Chapter 3

The modern person, who has lived a significant percentage of their life in a digital economy, can not imagine what life would be like without checks, credit cards, debit cards, and online banking. Mortgages, rent, utilities, and insurance are paid with check or by electronic transfer. Large purchases and consumer goods are paid with credit cards, or checks. Plastic is not reserved only for big items. People will whip out a credit or debit card to pay for a five dollar lunch, or a cup of coffee at a convenience store.

The result of the digital economy is that cash is no longer essential. There are a lot of people who carry ten dollars or less, refilling empty wallets with cash withdrawals while making debit card purchases. There were few people who carried a hundred dollars or more in their wallet. Almost no one could put their hands on a thousand dollars, without visiting a bank to withdraw it.

There were still cash only businesses. Prostitution and drug dealing still relied upon the anonymity that cash allowed. Street vendors usually took cash although modern technology had made it possible for them to deal with plastic. There were second economy folks who provided services on a cash only basis.

The point is that while cash might be king, the kingdom was shrinking and on the verge of disappearing. Few people missed using cash. In some cases, having to pay cash was an imposition and met with dismay and anger: ‘What do you mean, you won’t take plastic?’ Technologies were emerging that even allowed individuals to pay back loans from friends without having to exchange cash. The digital economy had expanded from the sole domain of businesses.

When the American Bank walked into the courtroom to file bankruptcy, it turned off all of the electronic banking systems and shut the doors on all of its bank branches. Suddenly, nearly a third of the credit cards, debit cards, checking accounts, savings accounts, and sources of cash, disappeared. People were left holding little pieces of plastic that could be used to scrap some gunk off of something flat, but that was about the whole value the cards now had.

People attempting to use a credit card or debit card backed by the American Bank, at cash registers all over the world, were informed that their card was declined. Most were able to pull out a second or third credit card backed by a different bank to complete their transaction. Not everyone was able to salvage the situation with a second or third credit card.

Customers were left standing there wondering why their debit card for a bank account that had several thousand dollars in it, was rejected over a small purchase. It didn’t make sense.

Anyone who has experienced it, knows that having a credit card rejected is an embarrassing situation. People react to embarrassment in a number of ways. Some turn red and quiet. Others turn red and vocal in anger. There were shouting matches in a lot of businesses when card after card was rejected. In a few cases, clerks were assaulted and the police were called.

It didn’t take long for the news media to discover what was happening. It was minutes behind the social networks, which spread the news like wildfire. Bad news travels fast! People immediately headed to their bank or ATM to withdraw as much cash as possible. They arrived to find lines of hundreds of scared people frantically trying to salvage something of their wealth. Not everyone was willing to join the end of the line and fights broke out. Police were again called.

It didn’t take long for the masses to drain the cash from every ATM and bank branch in the country. In a world not used to using cash, the sudden demand overwhelmed any and all cash reserves. Banks, in an action not taken since the great depression, closed their doors. The ATM network was shut down. The automated systems started rejecting purchases made with credit cards and debit cards. It took about three hours to drain the cash out of the entire banking system.

Once the explosive drain on assets ended, bankers looked at their balance sheets and saw that they were out of business. They joined the lines to file bankruptcy. By the time the day ended, there wasn’t a single solvent bank in the country.

On Wall Street a different kind of panic was taking place. Orders were being taken and then payments rejected. There was no way to complete any transactions regardless of the price offered for stocks. Wall Street firms had abandoned cash decades ago. An individual with a briefcase filled with hundred dollar bills or gold bullion wouldn’t have been able to purchase a single share of stock. The ability to purchase stocks stopped, but the requests to sell increased. Stock prices plummeted, automated routines kicked in, and the market was closed. Everyone in the industry knew that it wasn’t just a record stock price drop, but rather a drop that killed the entire stock market.

Executives of major corporations were stunned. That morning, everything was okay. That evening, all corporate bank accounts were frozen, there was no place to turn to for a loan, their stocks were worthless, and employees were frantically trying to find out how they were going to get paid. The entire infrastructure on which corporations were built had turned to dust over the course of five hours.

Not one executive of a fortune 500 company had an answer. Commerce at a global level was impossible without digital financial transactions. Executives walked away from work never expecting to return. The glory days of international corporate giants was over and everyone knew it.

The executives were not only hit with the stress that came from their businesses failing, but their own personal financial situation was ruined as well. Their investments in stocks were worthless. Their personal bank accounts were frozen or gone. The janitor sweeping the floor in the lobby probably had more cash in his wallet, than any of the executives.

The slowest to react to the crisis was the government. On hearing the news, congressmen scheduled meetings to determine what could be done and investigations to discover what happened. It was time for another witch hunt, and ‘cover your ass’ politics. Of course, it would take a couple of days before they could hold one of those meetings or start an investigation.

The President of the United States scheduled a news release for that evening, hoping to calm things down. It was too late and there wasn’t much he could say except for simple platitudes that all would be better soon since this was a great country. His speech, watched by nearly every adult in the country, did little to nothing to convince a terrified country that tomorrow would be a better day.

The fact of the matter was, that short of printing million-dollar bills, there was nothing that could be done to bail out the banks. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC, which was supposed to guarantee moneys on deposit in banks, was unable to cover the massive liability that had suddenly manifested itself. At best, it would be able to pay off a couple cents on every hundred dollars lost.

The weakness of the government was truly exposed when people realized there would be no social security checks issued. Government employees wouldn’t get checks. Even if the government did send out checks, there wasn’t a bank at which to cash them. The government had no way to pay its bills.

People reacted in a variety of ways to the closing of the banks, but there were six basic responses that were the most common. There was denial, shock, depression, survival, anticipation, and abandonment. The proportions of people who responded in one way over another differed across the country, economic class, and education.

One response was to deny that it really meant anything and that tomorrow business would be back to usual. Justifying and supporting the denial were pundits talking on the radio and television about free markets and how capitalism would rise again. It was vacuous talk by so-called experts speculating about something that had never occurred before.

In short, they were guessing.

As if this day hadn’t been anything special, there were families who sat at home around the dinner table discussing what they might do over the next few days. The current crisis was expected to run its course, the world would sort itself out, and then return to normal. There were some who sat in front of the television unwilling to miss their favorite television show treating it as just a normal night.

Another response was just to go into shock. It was an understandable reaction. One morning everything was normal, and then it wasn’t. They had lost everything, and nothing made sense. The mind, rather than trying to figure out what was happening, chose the lazy solution of just shutting down for a while.

People sat numbly wondering what was going to happen to them. They looked around for someone to tell them what to do, but no one was there. They sat where they were, just waiting for something. They didn’t know what they were waiting for, but they were sure they’d recognize it when they saw it. Unfortunately, there was no Messiah who was going to stroll through and bestow upon them the enlightenment that they needed.

Others were overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness and despair. They fell into a deep depression that sapped the strength from them. The elderly, the infirm, and the emotionally weak were most susceptible to this reaction. What could they do now that all they had worked for was gone? They were too old, tired, or weak to rebuild a life. Why go on? It was hopeless.

In some cases, it was the degree of loss that was important. Movers and shakers who had once commanded billions, or at least significant fractions of billions, had lost everything. During the early days of the Great Depression, it was the formerly rich who had reacted by jumping from buildings.

Those overwhelmed by hopelessness and despair were among the group who chose suicide as a means of escaping reality. If suicide wasn’t an option, many pursued forms of behavior that were self-destructive, often to the same end: death. Self medication for depression using alcohol and drugs was widespread. Some sat and cried. Others wandered around as if waiting for someone to put them out of their misery.

Another group reacted by taking stock of what they had and what they needed in order to survive. They organized to protect what they had, acquire what was necessary, and plan for the future. Although taken by surprise, they weren’t going to let the current situation overwhelm them. These were fighters who saw the situation as a challenge to overcome.

Not all of them saw a need to obey the law. Survival required guns, food, clothes, and a defensible shelter. Locked doors intended to keep them from gaining any one of the essentials did not remain locked for long. Although violence may have resulted from their actions, they weren’t the ones who would bring down civilization if left unchecked.

A response which not quite so widespread was that by individuals who had been planning for such an event and already had their survival gear together. They started executing the plans they had made for this kind of situation. Many just hunkered down in the their bunkers to wait out the chaos that was sure to follow. Others grabbed their go bags and went. After years of being labeled as paranoid crackpots, the survivalists were in their element.

Survivalists were not the only ones who were ready. There were religious groups that had also been prepared for the end of times. This might not have been the end of times, but their preparations were of value. They pulled together in their churches and temples to pray.

The final response was not to deny what had happened or to react with hopelessness, but to embrace the collapse as an opportunity to run wild. Since civilization had collapsed there was no longer a need to act civilized. Might made right. Women were grabbed off the streets and out of their homes to be raped by men who acted like rabid animals. Stores were raided and anything of any value was removed. There were fights, buildings burned, people killed, and chaos reigned.

There were people who felt that their lives had been made miserable by impersonal corporations and an evil government who created laws intended to turn people into slaves. They viewed their violence as a form of a slave revolt. They were out to destroy the symbols of their enslavement. Business offices burned. Wall Street burned. Government buildings were left smoking ruins.

Almost without exception, there was an undercurrent of fear. The rules of the game had changed and everyone knew it. What no one knew was what new rules would emerge. The world teetered on the edge of barbarism.

By the time the sun set, the country was in turmoil; but ‘under the cover of darkness,’ things come to a rolling boil. The brutality and violence exhibited in some areas was unimaginable by civilized law abiding citizens. There were riots in the street, the sky was lit by the fires below, and people were lying on the ground dead and dying.

Yet in each major city, there were handfuls of individuals who stood against the beasts and the monsters to protect the weak. Druids, wearing green, red, or black robes, stood in front of angry mobs presenting an immoveable barrier. They were backed by a handful of young men and women who had been recruited and trained for just this situation. They stood firm and lives were saved.

The collapse of the digital economy was not limited to the United States. It spread across the world moving at the speed of sunrise – with the beginning of the business day the economic infrastructure was destroyed. Within twenty-four hours, there wasn’t a bank left solvent in the entire world. The effect of the economic collapse was not uniform. Some countries suffered more than others.

The hardest hit countries were the so-called developed countries of Europe and a handful of countries, such as Japan, in the Far East, although none of them suffered as greatly as the United States. These countries supported a population that had embraced the digital economy. As a result of differences among cultures and the degree to which the population had embraced the digital economy, some populations responded with greater violence than others.

The citizens of the so-called developing countries of South America, Africa, and the Far East were almost untouched by the collapse of the digital economy. These countries were predominately cash only societies. Very few people used plastic to pay for manufactured consumer goods. Not fully trusting banks, they squirreled their savings away in hidden places within their homes. The oldest citizens trusted banks the least and were left with the majority of their assets intact. It was the young who suffered most, but they had the greater resiliency.

There were still a lot of places in the world where barter remained a way of life. People did not rely to any great extent upon a currency backed by a government. Governments were often fleeting institutions. The fact of the matter was that most of the world’s population had not joined the digital economy.

While the common person may have been divorced from the digital economy, the same could not be said of their governments. Governments fell around the world leaving a power vacuum. Nature and politics abhor a vacuum. Ruthless individuals moved in to take over, sometimes violently.

When all was said and done, there wasn’t a country in the world that hadn’t been affected by the collapse. On the bright side, the world didn’t fall into barbarism.

Betsy was perched atop a building watching the people who had gathered in the parking lot. They were watching their neighborhood burn to the ground. An hour earlier, a different group of people had marched through the neighborhood looting homes and burning them. The fire had spread out of control and it wasn’t long before several blocks had been consumed in flames.

The people below were justifiably upset. Those were their homes and now they were homeless, and unemployed. There was nothing and nobody to help them recover. The tears had stopped only because they had cried themselves out.

Betsy cleared her throat loud enough to get the attention of everyone below her. As one, the crowd turned to look at her.

“I have good news and some bad news,” Betsy said brightly.

One of the men said, “Lady, I can’t take any more bad news.”

Looking a little apologetic, Betsy said, “The bad news isn’t exactly new news.”

“You’re going to tell us that we’re homeless and their isn’t a hope in hell that we’ll survive this mess,” the man said.

Betsy said, “The bad news is that you are homeless. The good news is that you aren’t exactly hopeless.”

“What do you mean?”

“What’s that across the street?” Betsy asked pointing at a building.

“That’s a hotel,” the man answered.

“Where are all of the tourists?” Betsy asked.

“They flew out or left on a boat this morning,” the man answered.

“That’s right. They left. When do you expect the next batch of tourists to show up?” Betsy asked.

“Lady, they aren’t ever coming back.”

Betsy said, “So, let me get this straight. You’re sitting over here homeless because your houses burned down. All that’s going to be left is a lot of empty land with nothing on it except for some concrete foundations that could be removed. Unless someone does something, there will be plants growing wild all over that land.

“On the other hand, across the street is an empty hotel with two hundred rooms, with beds in each room, that will never be occupied by a tourist ever again. It’s got a restaurant and facilities to wash clothes and sheets and stuff. The fusion cell is nearly new and more than enough to power the place for the next decade. Unless it gets occupied soon, it’s just going to sit there and decay.”

“Lady, we can’t afford to stay in a hotel.”

“Why not?” Betsy asked.

“We don’t have the money,” the man replied angrily.

“Who, exactly, is staffing the hotel at the moment?”

“No one,” the man said.

“Let’s see, who owns it? I don’t know, but it’s probably some corporation on the mainland. After all, it is an international chain. I imagine they’re already bankrupt or heading that way. You know, tourism is really going to take a major hit worldwide.”

“That’s true,” a woman said.

“Does that give anyone any ideas?” Betsy asked.

The people in the crowd started looking at each other.

One of the women said, “I guess we could move in there. What’s the worst that could happen? They throw us out?”

“You’re right. They could throw us out and we’d be homeless. Of course, we’re homeless now, but until they throw us out we’ll have a roof over our head,” another woman said.

“That’s true.”

“I suppose we could use our property to grow some food,” one of the men said.

“We could do that if we could get some seeds.”

One of the men looked up to ask Betsy a question, but she was gone. The crowd milled around for a few more minutes and then headed across the street to check out their new home. From a couple of buildings away, Betsy watched them enter the hotel. She smiled confident that they’d figure something out and headed on to the next trouble spot.

Betsy dropped to the ground next to the grim faced man who was looking down the body riddled street. He and his men had just suppressed a mob of angry rioters. It had been ugly, and very violent.

“Hello, Colonel Stewart. It looks like the mob made it this far,” Betsy said looking down the street.

Startled, the man turned to look at her. Her ability to get through his perimeter was really beginning to bother him.

He replied, “They didn’t make it any further.”

“Don’t feel bad. They burned down a neighborhood a couple of blocks from here. They left over two hundred people homeless,” Betsy said.

“I can’t help them,” Colonel Stewart said thinking that his resources were already stretched beyond its limits.

“I don’t expect you to help them by providing some shelter. I was just thinking that there were some seeds in one of the labs that they might be able use to start a little agriculture in this area,” Betsy said.

“Seeds?” Colonel Stewart asked.

“Yes,” Betsy answered. “You might not know it, but this place was established as agricultural school.”

“I didn’t know that,” Colonel Stewart said.

“Now you do,” Betsy said. “This place is a treasure trove of things that are useful now and in the future. You might get a couple of people to do an inventory.”

“My men are busy defending this place.”

“What about the families?”

“I guess I just said something stupid,” Colonel Stewart said.

“It happens to us all,” Betsy said.

“How are you doing?” Colonel Stewart asked.

“I’m doing fine. I’ll be going home in a couple of days,” Betsy said.

“Are you sure it is still there?”

“I’ve got an army guarding it,” Betsy answered with a smile.

“Let me guess, this is your home.”

“Nope. Although I’m a student here, I live on Kauai,” Betsy answered.

“I didn’t realize we had any men guarding anything there.”

“It’s a private army,” Betsy said.

“Where did you get a private army?”

Seeing the expression on his face, she said, “It’s nothing like what you’re thinking. I’ve got a bunch of retired Marines living in my place. They aren’t going to let anyone take it.”

“For a minute there I was worried. What are you doing here?”

“I’m making good things happen,” Betsy answered.

“Like what?”

“Tonight, I’m off to see a man about cattle,” Betsy answered.

“Cattle? So you’re going out to a ranch.”

“That’s right,” Betsy said.

Colonel Stewart said, “There was a time when cattle ranching was big business on this island. I don’t believe there are enough cattle left on island to feed everyone here. Most of the places have gone over to raising horses. Tourists love to ride horses.”

“There aren’t any tourists left and I’ve got a feeling that folks will be looking at horses as meat rather than entertainment,” Betsy said.

“I don’t want to hear that,” Colonel Stewart said.

“People are going to be going after the wild pigs, too.”

“That doesn’t bother me.”

“Some folks are going to get hurt trying to domesticate them.”

“There’s no limit to stupidity.”

“We’re all guilty of it at times,” Betsy said with a smile.

“Touché.”

Betsy said, “I’ve got to visit the marina. I’m pretty sure that’s a disaster area.”

“Take it easy,” Colonel Stewart said.

He watched Betsy run off. It wasn’t long before she was out of sight.

Colonel Stewart, in a soft voice, said, “It’s dangerous out there. I hope someone is watching over you.”

Things were real quiet on the ranch. With the tourists gone, it didn’t seem like the same place. Steve Winslow, owner of the ranch, stood out on his front porch looking over his land. His eyes kept drifting to the road that used to bring busloads of tourists for horseback riding tours. He knew there weren’t going to be any more buses for a long time.