story-starter

as more and more banks go bankrupt, the government starts buying more and more of them until they control the country's finances. in a seemingly-utopian move, they outlaw paper money and issue every social security card-holding american a debit card. now able to monitor incomes and expenditures for all people, the crime rate goes down, as does poverty, since the government can accurately monitor and supplement below-living-standard incomes. the national debt vanishes.

the tricky part is trying to figure out what direction to take the problem of the story. i mean, we would start having a hand in controlling other world markets. either other countries would have to accept our non-currency or they would have to stop doing business with us. not really a huge problem, as we already have non-currency with credit and debit cards.

the other problem would be the people in the country who don't have social security cards. whole immigrant families relying on their native-born children to work and buy for them. but not buy too much, because the government has discovered many an illegal immigrant that way. or maybe they'd develop these little sects of people who create communes in the country, growing and trading and such.

it has potential, i just don't know what to do with it.