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    2019: Dystopia USA
    2019: Dystopia USA
    2019: Dystopia USA
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    2019: Dystopia USA

    By David Latko

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    2019: Dystopia USA is the story of America's all-too-possible future, a fact-based projection ripped from today's headlines—told in the narrative of a middle-class American family as it faces the trials and uncertainties of daily life in the not-too-distant future, and in the fragments of a transcript that chronicled the national missteps and failures that led to that future.

    It is a chronicle... a 'history' of national economic decline and personal hardship vividly illustrated through a day-in-the-life of an American family. As such, it is both a cautionary tale and a compelling fictional narrative... one that should be read by every American, regardless of political or ideological orientation.

    In 2019, life is indeed perilous for Jason and Jennifer McKinnon. As middle-class professionals in the once-tidy Chicago suburb of Willowhaven, Illinois, they face the daily uncertainties of a long-lingering economic malaise—complicated by their concerns for Bradley and Kate, their teenaged children. It is a long way from the life they had lived—and had once expected for their children—in the times now referred to as "Back In The Day": a lost era of plentiful employment, full larders and a home of their own...

    But that was then; this is now.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTifda Press
    Release dateJun 7, 2011
    ISBN9780980097719
    2019: Dystopia USA

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    • 4/5
      Interesting and enjoyable - could not wait to get home and read it on kindle or PC so I read it on my mobile. Certainly useful for my Sociology studies and enjoyment in general.

    Book preview

    2019 - David Latko

    Special Smashwords Edition

    2019

    Dystopia USA

    by

    David W. Latko

    This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

    2019: Dystopia USA

    Special Smashwords Edition

    This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

    Copyright © 2011 by David W. Latko. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

    The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

    Cover Designed by: Tifda Press Design Group

    Cover Art: Copyright  Tifda Press

    Edited by: Earl Merkel

    Visit the author website:

    http://www.2019DystopiaUSA.com

    Published and distributed by: Smashwords.com

    http://www.smashwords.com

    Digital design by: Telemachus Press, LLC

    http://www.telemachuspress.com

    ISBN: 978-0-9800977-2-6 (eBook)

    ISBN: 978-0-9800977-1-9 (Hardcover)

    Original Hardcover Edition published by Tifda Press

    2011.05.25

    Acknowledgements

    As always when a book goes from an itch in the imagination to the final expression of the thought in words-on-paper (or pixels on a screen), there are many people for an author to thank:

    Thank you to my family, for graciously allowing me the time away from their daily lives while I researched and wrote this book.

    Thank you to the many economists, political science professionals, historians and other experts who provided their input and expertise; all the accurate parts in this work are largely due to their expertise, while any errors or off-the-mark predictions are solely my own.

    I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to novelist Earl Merkel, my co-host on Money & More, the nationally broadcast radio show where we shared the airways for more than eight years together.

    Earl’s experience and advice — along with his editorial skills — helped make this, my first foray into fiction, both memorable and delightful.

    And perhaps most of all, I’d like to thank the many listeners, clients and kind souls who read my previous non-fiction books... and asked me, "So what’s next?"

    Thanks to them, this book is.

    —David W. Latko

    Dedication

    For my wife Jan, and my children

    Tiffany and David Jr.

    May the fiction that follows never become fact —

    — for them or for our nation.

    Chapter 1

    September 7, 2019

    Willowhaven, Illinois

    The clock radio buzzed, an insistent clarion demanding wakefulness — or at minimum, something resembling it — from all within earshot.

    Jennifer McKinnon groaned softly, surfacing from sleep with a reluctance familiar to anybody enslaved by the daily routine of life. She rolled her head toward the low dresser that served as a bedside table; the glowing-green numerals on the digital clock read 5:15 a.m.

    Briefly, Jennie considered seizing the offending timepiece and flinging it at the bedroom wall. But it was a Sony — twenty-something years old, to be sure, but manufactured-to-last back when electronics were still marked Made In Japan. All you could find today was Chinese junk, and most of that was assembled in Burma, or Indonesia, or someplace worse. Besides, it had been a wedding gift — and as such, a sentimental memento of far more happy days.

    Instead, she clapped her hand on the undersized button that silenced her tormentor.

    Beside her, Jason McKinnon still snored softly. Jennie sighed; even after two decades of marriage, she marveled at her husband’s ability to sleep through all manner of external stimuli — most of which, she reminded herself, would have roused a hibernating grizzly. It still impressed her, though not always in a favorable way.

    For a moment, she debated rolling toward Jason, pressing against him until her persistence roused him — and, with luck, the hidden grizzly within him. A little morning romp is all the entertainment we can afford these days, Jennie mused.

    She eyed the clock again, and mentally shrugged.

    Rushed sex is worse than no sex at all, she decided. And besides, I’m too tired to enjoy it anyway.

    In the undersized kitchen, Jennie studied the refrigerator’s contents. There were eggs, an extravagance on which she and Jason had decided to splurge during their recent twice-monthly visit to the grocery. Her mouth watered with the remembered taste of them.

    But there are only three left, she noted. Besides, they’re so expensive now. Wish we’d seen that coming, back when you could have the Grand Slam at Denny’s without taking out a bank loan.

    Prudently, she instead selected three of the pop-tarts — two for Jason, one for her — that were encased in the silvery plastic envelopes the government used for most issued rations. Strawberry or raspberry? Jennie pondered, then shrugged. Doesn’t really matter; they both taste the same. Like artificially-sweetened cardboard.

    She had just finished boiling the water for morning coffee when Jason appeared in the doorway, yawning. He was still in pajamas, Jennie noticed.

    Jason kissed Jennie on the cheek, looking over her shoulder as she spooned the coffee powder into each of their mugs.

    "Huh. Remember real coffee?" he murmured.

    You’re starting to sound like your father, Jennie warned.

    Yeah, Jason said. "But he had real coffee. And usually, a donut too."

    Shut up and eat your pop-tarts, Jennie laughed. Or we’ll be late for work.

    Jason said nothing, but Jennie saw it in his eyes.

    "Is there work today?"

    They told us yesterday, Jason said, trying to sound nonchalant. Schedule change for everybody, another one of those job-sharing things. I’m scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays.

    He caught the expression that passed across Jennie’s face.

    "It’s temporary, Jen. It was either that, or they’d have had to lay off people again."

    She nodded, turning away from him while she composed herself. It was the third temporary cutback since January at the financial

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