Service Guarantees Citizenship: Would you like to know more?

Beginnings, Part I

For a first piece of writing, For Us, The Living has no comparison to Heinlein's contemporaries such as Asimov and Clarke, and reads more like a political manifesto in narrative form than anything else. The 'science fiction' takes a back seat to the ideas and concepts he's trying to address throughout.

He's not trying to entertain, he's trying to educate. There's a sense that Heinlein himself is still in the process of fleshing out what it is he's trying to communicate to the audience.

He knows something is wrong, but exactly what that is, I'm not sure even he knows what it is yet.

Perhaps, Heinlein is what you get when an Engineer applies 'Critical Theory' to politics? I'm sure his second wife would have been somewhat familiar with these concepts in their infancy during that time period.

In the first chapter, our Main Character is thrust 150 years into the future via a car accident, in which he reawakens in a strangers body, having been transplanted there via a consciousness uploading experiment, and stumbling through to woods to a stranger's house.

Modern day parallels are abundant from the get-go, with the heroine who rescued him being akin to a Youtube personality that lives off of an internet income, same-day package deliveries (with expedition charges, of course), and smart homes with voice activated locks.

These details are secondary though to the 'Youtube education' that he is put through almost immediately by his host.

In 150 years, many things have changed, yet many things stay the same (the Human Condition in a nutshell...).

World Politics

In regards to the United States, an important figure stands out in the fictional history presented to our protagonist: Former NYC Mayor LaGuardia.

But first, there was 'President Malone'. Malone (who today would be considered a Neo-Conservative) enacted policies similar to that of the PATRIOT ACT, and tactics similar to 'Project Mockingbird' were used to control the media narrative.

Economic instability was leading to riots, and discontent among the population. A 'State of Emergency' was enacted, and Malone became a pseudo-dictator.

Through the political divide of economics among the US military, a gradual relocation of various influential Officers was undertaken. Placing Liberal-Democrat individuals into non-combat roles, and jingoistic individuals being placed in direct charge of troops, Malone effectively had his own military loyalists.

The National Guard was effectively neutered by a series of classified, ammo return policies over several months that left the entirety of State-controlled military forces without any way to fight back.

This dictatorship lasted approximately 3 years, and was ended by Malone's assassination by one of his own loyalists. After 3 weeks, most loyalists were outed, and the Governors of the States immediately set forth several candidates and declared a General Election to be held.

LaGuardia won, and served two terms.

From the description of his policies, LaGuardia is almost 'Trump-like' in his demeanor, ad hailed as a 'Great' historical president that led to the future we read about.

He is credited for ending the Federal Reserve and replacing it with a true, publicly owned bank similar to a credit union, beholden to its customers. This was not completed peacefully however, as the private banks colluded with the media in order to create a smear campaign against the president.

LaGuardia doubled-down however, and even began issuing private loans from his own wealth during a financial crisis that saw the collapse of the private banking industry.

Europe, is another matter altogether.

After WW2 (remember, the Holocaust was not public knowledge yet), the continent was restructured under a constitutional-monarchy based European Union that lasted only a single generation before falling into chaos, demands for expropriation of lands, mass starvation, and all out civil war. This lasted for 40 years, and left Europe with a very small pre-industrial, agrarian population that is mostly illiterate.

To prevent any bleed-over into North America at the beginning of the conflict, a so-called 'Non-intercourse Proclamation' was set forth by President Winthrop, and US military assets were used to evacuate any and all American citizens in the region. For twenty years, Europe was effectively embargoed to US trade, and citizens were barred from visiting. The policy is still in place during the period our protagonist finds himself in, and only a minor US presence is maintained in the region.

All of that? That's just up to the 1970s.