Tom is from an Hispanic descent, while Sara s heritage is Asian. Their intermarriage is no longer considered an issue but expected, as marrying within one s race is now known to cause genetic trouble leading to a weakening of one s body s defense mechanisms. During this age, inter-marriage is seen not as marrying outside of one s ethnicity or religious beliefs but marrying outside one s corporate affiliation. Tom and Sara are not homeowners. No one is.
Property belongs the corporations even formerly public property.
It seems that at some point the world s economy collapsed, and the largest corporations around the world had to bail the federal governments out of the hole. In exchange, the governments had to sell buildings, property, and parks. Rather than being homeowners, Tom and Sara have free housing provided by their corporations which in many respects operate as cooperatives where the employees together share the expenses for just about everything housing, education, transportation, public safety regardless of how geographically distributed the employees are. Public safety is an expense that most corporations together bear the price. The corporations sub-contract to local governments to enforce speeding limits, sweep the streets, clean the litter.