I'm a big fan of dystopian novels and films; 1984, Brave New World, We, In Time, The Road etc...which, given my interest in finance makes it strange that I haven't come across Lionel Shriver's 2016 'The Mandibles' before. Set in the near future of 2029 during a debt crisis in the United States, it follows the lives of one family and how they navigate through the financial turmoil, the spiralling cost of necessities and the inevitable social breakdown thrust upon them. The second part of the book jumps forward to the year 2047 to see where our protagonists end up what with nearly 20 years of the Government in chaos, a currency in absolute freefall and freedoms being snatched quicker than tins of beans at the corner shop.
I've read books in the past on the hyperinflationary environment of the Weimar Republic, namely 'When Money Dies' by Adam Fergusson, and although I found it interesting to find out what the governments did and the various inflation figures, to me it was the real life stories of the everyday citizens that stuck with me. The families trundling wheelbarrows of Deutschmarks to buy a loaf of bread and the people who swapped a few gold coins for whole city blocks of properties! This is where 'The Mandibles' strength is, although it mentions what government legislation is doing to counteract the high inflation environment/control it's citizens, it predominantly focuses on the lives of the Mandible family and those around them. How they manage with food, water, what items are highly sought after, what jobs are defunct, what skills are in demand, and how all of this puts pressure on the 4 generations of the Mandible family. It is impossible to read without thinking "what would I do in this situation".
There's a tonne of themes in this book, again most of them right up my street, and since its release 8 years ago, this novel has since become extremely prophetic on many levels!
- Inflation / hyperinflation
- US hegemony being undermined by the rest of the world
- What real money is
- Government control
- Liberty
- Freedom, the illusion of freedom and especially freedoms being restricted
- 'You will own nothing and be happy'
- Record high Government taxation
- Quiet quitting
- Government coercion of taking medical procedures
- Generational divides
All of these themes have not just advanced, but have supercharged since the book's release in 2016. Inflation is now rife thanks to all the money printing the West have done, the US is being undermined by the BRICS group of countries, people have jumped into Gold and Bitcoin as they see value in them compared to increasingly worthless fiat money, we have record high income tax, a population being heavily coerced into taking Covid 'vaccinations', Government control and Freedoms being not only curtailed but actually holding up Communist China during Covid as something to aim for, Generational divides are also worse than ever between the haves (largely the 'Boomers') and the have-nots (younger generations) and even quiet quitting is now a thing.
However, it is the overarching theme of Government control that is really evident throughout and is absolutely chillingly prophetic of a system like Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) where Governments can not only see exactly what you spend your money on but can centrally control and program exactly what you spend your money on, how long you have to spend your money, and can alter your balance based on other factors such as social credit score (hello China). This is the dystopian nightmare that millions of people are currently living under, and will be coming our way if CBDCs ever come in. If anything this book has firmed up my belief that the brightest future for humanity lies in real money and cannot be printed into oblivion or people controlled through programmable money (CBDCs), by that I mean either a gold backed currency or Bitcoin.
One of my favourite passages is below (no spoiler alerts hopefully, just pertinent passages to back up the prophetic-ness and the theme). As a frugal spender and habitual saver beholden to no lines of credit, it sends shivers up my spine as it describes me (and the majority of FIRE people to a tee):
"Accordingly, Lowell had never received a bill that he couldn’t pay. He had long unthinkingly relegated folks who kept no cushion in their accounts, who spent merely because there was cash in their pockets, who reached out for payday loans to cover their electric bills, who were chronically in arrears and lived in fear of knocks on the door, to a remote category of the hopeless, the irresponsible, the feckless. As for debt, an economic wheels- greaser that ideologically he was quite big on, Lowell promoted getting into hock as a splendid idea for companies and whole countries, but paid off his Visa bills in full. His avoidance of credit was emotional. He didn’t like the sensation of being beholden, of being in someone else’s pocket. Which made him a sucker for the sad- ass Protestant values that most of the country had gleefully abandoned. The international economy had punished the frugal and rewarded the profligate for most of his professional life. It was an odd lesson for a man in his position to have failed to learn. Look at southern Europe, in the end. The euro zone’s Club Med took trillions, spent them, and didn’t pay them back. It wasn’t nice. It was smart. Economics doesn’t reward nice. It rewards smart. So Lowell felt pig- thick. With his spotless credit report, he should have borrowed up a storm, and then once the Renunciation hit he could have walked away."
Another good passage posits the dearth of practical skills that young people learn. Practical skills are a big part of my teaching my own kids, and also through the work I do by volunteering for Scouts:
"Willing might have quit going to school altogether because they taught the wrong things: algebra and state capitals. If he held sway, they’d be learning how to purify water and how to forage for edible plants. How to build a fire when your matches were wet. How to pitch a tent, or make one from a rain poncho. How to tie knots, how to grow potatoes. How to catch and skin a squirrel. How to load a gun."
Heck, the 'quiet quitting' trend we've observed as a society over the past couple of years is even mentioned!
"She said at work she had refined what the old unions called the go- slow. She had calculated the exact pace at which she could not be upbraided. She was doing the job. Just. This digging in of heels was growing commonplace. The countless overlords of your life would take so much, but you would hold something back, or you would not even have yourself."
All in all, this dystopian novel from 2016 has become mighty prescient in the past 8 years. In the next 8 years it'll be interesting if not downright scary to see how far some of the themes go in our real lives.
5/5
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