Once Upon A Dystopia Episode 1

 

Once Upon A Dystopia…housing became a human right.

Millions of people were homeless. Hundreds died of exposure every year. Most of those affected were veterans in need of medical care. The people had had enough. But they hadn’t, yet. Those without homes or preferred nomadic lifestyles were less likely to vote, and therefore their concerns drowned out by superfluous issues that the housed could focus on. When a generation was unable to afford a comfortable and consistent roof over their heads, the people decided that housing was a problem worth solving.

The Human Rights Amendment narrowly passed on its tenth iteration, but it was responsible for, among other things, providing a stable roof over every citizen in the country for those who wanted one. The HRA was inspired when its prototype, the Equal Rights Amendment, failed a decades’ long battle to pass. The Housing Rights Article in the HRA is the third in the amendment, in honor of the original Constitution’s original third purpose: the right of property. It was no longer feasible for most of the nation to own property, or reasonably afford sufficient housing; a disgrace to industrialized society. This third article nearly brought down the whole Amendment during its fight in Congress because the banking and housing industries declared certain doom. The volume of citizens who desired the stability and freedom reliable, safe housing provides finally drowned out the naysayers on both sides, thus providing a roof over everyone’s head. States that were traditionally on opposite sides of all issues had to come together to try and kill the HRA during ratification. Thankfully the President was an independent and able to negotiate with enough states to ratify the Amendment in under one year.

The naysayers were quick to point out how the economy would collapse, so those who wanted the Housing Article to work took steps to ensure its success. Implementation would have been impossible without the cooperation and insight from many areas of study and policy from all generations. The wisdom of those with experience, tempering down the current cynicism, created stability and productivity among the rising stars of political theater. The laws allowed for the steady decline of the housing market so that the economy did not collapse during the transition. There was an expected boom in the number of residences up for sale and a mass migration of people at all scales when people realized their neighbors would be permanent: people wanted to live with people they felt safe around and felt they could collaborate with. 

   A PR campaign started around the nation for people to look for their desired neighborhoods and work to personalize their living space. The home improvement market, as a result, quickly became a major source of domestic income. The large suppliers sub-contracted with local businesses because of introduced rebates for retailers to help soften the blow of a drastically-changed market. 

The financial catastrophe that everyone expected only happened to a wealthy twenty percent of the population. Most people landed softer than they expected. The stock market lost a lot of value very quickly and big banks had to divest their savings and loans from their investment banks, reversing decades of deregulation on their own to prevent a financial collapse. Betting on the market became more extreme as people had already adapted to low-rate savings accounts and local investment funds to save for retirement from the initial, expected, temporary collapse of the market.

The saddest part was what everyone feared: domestic terrorism. Until the Great Change Gathering, rural communities were off-limits to large groups of people. This became dangerous in some places, and acts of terrorism grew out of their social bubbles amplified by their digital bubbles. This was the greatest source of destruction for a decade before they learned to live with their distant neighbors. In the end, the Privacy Article of the HRA was what enabled the communities to remain isolated after their record of enabling deaths of their fellow citizens. The number of murders in the country fell dramatically, as there was less need to take from others when a basic became reliable.

The funniest part about people being able to buy their apartment within a complex was the small communities that formed when people realized they had permanent neighbors (local union or HOAs formed in most so common areas did not cause neighborly disputes). Community gardens and walking spaces grew as people wanted to gather and explore. The best part was the individuality that people used in decorating and expanding their homes. A generation that had longingly improved digital living spaces had control over their own. This control was what kept the economy stable: the more people worked, the more they could personalize their homes. This trend took off and stabilized the national economy when social media was banned in violation of the HRA. People had an external, more permanent form of self-expression, which reduced anxiety, which allowed them to interact with other people more, which increased familiarity and decreased fear around their neighbors, lowering crime because people did not want to hurt people with whom they were familiar and they would prevent break-ins and other related crimes against their neighbors because of their shared spaces.

Neighborhood schools became more informal and useful as multiple generations of families grow up at the same location, and more local volunteers are found for an increasing number of community events. The money that circulated through local communities continued to fuel prosperity in neighborhoods that were once struggling. The housing market survived as people earned more income and desired to move into a different community, or transform one of their own. The continuity of the first three generations of home ownership saw prosperity and stability throughout levels of wealth that people had been dreaming of...