When you consider that there's a lot of polluted areas, that many rural areas are very dangerous to live in thanks to awakened hazards, and that some nations are extremely xenophobic, with the right tweaks you can easily justify why cities would be jam packed dystopias.
Sure, but when it comes to Seattle there is limited amounts of those things -- but it is consistently described as being full, most people being in low grade apartments or squats (it seems even reasonably valuable wage slaves don't have houses), after fifty years the squats and slums still haven't evolved into something more livable .... to me the population density for the official population just isn't high enough to support that. At least not without assuming almost as many sinless as sinners. (All IMO)
Not really all that unbelievable. Who is going to build this infrastructure?
The State?
Corps?
Private investors?
The State doesn't have the money to deal with urban infrastructure on that level. The State relies to tax revenue to fund everything, and with less and less entities (in the legal sense) paying taxes, and more and more demand for those same tax dollars, there just isn't that much left in the coffers for massive urban renewal.
Corps have rebuilt, and done so with Arco blocks, and Corp enclaves, and snazzy office buildings. All for those wageslaves that have earned a nice spot in one of the ivory towers. And NO, this is not where the lowest paid wageslaves live, these a re for the "important people"
Private Investors probably have done some rebuilding, but they are the really small fish, being able to handle at most one or two apartment complexes before their funds are tapped and have to wait for return. (There is a reason why low income housing is State funded.... Private investors can not wait the 5 to 15 years it takes to see a return on low income housing projects, WITHOUT state funding.) Of those built by private investors, most would be condo style pre-sold homes... which require a population with income that can afford a new home.... something that is hard for many people even today. (Fun Experiment for you! Go to your local Land Title office or Archive, and look up what a 1000sq/ft home cost in 1950. Compare that to today. I have in my area. in 1950 a house cost around $15,000 in my area. Now they are $250,000 minimum!)
The simple fact that large amounts of Seattle are slums points to just how dystopian it is out there. It points to collapse of a lot of things I think people here are taking for granted.
There is no more "welfare" or social services network, those died out long ago to Corporate greed and government insolvency. There is no universal health care (Canada) or Obamacare (US).
Heck, with out a SIN, you can not own property, have a bank account, vote, purchase goods legally, Nor do you have national rights and freedoms. At best you are considered an Illegal Alien, at worst you are target practice. (It's not murder to kill someone who doesn't exist. So prove the person I killed existed, show me his birth certificate, his driver's liecense, tax records, employment history - all those things a SIN tracks.....)
<Yes, the above is rather extreme.... but I can see someone out there making that claim. People make stupid claims all the time today.... Freeman Movement, Flat earth society, Affuenza>
I've seen this type of stuff first hand all over South Africa and the Sudan areas.
While working in Ghana, there were entire parts of cities just falling over. The government just doesn't have the money nor the man power to maintain the crumbling infrastructure, some of it dating back to the 17th and 18th century! The only reason I was there was a private company (which would be a Mega by SR standards) walked in, gave the government a LOT of money for the mineral rights. And even then, they pulled in 8800 workers from all over the world to build and run the mine, cutting the local population right out of the jobs, except for the most menial and labour intensive.
That mine was making over $2,000,000 PER HOUR of operation, every hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 350 days a year. (with 15 days shutdown scheduled for maintenance). The Average wage paid to a Ghana citizen? $25 a day for a 12hr shift.... which is $20 more then minimum wage...
And, given the state of the Ghana government, I have tell you that the royalties paid on those minerals are not being redirected to housing.
Most people coming from Europe or North America have never really seen true poverty, nor governmental corruption or governmental sanctioned discrimination... So what happens when the system fails is very hard for many to comprehend. We have grown used to the comforts that our station has given us. If we want water, we turn on the tap. We want to eat something, we pull it out of the freezer, or go buy it from a store. when we can't find a job, we expect the government to fund us for a limited time (employment insurance).
In MANY parts of the world, getting a drink involves a walk of kilometers, to collect dirty, contaminated, water that has to boiled before you can drink it. If you want a meal, it whatever you can catch, kill, skin, butcher and cook.. or what you can grow... But if you are walking for Kilometers to get water, you're not growing much. Homes are made from whatever YOU can cobble together. Often times they are wood frames holding up bricks made for animal dung. Sometimes they are mud, and clay if water is readily available. There is NO electricity, or plumbing, or refrigeration.
I have been offered CHILDREN for purchase for my pocket change in some of these countries. Simply because my pocket change would feed the rest of his family for a month! Racism and Ethic lines are far more pronounced, and that doesn't even consider the caste systems many of these places still hold to... I have seen people detained and lead away to their probable deaths just because of the dialect they speak (not their skin color!)
Trust me, the world is a very fucked up place NOW. Be thankful you live where you live, and have the comforts you enjoy. Because some of the shit out there in the world really doesn't need to be seen, and nor will it stop.
(and now you know why I drink!)
