Late at night.
"Things have finally calmed down."
Jessie lay there exhausted. "These past few days, I've been driven crazy by all these bizarre, shocking messes."
"Hamburger still didn't get the death penalty after all that?"
Adam griped from beside her.
"Public opinion is increasingly leaning toward abolishing the death penalty."
Jessie said helplessly, "Although New York hasn't abolished it yet, death sentences are hardly ever handed down anymore."
"Whose public opinion?"
Adam scoffed. "The prison service industry tycoons'? Of course they support abolishing the death penalty. By then, every person they shove into prison will become nearly free labor.
"And if they didn't die after a few thousand or tens of thousands of years.
"Those super criminals sentenced to thousands or tens of thousands of years could work for them forever."
"Sigh."
Jessie sighed. "You're clearly someone at the top of the pyramid. Why are you more concerned with society's dark side than people like us at the bottom?"
"Because I'm a doctor. I spend every day in the hospital, and this is the sort of thing I see everywhere."
Adam naturally wouldn't mention the habits he had developed as an online keyboard warrior in his previous life. He smiled. "Haven't you noticed the trend? Those prison service industry tycoons are driving millions, even tens of millions, of people into prison.
"If young people slip up even a little and get a criminal record, they can only keep going in and out of prison for the rest of their lives. They're all the highest-quality free labor.
"AKA, it's all money!"
"What can we do even if we notice it?"
Jessie closed her eyes. "There's nothing we can do."
"You're right. All we can do is keep a firm hold on ourselves."
Adam agreed.
"...You don't need to keep a