0014 - In which Zoa begins charging - 2018.01.08

Comic!

Comment:

Zoa is on a pretty loose leash. In fact, it hardly ever interacts directly with DemeGeek - as long as it follows all the relevant regulations and provides some sort of income, the DemeGeek corporation neither knows or cares where Zoa is or what it does.

I think most people tend to think of themselves as baseline. I know I have a subconscious tendency to think of people below my income bracket as tragically poor and people above as ludicrously rich, in much the same way that someone driving slower than you is an idiot and someone driving faster is a maniac.

Regardless of where you actually are on the scale, the way you treat those above and below you is important. If your first response to someone taking out a payday loan is to lecture them on what a bad financial decision it is, maybe what you really need is a different perspective.

Transcript:

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0014 - 2167/07/05/18:08 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, living room
LC: Alright. Zoa, yes, you may use my power and data connections to your artificial heart's content.
Zoa (relieved): Ohhh thank C. Yes, thank you, thank you so much.
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LC: Holy cow, you actually made the lights flicker, I didn't know they could do that. How much power are you pulling down?
Zoa: I've been walking around on one percent battery all day.
LC: What? Why?
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Zoa: Well, some of us aren't legally people, so some of us don't receive basic income from the government or get our essential services covered.
LC: Alright, fine, but you should still be budgeting your power usage more sensibly than that. What if you couldn't get to a free field in time? It's a simple matter of personal responsibility!
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Zoa: Tell ya what, Lee, you go out and earn all your money doing odd jobs and blowjobs for the general public, draw up a budget that requires you to cover your own maintenance and insurance while providing a certain number of credits to the DemeGeek corporation every quarter, and then you can lecture me on financial responsibility, okay?
LC: Mmmnah, I'm not going to do that. It sounds really boring.
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