The Smiths and Joneses (10 page)

              “Sharon, the LSA is reducing people’s weight by starving some people and also you’ve outlawed many spices and flavorings so that food doesn’t taste the same as it used to. You’ve outlawed salt and most fried foods. I can’t buy anything larger than 8 ounces to drink. You’ve implemented laws to force people how they should eat and live. I purchased a Coke and had to pay a tax on it because it has too much sugar in it.”

              “Sean, now wait one minute. Many of those flavorings, spices, and the worst two of all, salt and sugar have been proven to be bad for the body. We’re saving people. We’re extending people’s lives. Our system is healthy for our people. Look at the condition of your people compared to ours. Ours are in much better physical shape than yours.”

Sean excuses himself to use the restroom. He really didn’t have to go; he had to leave the room for a couple of minutes. Walking down the hall Sean thinks to himself, “If anyone ever told me how far things have gotten in twelve years I wouldn’t believe them.” He’s worried if the Smith’s are going to be believable. So many in the USA aren’t going to believe how far to the left the LSA is. As Sean washes his face he’s thinking, “There has to be something wrong I’m not seeing. These people used to be citizens of the USA, how the hell did they become like this? They think we’re wrong; they don’t see their loss of any of their freedoms as an issue. They’ve surrendered their free will to the government. How did this happen in only twelve years?”

Chapter 5

Sean is wondering how to keep the USA viewers interested in the program and continue to watch it. In the first two hours, Sharon has given the viewers so much information Sean wonders if anyone in the USA is going to believe what they’re seeing. There are so many differences between the two countries he’s trying to think of the best way to explain those differences.  He decides he’s going to complete the interview and see if he can get President Brownie to add some light on the early years after the birth of the LSA. Sean decides he needs to show the USA how the LSA people became sheep. He’s worried that if the USA isn’t careful they’ll follow the LSA down a similar path. Sean’s spent his entire career showing that government isn’t the answer. He’s spent his life trying to explain to people they can control their own density, or the government will take over their lives with the outcome being what he and the viewers have just witnessed. Sean feels sorry for the Smith family who don’t even realize they’ve lost what made them unique. They’ve lost their ability to reason and think logically. They’ve surrendered the simplest aspects of their lives to the government who is using its power to have total control over every aspect of its citizens’ lives.  The last couple of hours have made him sick to his stomach. He knows he should return to the living room and continue the interview. He wants to grab Jason and Sharon and shake them, asking them if they understood what they’ve given up in exchange for some simple conveniences. As much as he’d wanted to like Jason and Sharon, he’s having problems liking them. Sean doesn’t understand why they stayed in the LSA and became slaves of the state. He throws some more cold water on his face before he returns to the living room. 

Sean returns to the living room saying, “Thank you and excuse me for being away for a few minutes.”

Wolf replies, “No problem old buddy. Sharon, we all thank you for your input and explanations.  I’m sorry we got distracted there for a little while. Why don’t you and Jason tell the viewers about your jobs?”

Jason responds, “Sure thing. Both Sharon and I work for the government, as does almost everyone we know. The government either owns or controls almost every company and service provider in the country. We’re both what you would call middle managers. I work in the department of energy; Sharon works in the department of national health care services.”

Sean asks, “Jason, how many people work for the national government?”

“Sean, they are by far the largest employer, employing over 85% of the population.”

Wolf asks, “Sharon, why don’t you start off and tell us what your average day at your office is like.”

Sharon says, “Wolf, I’d be happy to. I handle customer concerns. Things like when the computer system turns down their request, or says it’s not time to place a reorder for their medication, take up a lot of our time, the second most called about item is they report they can’t get an appointment with the doctor when they want. You know stuff like that. I have five phone operators reporting to me. We start work at 8:00 AM, and we end the day at 4:30 PM. We have an hour for lunch and two thirty-minute breaks. Most of us take four 15-minute breaks instead of two 30-minute breaks. I and my staff belong to the government health care workers union.”

Sean asks, “Sharon do you get value for your union dues?”

“Oh yes, last year they union got us a 5% raise and lowered our early retirement age from 66 to 64. Yes, they are worth every penny I pay them.”

“Sharon, do they make it hard to fire someone?”

“Yes, however I haven’t had to fire anyone in at least eight years.”

“Why is that? Is all of your staff that good?”

“No, I have written a few up, the union also represents my staff. We agreed that these workers who had a couple of issues would get extra training.”

“Sharon, is this training held during their normal work hours of after work?”

“Sean, all training has to take place during normal work hours. We can’t take them away from their families.”

“If they’re in extra training, who picks up the slack in your department?”

“Why I do of course? Who else would?”

“Sharon is that fair?”

“It’s only a short time; it’s better than having to fire them. I don’t really mind sitting in for them. It’s part of my job.”

Sean continues, “Sharon do you do the same if one of your staff calls in sick?”

“No, if one or more of my staff calls in ill, I’ll call the standby office and have a temporary replacement sent to me.”

“Are you saying you have an inventory of trained standby employees just waiting for someone to call in ill?”

“Yes, of course, we wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t know the answers to the questions our people will be asking. Most departments have standby staff who are constantly being trained in case I, or some other manager, needs them.”

“Doesn’t that increase your overhead?”

“I would suppose it does. However, our budgets are classified as Top Secret. So no one outside of the government can see the numbers.”

“Sharon, how do you know if you’ve satisfied your callers?”

Sharon responds, “We measure how many rings before we answered the call, the caller’s time on hold, how long my staff spends on each call, if the call is completed or has to be transferred to another department and if the caller is satisfied with our answers.”

Sean asks, “Sharon, what’s the number one problem your people deal with?”

“Usually people who have either used up or lost some of their medication, they don’t understand there are limits to what can be ordered and consumed in a thirty-day month.”

“Sharon, what about the months with 31 days?”

“We usually ensure people get 365 dosages of medicine for the year. If they lose one or waste a dose, we check the prescription to see if there are any other uses for the medicine and if it has a street value.”

“Street value?”

“Pain medications have a street value, some sleep medications and some antidepressants have street values; these are never extended because people might have sold them for extra pocket money on the street.”

“What about if someone really did lose a dose?”

“They are going to have to make do without. We can’t allow extra medications to flood the streets. We don’t want our children getting their hands on these medicines. We don’t want the medications to reach the street in an uncontrolled manner. They could cause harm to people who misuse them. I get many calls from the national police and the DepLIES checking people’s names on prescriptions to cross check if their medications are on the street. When I get these calls, I have to cross check the perpetrator’s prescriptions, when they were last filled, if they called my department asking for a special circumstance extension. Anyone caught selling their medications has their prescriptions cancelled. They can’t get a new prescription for at least 90 days.”

“Sharon, what if the person had their medicine stolen, sold on the streets and really needs their medication?” Sean asked.

“They should have taken better care of their medications so they wouldn’t have been stolen in the first place. We’re all working as hard as we can to keep prescription drugs off of our streets. Do you realize how many chemicals we’ve had to ban in order to stop the possibility of our children misusing various chemicals?”

“Sharon, the LSA bans many chemicals and penalizes people who lost a single pill and yet marijuana is legal in the LSA?”

“Of course it is, we banned cigarettes because they cause cancer, we made marijuana legal because it’s safe. Everyone knows it’s safe.”

“Didn’t you also lower the drinking age to sixteen?”

“Of course. Look at Europe. They don’t even have a drinking age. We educate our children to learn how to use alcohol and marijuana so they don’t get into trouble with it later in life.”

Sean smiles asking, “How is that working out so far?”

“We’re working a couple of issues.”

“Sharon, do employees have the right to take a marijuana smoke break?”

“Of course they do. Most offices request those who want to take a smoke break to do it outside of the office. Employees are allowed one 5 minute break per hour.”

“Do employees show up for work and do they work while high?”

“We frown on the word high. We don’t use it anymore. We say they're stabilized. You’d be surprised how much more civil my phone operators are after their smoke breaks. We used to have an issue with phone operators being rude but since allowing smoke breaks, we haven’t had a single complaint about my operators.”

“Sharon, does the government supply marijuana as part of the national health care system?”  Asks Sean.

“Sean, marijuana is sold in national pharmacies, government-owned drug stores and online through our national health care system. We do have many small Mom and Pop owned stores that cater to the crowd that likes different flavors of marijuana.”

“Sharon, does the government tax the sale of marijuana?”

“Sean, the national government taxes everything. We have a national income tax which is automatically deducted from our pay, we have a personal property tax based on our assets; we have a national sales tax and a national medical tax. Savings are taxed, and interest is taxed. There are very few exceptions or deductions from the taxes. Next year the sales tax is being replaced by a value-added tax. We don’t mind paying so many different taxes because most are tied directly to different services and support we get from the government. An example of this is the air security tax; we pay a fee of $15 per leg of air, rail or bus ticket to cover the cost of pre-boarding screening and boarding security.”

Sean continues by asking, “Do you also pay tax on the government supplied services?”

Sharon says, “Yes, we pay taxes on the services the government supplies us with. Since the government took over most aspects of daily commerce, they need the fees and taxes to cover their costs.”

“Sharon, if private companies ran some of these services, wouldn’t your tax burden be reduced?”

“It might, then again, the level of service might be reduced too. Right now we know what to expect from our government. If private companies ran the service industry, we wouldn’t know what to expect.”

Wolf interrupts, “Let’s get back to your job. Do you have a big issue with illegal medicines?”

Sharon responds while staring at Sean, “We’d have much less of one if the USA would control their distribution along our borders.” 

Wolf asks, “Do many people cross the border to acquire medications?”

              “Yes, in the early days of the divide, many had to cross the border because we didn’t yet have our own production of so many needed items up and running.  As time went on, and we became able to supply our people with what they need, the only people who crossed the border to shop were those looking for black market goods or illegal medications. Medications, I might add that we have to cover the costs of when people overdose on those drugs. You sell too many drugs over the counter, many which can harm our population. Many, which like cough medicine, can be abused. You sell allergy medication to anyone with a photo ID, really do you have any idea how many illegal drugs can be made from over the counter medicines?  You allow drug companies to transfer drugs from prescription to over the counter if they can ‘prove’ they’re safe. The way the USA sells drugs is causing many deaths here in the LSA. Sean, do you think that’s fair? Don’t you think the USA should cover the costs of the pain and suffering your so called free market inflicts on others? The USA is selling drugs to LSA citizens with the goal of helping us kill ourselves.”

              “Sharon, that’s not a goal of the USA, it’s never been one.”

              “Yes it is. Otherwise, you wouldn’t sell your drugs to anyone who walked into one of your drug stores.”