A light-hearted science fiction story where 100% recycling, free atomic power, and robot labor have combined to create a glut of consumer goods. So, the higher your status, the less you use. Folks in the ghetto have ten houses and a thousand robot servants, while the Beverly Hills elites live in shacks and play cards for matches.
in ye olde days, the more bits and baubles and lace and ruffles you had on your clothes/shoes/furniture, the richer you were
since the advent of industrialized consumer goods, flashy embellished things are marketed to the working class meanwhile the bourgeois drop mega money on plain color or simply patterned gowns and tuxes, absurdly minimalist furniture, and unadorned shoes that showcase whatever exotic material they’re made of
[off topic?]
“The Midas Plague” by Fredrick Pohl.
A light-hearted science fiction story where 100% recycling, free atomic power, and robot labor have combined to create a glut of consumer goods. So, the higher your status, the less you use. Folks in the ghetto have ten houses and a thousand robot servants, while the Beverly Hills elites live in shacks and play cards for matches.
Fun read.
we can already sorta see this in fashion
in ye olde days, the more bits and baubles and lace and ruffles you had on your clothes/shoes/furniture, the richer you were
since the advent of industrialized consumer goods, flashy embellished things are marketed to the working class meanwhile the bourgeois drop mega money on plain color or simply patterned gowns and tuxes, absurdly minimalist furniture, and unadorned shoes that showcase whatever exotic material they’re made of
Thank you for this
If you liked “Idiocracy” read “The Marching Morons” by C.M. Kornbluth, a frequent Pohl collaborator.
It’s the same basic story, but the original version has a much. much darker ending.