Life: A Life Trilogy

“The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.”

-Henry David Thoreau

The year is 2035, and the taxes have increased to over 70 percent of a person’s total income, and even more in certain areas of the globe, as some people are not even able to afford to work. In America, while the infrastructure for the working class has changed to fade by the wayside, the masses have banded together to create some form of income and the ability to procure something to eat for their families. The governmental structure has now been purged to create a competitive meritocracy by masked Plutocrats on the outside of what Lifers call society.

The president and Congress are taking bribes to increase their income and to keep the wool entrenched over the masses’ eyes. This is propagated by using the media and propaganda, the wool to scratch the retina of each Lifer’s eyes, to get into their minds and take up space in order to control them.

Cash has been outlawed, and the only currencies that the banks allow are the centralized crypto currencies in an effort to track not only spending, but also people’s every move, and to tax their lives. Sex is taxed, health is taxed, and the TV tube is taxed. They put in place hefty penalties and even potential jail time if caught using cash in a three-strikes rule, making it a rarity for a person to covet cash. The only way to garner cash is through CashBases that are heavily taxed later in the year. This has given the rise to street hustlers and creative thinkers exchanging items of value in some parts of the cities in an attempt at an archaic barter system.

Society is only segregated by the person’s tax bracket. The Lifers, called “day walkers,” are the ones that work in the 9:00 - 17:00 world with their heads full of what is on the billboards and TV tubes around them all the time. These Lifers are the only ones allowed to have sex and to procreate, as evinced by the marks that have been tattooed upon them and the ID that they have in their pockets. The ID doesn’t have a picture of the Lifer, but a QR code identity, which, once scanned, states their tax class and Lifer status. This QR code has also been tattooed on their bodies, as their marks.

The next class of people is the Unlifes. These people were once marked by society, but cannot pay for their taxes and this has forced the governmental system to ban them from using the Internet, having sex, and coexisting with other Lifers. The Unlife class system has a hierarchical three-class structure that is used: those that are looking for work, those that are barely working, and the bottom Unlifes—the population that does drugs and drinks continually.

A person that is striving for Life, but stuck in the Lifer society, is titled a “Half-Life,” as they have hope but are still bound by society’s chains. The society feels these Half-Lifes are a detriment, as they intermingle in both realms, partitioning their thoughts vicariously.

The free ones that are the threat to society, the free thinkers and creatives, are called “Lifes,” as they have gained their Life. The younger, computer-savvy generation is deemed to have this Life, and have endeavored down a grey area to create an income for themselves that is essentially untraceable with the tax system in place. They own their own decentralized cryptos and have figured out how to manipulate the system. What they’re doing is labeled illegal by the government’s beleaguered structure.

This band of Life-Hackers have changed their names; some have created fake marks and IDs to stay completely off the grid to remain alone and provide for their loved ones in an effort to have some sort of future.

There were travel bans put in place to create more borders in the world, which put certain countries on the new forbidden zone, which only Lifers can travel to with their marks. Lifes have to create fake IDs to be able to get into these countries and blend in seamlessly.

Denominational churches throughout the country have been abolished, along with traditional education. The Lifer class is only allowed to go to church between curfew hours of 18:00 - 6:00 that is brought to them on the TV tubes.

There is only one church in the entire nation, named HQ, that is deemed the religion of choice by the standing President, and every Lifer must worship in this manner. The education for Lifers’ children is to create more Lifers with marks present ready for the Lifer class.

In 2030, the class system was denoted, as the revolt took many lives and pushed the mark further on people in an exorbitant manner. Some were being marked from birth, and now all were supposed to be marked if they wanted to be a part of society. This brought upon the inception of the technological dystopian age on the Internet, as technology was heavily taxed. It was hard to use by most, as only the Lifers were able to afford it, which is why Life-Hackers sprung up.

A rogue underground group, which by some has been labeled “The Uprising,” has realized that there is no government, but there is only a ruling class: the wealthy elite that is collecting more tax revenue than ever before from the system they own to keep the noose tightly bound around the Lifers’ neck for control of the masses. This is an effort not for the population and to better lives, but for the sole purpose to control the Lifers.

The only problem in obtaining world control of the masses is The Uprising. The Uprising, which has fallen in numbers after the revolt ended and the government tightened the noose, are starting to grow in strength once again. These Lifes, denoting their Life concealed off the grid, are mostly underground, and call themselves “night walkers.” They’ve manifested names, and for some, money isn’t the problem, but time has become their true asset as the Internet and technology is everywhere and in everything, but only to protect the tax class. This has led to the fall of society, as it’s controlled, and started the technological dystopian age. These Lifes are trying to give Life to others, as the Internet has become only for the rich classes, as gender and race are diminished on the surface. The only separator is the tax that you pay and those that aren’t allowed to use the Internet are the new homeless.

...This is the state of the union...