{"id":12019,"date":"2016-07-29T13:18:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T17:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=12019"},"modified":"2016-07-29T13:18:24","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T17:18:24","slug":"the-mandibles-turning-sex-into-money-before-and-after-an-economic-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/29\/the-mandibles-turning-sex-into-money-before-and-after-an-economic-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mandibles: turning sex into money before and after an economic collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continuing my posts about\u00a0Lionel Shriver’s\u00a0The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047<\/a><\/em>…<\/p>\n

Shriver’s vision of United States society in the 2020s isn’t very different from\u00a0what attorneys told us in Real World Divorce<\/a><\/em>. Americans can get hold of assets through marriage and divorce, but much\u00a0of the litigation involves people who were never married:<\/p>\n

Technically Florence may have been a \u201csingle\u00a0mother,” but single mothers in this country outnumbered married ones, and the very expression had fallen out of use.<\/p>\n

Reference to diesel engines was strategic. The bulk of the Mandible money was amassed by Carter\u2019s great-grandfather Elliot, a Midwestern industrialist. Douglas had added to the pile a bit, but he\u2019d always lived high, and Mimi extracted a fair whack of his agency earnings in the divorce. The inheritance from Mandible Engine Corp. was protected from marital depredations by a trust.<\/p>\n

[at the dinner table with econ professors, one of whom is a thinly disguised Piketty<\/a>] \u201cWhy not?\u201d Tom said. \u201cYou regard everyone else\u2019s finances as your business. Fact is, you made a killing from sticking your nose into other people\u2019s bank accounts.\u201d \u201cHardly a killing,\u201d Ryan said disdainfully. \u201cInternet piracy was already approaching its zenith. For the handful of the upstanding, Amazon was discounting at 70 percent. As for what small royalties I did recoup, my ex-wife walked off with half. Calling me wealthy would be absurd.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After the economy melts down, however, and an alimony or child-support judgment not indexed to inflation wouldn’t be worth much, turning a sexual relationship into cash has to be done without court involvement:<\/p>\n

[late teenage daughter to her parents] \u201cMom, please! Nobody\u2019s having dinner parties at all, much less catered ones, and most people wear the same clothes for a month!\u201d \u201cThe only thing I\u2019m too proud to do is what you\u2019re doing.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re too old for my vocation. And somebody\u2019s got to bring some scratch into this house besides Florence. You want to see inflation work to our advantage for once? Because my prices are going up.\u201d Savannah grabbed her coat and marched out the door.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After\u00a0the government stabilizes the economy, laws are adjusted so that more sectors can be taxed. Here’s a conversation among three siblings, one of whom works for the “Scab” (formerly the IRS):<\/p>\n

he appreciated that Savannah\u2019s work as a \u201cstimulation consultant\u201d was now a legitimate career. While he might have expected to discern a clich\u00e9d coarsening in her features, her manner, or her spirit, in truth he detected no such thing. Accredited, registered, regulated, and\u2014most crucially\u2014taxed, Savannah parlayed a respectable expertise. She carried business cards. She didn\u2019t hide behind any euphemistic \u201cescort\u201d nonsense. She was high end. She\u2019d held her own against the robs\u2014increasingly inventive, cheaper, and programmed to swallow at no extra cost. So she was doubtless very good at it. Still. Willing had a conservative side. You couldn\u2019t legislate away that little shiver.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is new,\u201d Bing said respectfully. \u201cAnd very exciting. You\u2019re planning a family soon?\u201d He might have been talking to his schoolteacher, not his own brother. \u201cSooner the better,\u201d Goog said. \u201cSomebody\u2019s gotta do it. You\u2019re hardly up and at \u2019em with the ladies. And our sister\u2019s a hole.\u201d \u201cYou know I don\u2019t like that word,\u201d Savannah said. \u201cI don\u2019t like being called a scabbie, either,\u201d Goog said. \u201cI\u2019ve manned up about it. You can\u2019t honestly expect me to call you a stimulation consultant with a straight face.\u201d \u201cI have a degree,\u201d she insisted quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cA community college degree in a subject that comes naturally to any slit who can lie on her back. Listen, I know it\u2019s asking a lot, but could I have a real glass?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The novel chronicles a change in female beauty standards. As the Chinese have become the world’s wealthiest people, Caucasian women undergo surgery to appear more like the Chinese.<\/p>\n

More: Read The Mandibles<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continuing my posts about\u00a0Lionel Shriver’s\u00a0The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047… Shriver’s vision of United States society in the 2020s isn’t very different from\u00a0what attorneys told us in Real World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Mandibles: turning sex into money before and after an economic collapse - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/29\/the-mandibles-turning-sex-into-money-before-and-after-an-economic-collapse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Mandibles: turning sex into money before and after an economic collapse - 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