{"id":26744,"date":"2022-06-13T11:35:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T18:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rachelswirsky.com\/?p=3108"},"modified":"2022-06-13T11:35:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T18:35:28","slug":"my-january-fifteenth-authors-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=26744","title":{"rendered":"My January Fifteenth Author\u2019s Note"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bookJanuary Fifteenth<\/span><\/i> debuts tomorrow! This is my last post before it heads out into the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

(ICYMI, check out some of my earlier posts about <\/span>January Fifteenth<\/span><\/i>, including my <\/span>official announcement<\/a><\/span>, the <\/span>Debut Sampler<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>meeting the characters<\/span><\/a>. Preorders are available through <\/span>several different online platforms, including <\/span>Powell\u2019s<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Amazon<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Indiebound<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Barnes and Noble<\/span><\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the author\u2019s note I wrote for the beginning of the book:<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Reader,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

January Fifteenth <\/span><\/i>takes place in a near-future America with a Universal Basic Income (UBI) program. If you\u2019re not\u00a0 familiar with the term, Universal Basic Income is a policy proposal for the government to provide an annual income to\u00a0 its citizens. Details vary\u2014like how much that income should be\u2014but every citizen would get it, without condition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For me at least, any argument about UBI begins with one question: will it help people?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Practical assessment follows, of course, but that\u2019s the first thing we have to know. In its ideal form, if everything went\u00a0 perfectly, would UBI improve people\u2019s lives? I don\u2019t have a definitive answer, although I pose a series of possible\u00a0 questions and answers in this novella.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During my research on American UBI proposals, most of the hypotheticals I saw concentrated on the traditional\u00a0 concerns of the right versus left political axis. Would UBI open new possibilities for society, or encourage a culture of\u00a0 laziness and dependency?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I became more curious about other questions. For instance, some people dislike that UBI goes to people of any social\u00a0 class\u2014so whatever might (some) rich kids do with it? Some people are wary about the ways cults exploit contemporary\u00a0 welfare programs\u2014what might they do with UBI, and how might others try to stop them? Pervasive, systemic racism\u00a0 has created an enormous disparity between the assets of Black and white American households\u2014can and should we\u00a0 brush over that history as if White and Black communities have an equal starting point? Money can help someone\u00a0 escape an abusive relationship, but would Universal Basic Income change what happens afterward?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The characters in this book have gone through hard things, from being orphaned to domestic violence to forced\u00a0 marriage. Many of the scenarios in this book reflect situations that I or people close to me have gone through. Others\u00a0 evolved through research and talking to people. So many of us have gone through similar tribulations, whether the more\u00a0 common horrors like casual racism and sexual assault, or the more rarefi ed ones like cult exploitation. These things\u00a0 impact our lives. They affect our happiness. They certainly affect how and why Universal Basic Income could change our\u00a0 circumstances.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although I hope <\/span>January Fifteenth <\/span><\/i>is true to the characters and emotions, I can\u2019t claim it\u2019s an accurate prediction. UBI\u00a0 could play out in lots of ways that are equally, if not more, plausible. For example, in <\/span>January Fifteenth<\/span><\/i>, the practical side\u00a0 of running UBI is relatively smooth and easy. As a world-building choice, that allows me to let fiddly details fade into the\u00a0 background while I focus on the characters. But is it the most likely scenario? Probably not\u2014very few things seem to be\u00a0 easy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even within the world I set up, there are a ton of possible alternative and conflicting scenarios. I could have happily kept\u00a0 adding more. In fact, a fifth thread ended up on the cutting room floor during an early draft, when the word count kept\u00a0 relentlessly increasing.<\/span><\/p>\n

If I can make any \u201ctrue\u201d predictions, I suppose they are these:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Money can make life easier, but it can\u2019t solve everything.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Adding money to a system with underlying problems won\u2019t fi x those problems on its own.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. After any massive change, some people will be better off, some people will be worse off, and many people will be both better and worse off.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. However the future unfolds, it won\u2019t go according to my values. There will always be outcomes I don\u2019t expect. Some of them will contradict my beliefs about the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. I\u2019m definitely wrong about something.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Rachel Swirsky<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    \"image<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    January Fifteenth debuts tomorrow! This is my last post before it heads out into the world. (ICYMI, check out some of my earlier posts about January Fifteenth, including my official announcement, the Debut Sampler, and meeting the characters. Preorders are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26745,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26744\/revisions\/26745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}