[ WP ] 3 Men living on welfare cheques

**Anton** 
 
 A lot had changed in fifty years. My calendar said 2065, and as I looked out the single window of my government apartment, I wondered if this was even the same world I had lived in in 2015. 
 
 2015 was an important year for me, because it was the last year in which I was gainfully employed. I was 18, and I worked as a checkout clerk for a store called... called... shit. I ca n't even remember. Long gone now. I'd been working there for two years. I dropped out of high school cause it all seemed so pointless back then. 
 
 In 2015 they got these new self-checkout lanes, and they fired me. *Laid off* is the proper term, I guess. Times were tough and would only get tougher, and who the hell wanted a kid with no high school diploma? My company was one of the last ones to get those self checkout lanes. The kinds of jobs you could do as a high school dropout disappeared quicker every day. If you did n't need any skills to do it, neither did a machine. 
 
 Robots in the factories and on the farms. Self-service panels in the stores and restaurants. Drones for delivery. Self-driving cars on the highways. Who the hell needed me? The first ten years on welfare were lean years. I was constantly looking for work. Sometimes I'd get something part-time, seasonal, or under the table, but it never lasted. God, I could barely feed myself. I never turned to crime, but there were hungry nights when I was *this* close. 
 
 Everything changed when they passed the mincome. *Minimum Income for All Act*, they called it. But fuck was it controversial at first. The right hated it because it was the `` path to socialism,'' and the left hated it'cause it replaced all their other programs and the whole complicated mess of the welfare state. The idea was to simplify, streamline. The government determined a living wage - the bare minimum to get by, with food and a roof over your head. Everyone who made less than that, got however much money they needed to reach it. So if you made zero, you got it all. If you made one dollar less, you got one dollar. In 2015 it would've never worked. But in 2025, there was so much technology, so much automation, so much prosperity, that people were asking themselves... *why* do we have to work? 
 
 The mincome was n't enough for me to buy a car, or an expensive gaming system, or to go out on the town every night. But it was enough to live. I've lived in this same government building for 30 years now. I've always liked video games. I can never afford a new system, so I get a used one, a couple years out of date. I love television and books, and all these e-libraries mean I can access them for free. If there's something else I really want, I save or take odd jobs to pay for it. 
 
 I do n't go out much. When I do I take the bus or hypertrain. I do have a lot of online friends, and holochat means I can talk to them in real time. I've even met some girlfriends online. One was serious. A lot of couples do n't bother meeting in person anymore, but I took a part-time job, saved up and flew to meet her. Oh, but we had some great times! It did n't work out, but I do n't regret it. I know I ca n't afford to have kids. I'm okay with that. 
 
 When they laid me off in 2015, hah. I never thought I'd be on welfare for fifty years. What did I want to be when I grew up? Certainly not professionally unemployed. 
 
 Maybe I could've done more with my life. But I'm happy with it. 
 
 
 **Derek** 
 
 Today was an exciting day. So many times I was n't sure it would ever happen. My friends told me it was hopeless, but I never gave up. In 2065 the government calculated basic living wage at $ 125,650. Well, today was the day my business started making more. 
 
 I was finally getting off the mincome. 
 
 For seven years I'd been using it to cover the basics while I got my business off the ground. I'd almost gone bankrupt twice. I had to eat nothing but freeze-dried polenta for a whole month once. There'd be weeks when I would n't see my friends because I could n't afford to go for a beer. But I'd made it. 
 
 So many of my friends were working corporate jobs. I went to a good school. We were all smart kids. They saw me struggling, barely feeding myself, and asked what the hell I was doing. I was a smart guy. I could make plenty of money working as a lawyer, a coder, a doctor, or one of the other jobs that had n't been automated yet. 
 
 But I did n't want that. I'd had this business idea since I was nine years old. It's all I've ever wanted to do. And I made it happen. 
 
 This year I was getting off the mincome. Next year, if my figures were on track, I'd be able to vacation in Tahiti or Mars with my friends. The year after, well... I might be a billionaire. 
 
 The sky's the limit, and mincome made it possible. 
 
 
 **Raul** 
 
 The art district is one of the busiest spots in my town So many young people gravitate here. So much creative juice is spilled. Sometimes I'll be chilling in the park drinking a coffee or smoking a marijuana cigarette, and I'll be amazed at all the activity. I do n't live in a huge city... how are there *this* many artists? 
 
 I always knew I wanted to be an artist. In math and science classes I'd be on my tablet making holodrawings. I loved creating 3D figures and characters. I had so many images in my head, so much energy to create. I'm a decent coder too, so I would program rough personalities into them and spend hours just hanging out with my creations. 
 
 When I finished school, I went to art school. Mincome covered it... barely. I watched my spending carefully and my parents would sometimes send me a bit of beer money. I missed out on a lot of partying, but I was going to college to learn, not party. When I finished, I moved to the art district. A lot of young people spend a few years as unemployed artists, writers, or whatever. Most of them move onto something else. 
 
 I wo n't. I'm still making my holodrawings, renting a tiny corner of a tiny gallery in my tiny town. I hardly ever sell anything, but I do n't care. Mincome makes sure I do n't starve. When I do make some money, I celebrate with my friends at one of our local bars. We smoke or drink or take some mushrooms. One time, I saved up enough to go to the Bahamas. That was the farthest I've ever been from home. Oh, what a trip. 
 
 I hope I'll be famous one day, with my own gallery and plenty of clients. I'd like to live like a proper crazy artist. But if I do n't, that's okay. The art is what I'm really here for, after all. 

