When those who owed high Life Debts to the Socialist Republic of Juneau began running for freedom elsewhere, the leaders of Juneau were enraged. They had built a better and kinder society, and those peons were trying to make it look bad by spreading stories of slavery and abuse. After Juneau had fed them and cared for them all their lives. They could not be allowed to tarnish the workers paradise, so Juneau created a new kind of service to the State. The Debt Collectors. Those who ran from Juneau were labeled as In Default and their cases turned over to the Juneau Debt Collection Service. The Debt Collectors were recruited from only the most stable households in Juneau, and their families gained access to the very best opportunities the State could provide. It was how Juneau took care of those they empowered to go anywhere in the world to find those In Default of their Life Debt and return them to Juneau for their day in court. Of course those charged with failing to pay off their Life Debt rarely won, and the normal punishment was to serve out the remainder of their Life Debt in far more secure facilities than those they had escaped before.
The Socialist Republic of Juneau sent their Zero Balance celebrities to the world to show everybody the opportunities to be had in Juneau. And they broadcast the lives of those with low Life Debts to show how even the everyday man and woman on the street could live. What they did not tell the world was how the vast majority of those with Life Debts lived. Those had to tell the story of Juneau on their own, which they did. They were small in number at first, running away from their new Socialist paradise as control tightened, but far more would follow them in time. People who desperately wanted to be free of the Life Debt that controlled their futures purchased or built illegal boats and ran for freedom in Canada or other American States. They told a completely different tale of the living conditions most people “enjoyed” in Juneau, and gave the nation a public black eye that could not be ignored. Or allowed to continue.
The vast majority of people in the Socialist Republic of Juneau never achieved Zero Balance on their Life Debt, but that does not mean they had horrible lives. Those with the highest Life Debts often did perform the worst of the jobs, and could only spend their ration cards in the lowest of the markets. But the lower your Life Debt was, the better the places that you could go to were. Fresh fruit or bread was not an uncommon sight in the higher class markets, and day-old bread sent down from the Zero Balance markets was always available for those who worked well and had high social awareness. They could even choose their service to Juneau from the available openings, and few who gained that amount of comfort and control over their own lives would do anything to risk it. They were the stable middle class of Juneau, and the public face they broadcast to the world of the standard of living their better and more caring society could build for everyone.
Those who achieved Zero Balance status in the Socialist Republic of Juneau’s Life Debt system were the most prestigious citizens of Juneau. They were the people everyone else aspired to be. High government workers. Sports stars. Musicians and dancers of the highest caliber. Poets and people of high social awareness. Members of the families who created the new Juneau in the first place. They were the high class of Juneau society and could spend their ration cards at the best markets with the freshest of foods, sitting on the counters, waiting to be picked by such worthy individuals. Zero Balance shopping centers sported the very best imports from their Socialist friends in Pacifica, and their recreational centers had only the very best availability, gleaned from the very best candidates in the country. A Zero Balanceer could be guaranteed to have the best of everything in Juneau, as long as they did nothing to incur a new Life Debt. They were granted the most freedom of all citizens of Juneau, and at the same time were more slaves to the system than anyone else. Because former Zero Balance celebrities were always in high demand in the recreational centers should they fall from grace.

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