The first general-purpose MI had been unveiled only eleven years ago, their vast, alien intelligences replacing mankind at the apex of civilization in a single presentation. Automation followed in a storm that rolled around the planet, obliterating the workforce. Over the last seven years, three hundred million people had lost their jobs across mainland America. No jobs meant no taxable income, no taxes meant bankruptcy for the country, and bankruptcy meant no social security or safety blanket. Lose your job now and there was nothing, and no one, to help you. Once your savings ran out, homelessness, starvation, disease and death were inevitable.