you can sell best your services....and if you run out of useful services,there's always your body.......
But a life of prostitution(or....) is the least of your concerns.....starvation is the least of you're worries.
There is "HIDS" - a "fatal error" which occurs in you immune system, which has no cure, no vaccine...only a never-ending allergic attack that culminates in death.
There are the Bosozuko - running-tribes of neo-adults who rule the urban nightmare that is the "street".They are a subculture all their own, with their own colours(be it clothing like the bradpitts or genetic alteration like the Urban Surgeons) and their own code of right and wrong. Although they are known for their proensity to slice first and ask questions later, some of the bosozuko are now alligning themselves in an effort to fight the stagnation that is occuring in the urban wasteland.
There are the corpsec...ucombine security forces who are always looking for an excuse to bash an streetsider whose only offense is walking too close tho 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.
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
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.
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