Just for shits and giggles, a Greater Deregulation that lives up to the name. Total meritocracy, ‘I don’t care what you do as long as you stay the Hell off my property’. In other words, a GD where ‘profit’ is equated not just to ‘money’, but also ‘personal freedom’. In other words, less Republican, more Libertarian.
Welcome to Greater Deregulation Nor-Northwest. No freeloaders.
Kell the Hitcher helped unload the cargo. This was as far as the freighter captain would take her. And she knew about all the other Deregulations.
She’d expected a pall of smog and near-slaves populating most of the planet to support a few in their excess.
She boggled to see clean, wide streets and a happy populace. No need for bars on windows. No need for the bristling weapons of other Deregulations. The power came from the sun and the wind. And some geothermal plants in the active volcanic zones, but those were very far away from the main spaceport.
Spaces between the brick-and-mortar shops were taken up with little barrows of small-time business people. And very cunning ones who did not directly compete with their more solidly-established hosts.
Shops that sold clothing, for example, had at least one accessories barrow outside. And a barrow that made beverages. And someone selling some local delicacy.
What really surprised Kell was that none of these hucksters were barking for her attention, business, or money. They watched her. Some displayed their wares. Some showed off with the art of making.
Only the performers were allowed to make noise. Something that, according to the tourists’ handbook, was reached by mutual agreement.
The free market was actually free.
Corporations could do as they wished, but so could the buying public. Corporate records were public records. So if any corporation was weighed and found wanting… the public abandoned them.
Which was why the waterways were clean, the air was clear, and everyone had access to information.
There were no schools, just people who wished to educate, handing out their knowledge via the info-nets. And getting paid by the people who viewed it.
There was a medical system. Publicly funded and looking astonishingly like free health care. People passing by the hospitals or medical centres just… absently tipped their pocket change into a donation bucket for the greater good.
Kell picked a park and a nice-looking spot and set up her shingle. Stories told, donations welcome.
It was going to be interesting to see how this one had got it right.
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