On Earth, in the 20th and 21st century, they had the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes. The winner won a certain amount that was paid in weekly payments for the rest of the person's life as well as an advance of a lump sum. This continued even after the Shattering. In addition to fairly inexpensive products, the PCH's contest continued. And once again, a new winner was chosen. Though it sometimes took a little bit to find the winner when people traveled to and from stations so often. His family was quite poor before this, having escaped terrible conditions on a failed colonial world. Now they were to receive a large amount each week for the rest of his life. But the question now became, now that their needs were met, how many more could he help with the proceeds? -- Anon Guest
[AN: In my experience/opinion, the PCHS has been rigged to get them all the moneys and a very rare few any kind of prize. I mean I never won anything and ISTG They used the same photos of their winners at random years with different names]
Liro didn't believe it until the payments appeared in their banking account. Liro hadn't believed it was even possible to win. Not with the ceremony involving a gigantic novelty cheque and the flashing cameras. They had honestly believed it was some kind of elaborate joke. The books they ordered certainly were. There was a reason it was a clearing house.
Condensed novels were kind of unfair on the authors who spent a year or more of their lives on reaching the word count requirements. Some people couldn't tell the difference. Liro could. They were even planning something of an essay concerning the difference between the condensed and the full novels. At least they'd get some Patreon change out of it.
But now? Liro had a lot of money. Regularly. For the rest of their life. The first big change was actual financial security. Rent paid. Bills paid. Insurance up and running. Great. Liro had never actually needed to live it large and, rather than going beyond their means, considered the best thing to do with that extra splash.
There were so many people trying to pay for their medical expenses on GoFundMe. So many people who tried to make it out of the ever-churning whirlpool of debt. So many ways unknown to many to get out of overcharged payments that they didn't know about. So many foundering because the system was made to be unfair.
What if someone could fix that? Liro had something of a seed fund to make an interesting beginning. What if they got together the assorted rules lawyers to help out the people in financial distress. People who have been down and out because of the rules lawyering they had learned later. The kind of people who wanted the scalpel used in their surgery because they were billed in full for it. The kind of people who could lay their hands on the sorts of internal memos that the CEO's never wanted to see the light of day.
The truth coming from the Well Actually to shame corporate kind.
Fortunately, Liro had access to a lot of the kind of people who were chaos gremlins in human skin. Insidious folk who could gather their wits together and strategise. Hackers who could lay their hands on the inner workings of the bureaucracy and plunge the sabot deep into the grinding gears of darkness.
And, for tax purposes, Liro made it a charity. Their mission, to seek out that those who were sorely in need of help and bring them relief from multiple sources of economic oppression. They would be seeking out those with a good chance for a better future if they intervened. That last bit just made sense. They would make better steps forward if there were more people who had a better future because of the intervention of the Better Tomorrows Foundation.
Feelgood stories meant better press meant fewer people looking into their disassembling of the nightmare system that had created the Better Tomorrows Foundation in the first place. Warm fuzzy headlines about them meant that any corporation trying to take them down met with instant hatred and vitriol, even with the shareholders.
Nothing beat good PR. Especially good PR with selective transparency whilst some people worked behind the curtain to carefully disassemble the mechanics behind the fiduciary oppression that happened in the first place.
They had few rules: Help where it was wanted. Assistance where it was requested. Offer first, and be prepared for rejection. And always, always, hire diversely.
People working for the Foundation were paid a thriving wage, even on their days off. Of course those on the side of corruption would howl that the Foundation was doomed to fail. There was no way they could continue onwards. All the while, the Foundation bought debts, dissolved them, and helped those who were downtrodden take a step or more upwards.
All the while, the corrupt howled, and their houses of cards crumbled around them. Their footing in a changing world became uncertain. Their feet of clay crumbling in the flood of rational behaviours.
It wasn't enough to change the world in Liro's lifetime. But it created enough change for the rest to snowball from there. Those who had been helped up to a place of prosperity remembered the Foundation, and supported it. Not so that they prospered, but so that others could escape the mire they had once known.
There were those who screamed about the unfairness of it all, but those voices were hard to listen to. It is very hard to cry poor in the middle of a gold-coated mansion. In the end, they went to found a world in their own image. More than one, since the planets they made were not big enough for more than one oligarchical ego at a time.
But that was up to hundreds of years hence. After the fall of commercial empires that put a strangle-hold on creativity. After the end of rigid gender roles. After, indeed, most of the glory days that had necessitated the origin of the Foundation in the first place.
The nature of power itself changed. Moved by many hands to a more equitable foundation. Helped in whole or in part by the equitable Foundation. By the time Humanity joined the Alliance, it had fallen apart... simply because it wasn't needed any more.
After the rediscovery of some Terran colonies, those with a knowledge of history had to wonder if a certain part of it wouldn't have to be repeated.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / cienpies]
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