"Holy Jesus," Brian said, hearing this. "She really has gone insane."
"She really has," Lisa agreed, wondering how long it would be before someone actually removed her from the stage.
Whiting, completely ignoring the gasps and shocked words that were rising up from her audience of fellow politicians and corporate lobbyists, simply kept talking as if she were giving a normal speech.
"This may seem a strange concept for me to bring up," she admitted with a slight smile. "A government that does not revolve around wealth? Absurd, you might say. Impossible, you might say. But is such a thing really all that different than what many of you — the Martian people — have talked about over beers or buds among yourselves? Isn't it generally agreed upon at such bullshitting sessions that money and greed are the curse of the solar system, that the way of life we now find ourselves in the midst of is for the benefit of the elite few at the top of the corporate ladder while it is to the detriment of the rest? Isn't it generally noted at such times that Mars does not really need WestHem, that the only resource that we are not self-sufficient in is fuel? I have been to the bars, people, I have listened to the conversations of others all of my life. I know that what I am suggesting is not something new. I am just the first politician in a political setting to bring this up in a serious manner. That is why it sounds like such a bizarre concept to you all at them moment."
"That's true," Lisa allowed. She and Brian had discussed that very thing with other cops many times in the past during drunken and stoned after-hours gatherings with other cops. Mars really could produce everything that a society needed to sustain itself without the assistance of WestHem. Food, steel, machinery, clothing, space vehicles, military equipment, electronics and their components, all of that was produced on Mars or in orbit above it on Triad. Hydrogen fuel was the only thing that Mars really needed to import — that and a few luxury items like coffee and alcohol.
"Yep," Brian was forced to agree. "But..."
He was cut short in his argument by the impatient hushes of those around him. They were becoming extremely interested in this speech.
"Now, in order to remove the factor of money from our new government," Whiting continued, "we will have to replace it with something else that we can worship. We will have to base our new constitution and our new society upon another principal. What should that principal be? What should we revere most of all in this life if not money and the acquisition of wealth? This is just my humble opinion, but I'm sure that all of you out there who are not corporate management or rich stockholders would agree that society should be based upon common sense and fairness for everyone. Common sense and fairness, the two things that our current system of government pays lip service to but that our new government will actually embrace. Common sense in all decisions, in all dealings, in all laws. Fairness towards all people, unemployed and employed alike. I'm talking about a system of government that has enough checks and balances in it to guarantee that the atrocity that we have with us today is not able to repeat itself. I'm talking about a system where the abuses of power that we have now are not allowed to occur. I'm talking about a system in which the people themselves really chose their representatives and those representatives are incapable of being corrupted by the money from huge corporations because there will not be any huge corporations. I'm talking about a system where working is rewarded with the credit to buy nice things but that even those who do not or cannot work are provided with the basic necessities of life. I'm talking about a system where everyone has the right to a superior primary education and the right to a superior college education and that this is provided free of charge. I'm talking about a system where those who commit crimes against us are locked away for an appropriate number of years, where criminals are no longer allowed to walk among us.
"How will we pay for these things? I can hear you asking that right now. You are telling yourself that my talk sounds rather nice but that it sounds like I am describing an ideal world, a utopian society, and that things such as this do not and cannot exist. Someone has to pay for all of that great education, for all of those prisons, for all of those police officers. Who will it be?
"The answer is no one and the answer is also everyone. You see, in a system where money and acquisition of wealth is not the primary focus, where betterment of our society and fairness are the goals, there is no reason to pay for any of that. It is just done. We produce food here on Mars and we produce steel and we produce everything else that is needed to run this society. We have skilled workers and the ability to train others in those skills. Once we are off of the WestHem system of government, once we separate ourselves from their economic system, we can do things any way we like. The new Martian government can build a new school or a new college whenever there is a need for such a thing. Since the steel industry is nationalized, we do not have to pay anyone for that steel since we already own it. Since the construction company that builds the school is nationalized, we do not have to hold a bidding process or pay a corporation to build our school. We just build it.
"As for the workers who put on the biosuits and put the steel together to form the building, they are paid in credits at a pre-determined rate. These credits are issued by the government and are used to buy food and housing and luxury items from the government. They represent nothing more than credit for a day's work. With these credits you can buy food supplies that are better than what is issued to those without jobs. You can pay for upgraded housing, vacation trips, luxury items. Everyone who has a job will be paid these credits and, unlike our current system, it will be a constitutional requirement that we, as a society, do everything that we can to make sure that everyone who wishes a job has one. No more layoffs because of mergers, no more elimination of positions just because the profit margin is slipping. We will put an end to profit margins with this system, an end to them for all time."
O'Riley's Bar was a moderate sized chain that was owned by DrinkCo Beverages Corporation, which was in turn owned by Agricorp. O'Riley's specialized in alcohol and marijuana service and had more than sixty "pubs" as they were known in company documents, throughout the city of Eden. Their target customers were the working class and in Eden they estimated that they had more than thirty percent of the "away from home, modestly employed, intoxicant using market". Their pubs all looked the same and all were located in strategically placed locations — on the bottom floors of commercial buildings near the industrial tram stations. Brent Shimasaki and Lon Fargo were sitting at the bar in O'Riley's pub number E-24, which was located in the basement of the Westcity shopping complex — a seventy story building six blocks from the Agricorp maintenance shed. It was a favorite watering and smoking hole for the former IFP employees who were now Agricorp employees. It was a place they had gathered in with increasing frequency over the last month since word of the impending "reductions in force" had started to circulate.
Two bartenders were currently on duty along with two servers that carried drinks or bongs to the various tables. All of the employees wore the standard green uniform of O'Riley's, a get-up that would be recognized the solar system over — from Sau Paulo to San Francisco, from Eden to Standard City to Triad. The bar itself looked exactly the same as every other. It was a standard twenty-one meters long with barstools placed every meter. Constructed of molded plastic designed to look like oak, it was easily installed and easily cleaned with wet, disinfectant soaked cloths. When it reached the end of its useful service life (usually six years according to company statistics) it was easily removed and replaced by another. The carpet on the floor was also standard throughout the chain. It was a dark beige (designed to be pleasing to the eye but to avoid staining and grime, therefore extending its useful service life) patterned with small green four-leaf clovers. Above the bar were two large Internet screens, purchased via corporate contract from Laslow Electronics — an Earth based manufacturer whose large screen Internet receiver factory was located in New Pittsburgh, in the high latitude region of Mars. Laslow small screen multi-purpose terminals — which could be used (for a small fee) by bar patrons for communications — were located at each end of the bar.