Chapter 9

Jane had been tied to the bed for four days, and was beginning to develop sores on her body. Her wrists were rubbed raw from fighting against the bindings. Being naked was humiliating enough, but wearing an adult diaper only compounded it.

The hours spent lying in bed and staring at the ceiling gave her lots of time to consider her situation. She knew she was at the mercy of a serial killer. At any moment he could decide the future would be better off without her there to influence it. She had grown up suffering from the results of the world he was putting into place. It had left her with a political view diametrically opposite of his.

Under the guidance of President Taylor, the United States had become a harsh country. There was nothing in place to mitigate the consequences of failure. People became extremely conservative and risk adverse. People who took chances risked losing money, home, and family. In a land with lots of empty space, there were millions of homeless people. It appeared that many people didn’t learn caution until it was too late.

Large corporations had been one of the casualties of the Taylor administration. One of the first things that happened was that tax codes that exempted specific corporations were removed. With the sudden absence of significant tax advantages, and with the government following a policy that demanded equal enforcement of laws, conglomerates fell from mismanagement.

Stockholders and employees got tough on executives. It wasn’t long before stockholders demanded executives put up huge personal bonds that would be forfeit if the executive was proven to be incompetent or guilty of malfeasance. The days when executives could destroy a company without being personally affected were over. A lot of formerly ‘successful’ executives found that no one would touch them with a ten-foot pole.

A lot of the consequences of Taylor’s policies might not have been viewed favorably by conservatives of the current timeline. One of the unintended consequences was technological innovation had slowed significantly. Fewer people were willing to take the kinds of risks necessary to launch a new company with an untested product. The time-to-market expanded to a point where years would pass before a product line would be introduced.

Punishment in the judicial system had become much stricter. A man caught stealing was sent to prison for the maximum time allowed by law, with very few exceptions. It didn’t matter if the man was desperate to provide food for his family; he received the same sentence as a career criminal. Crowding in prisons was an issue for a short time, but Taylor’s use of the death penalty and streamlined procedures emptied many of the prisons quite quickly. It soon became practice that a person convicted to ten years in prison spent ten years in prison. Early parole and time off for good behavior disappeared from the prison system.

Addicts were given a particularly harsh treatment. This included forced withdrawal from their addictions. Drug users died when the drug supply dried up and hospital resources were overwhelmed. It was only then that people truly became aware of just how bad the drug problem had been in the country. There hadn’t been thousands of addicts in the country, there had been millions.

The United States had been moving towards a two-class society, rich and middle class. After President Taylor, there were four classes: poor, blue collar, white collar, and rich. Much to everyone’s surprise, there was a huge poor class that included people who had once thought of themselves as middle class. The poor were relegated to jobs which had once been done by undocumented workers from south of the border. Without food stamps or public housing, the poor had to struggle to survive.

Labor unions had fallen upon hard times after their leadership had been nearly eliminated on charges of corruption. A true working blue-collar class re-emerged, and they were often taken advantage of by the companies who employed them. The belief that a person on an assembly line was middle class disappeared. With a lowering of wages for semi-skilled labor, the standard of living for a lot of people took a major step backwards.

The white collar class was much smaller, but much more affluent. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, and upper level managers were once again able to afford having working class people work for them. Jobs as maids, gardeners, and drivers became a stepping stone out of abject poverty.

The transition in economy was not easy. Suicide rates, particularly in inner city areas, rose dramatically. Homeless people filled the streets with a subsequent increase in the number of deaths through exposure to the elements. Violent protests were commonplace with disastrous consequences to properties in downtown areas. For nearly a decade, the United States appeared to be, and acted like, a third world country.

Government spending shifted from social programs to the reconstruction of infrastructure. For two decades after President Taylor, construction was one of the major economic sectors. Bridges, dams, piers, and roads were repaired. Sewerage systems were replaced. Water treatment plants were upgraded. In effect, the infrastructure constructed during the 1950s and 1960s was replaced. Yet those improvements affected a much smaller percentage of the population than had been the case in the 1950s.

It became a time of Social Darwinism at its finest. Those who could and would compete and survive thrived. Those who fell off to the sidelines withered and died. It took several decades, but people adapted to the new economic and political climate.

By 2050, the 1970s and 1980s were held up as the ‘Golden Age of America.’ Social programs destroyed by President Taylor were remembered with great fondness. Political pressures were increasing to provide food stamps, unemployment benefits, government subsidized healthcare, housing and retirement benefits. There were just too many people who had been isolated from the rest of society.

Jane was snapped out of her thoughts when Jack said, “Good morning.”

“What’s good about it?” Jane asked.

“The sun is shining, the fish are biting, the weather is great, and I’ve got breakfast for you,” Jack answered.

“It is a lousy morning,” Jane said.

“Why do you say that?” Jack asked.

“I’m tied up, I’m naked with a pervert in the room with me, I’ve got sores developing on my back, the diaper chafes, and I haven’t been able to get a good night’s sleep,” Jane answered.

“Look on the bright side: You’re still alive,” Jack said with a smile.

“Thank God for small favors,” Jane replied.

Jack didn’t respond. He sat down on the edge of the bed and pinched her nipple to remind her of their relative positions in this relationship. She screamed and cursed him in a most unladylike manner.

He sighed and said, “It could be worse. I could be a rapist and take advantage of you.”

“I couldn’t stop you,” Jane said with a sick feeling in her stomach.

“I know,” Jack said.

He dipped a spoon in a bowl of oatmeal and said, “Open wide.”

While he fed her, he told the story of his life. “After I was born, I was put in a government nursery. I don’t have any memories of my time spent there. I do have a memory or two of the toddler academy. I remember sitting on a little potty and wanting to get up. When I would start to rise, there was a shock administered. I remember crying. I wasn’t allowed to get up until I had actually gone to the bathroom.

“We had little playrooms ... Well, I guess that is what they were called. They were filled with little blocks for us to play with. It seemed like every time I was allowed to play there were different kids there. It was years later that I discovered that not allowing close friendships to arise was part of our social conditioning. We were raised to distrust strong emotional ties among people.

“When we were handed our little-child portions of food, the person in charge would tell us to thank the state for all it was doing for us. Those were just words without meaning to us. We didn’t even know what a state was, much less why we were supposed to thank it. In time, I began to realize that the state was some kind of amorphous thing that controlled every aspect of our life. It was a god who failed to grant us freewill.

“We slept in long rooms filled with fifty beds that closely resembled the coffins of public housing except that there were no doors. We didn’t have assigned beds. One night I would sleep in one room and the next night another. It was all planned so that we wouldn’t get territorial.

“There was a matron stationed in the room to make sure we were good little boys and girls. If we weren’t good, then we were punished by having to watch a program about how to be a good little boy or girl. If you didn’t pay close enough attention, a shock was applied. I guess it worked since there weren’t many problems with bullies and verbal abuse.

“I started elementary school when I was four. There were different programs of education offered in each school. It wasn’t that one was required to attend a particular program. Instead, we got to choose which program we entered just by which one we attended. There were cartoons with social messages and cartoons that sought to teach how to read and write.

“School was a ten-hour-a-day program of watching cartoons or regular videos. When you got bored or tired of one video, you could go to another room and watch the videos playing in it. As time went by, the number of kids watching the harder videos dropped considerably. It was just a whole lot easier to sit there and mindlessly absorb the social drivel that was being spoon fed to us.

“In terms of entertainment value, the videos on social messages were much better. It was a lot like watching situational comedies. There were laugh tracks that supported the message being delivered. When someone didn’t do the right thing, everyone laughed at them. Laughter became a weapon of the state.