Plenti - the latest bit of dystopia come to life

You've probably seen ads on TV for Plenti, a big customer loyalty program where you get rewards points for doing business with an array of huge companies.

http://about.americanexpress.com/news/pr/2015/plenti-loyalty-program-available-now.aspx

This sounds like the beginnings of the two giant customer loyalty programs in Jennifer Government that divides all companies into two factions:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Government

Companies collude with others in the same program and compete fiercely with those in the other - usually in "unhealthy" ways of course. People can save money by getting a membership to one program and sticking with the companies allied to that program. Having two memberships won't pay off so easily, and one program is often giving discounts for unsubscribing from the other (sort of like some telcos are doing now). For customers, it effectively turns all business into dealing with a duopoly, and the rewards programs reinforce this system.

Things will get interesting when Plenti's first competitor launches and picks up the competitors of the Plenti-affiliated companies.

Jennifer Government, that's a book I haven't heard about in awhile.

I don't know who Jennifer Government is, but she sounds hot.

Another book suggestion from the forum. And another one for me to buy and read.

Yeah, Jennifer Government was an interesting read, kinda sorta in the vein of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake series. There was a text-based MMORPG based on Jennifer Government that was pretty entertaining for a while - quite the little political ecosystem built up in the game and related forum.

What could go wrong?

Can I pay for my High Speed Pizza Delivery with Kongbucks yet?

Snow crash?

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Yes, I just want my own pizza delivery vehicle. I would settle for the wicked skateboard.

The thirst mutilator

singleslammer wrote: In reply to Dusterbd13: Yes, I just want my own pizza delivery vehicle. I would settle for the wicked skateboard.

I hate to say it but the "deliverator car" from Snow Crash didn't have much thought put into it and makes no sense...all we know about it is that it's electric, has crazy-wide tires, uses some kind of aerodynamic thrust device (which is highly wasteful for a wheeled vehicle) and has a hatch with a pizza storage system in the back. One thing is certain though, there would be no reason for it to be that big and tall.

singleslammer wrote:

The wheels and grapple device are wrong, but otherwise this is pretty much spot-on.