New York 2140

“So you defend immigrants?” “We advocate for immigrants and displaced persons, and really anyone who asks for help.”

“No. They’re articulated, of course, but it comes down to sixteen basic laws. I’ve done the analysis.”

“Think about it! The laws are codes! And they exist in computers and in the cloud. There are sixteen laws running the whole world!”

“Chewing on my head! But now we’re chewed up. We’re squoze dry. We’ve been paying a fraction of what things really cost to make, but meanwhile the planet, and the workers who made the stuff, take the unpaid costs right in the teeth.”

“Things are sold for less than it costs to make them.”

“Exactly! It’s not just that there are market failures. It’s that the market is a failure.”

“All because of the market.”

“The prices are always too low, and so the world is fucked. We’re in a mass extinction event, sea level rise, climate change, food panics, everything you’re not reading in the news.”

“Right. Sellers offer stuff, buyers buy it, and in the flux of supply and demand the price gets determined. It’s crowdsourced, it’s democratic, it’s capitalism, it’s the market.”