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community.”
    “Wait, do I have to open a new bank account?  I would rather keep my own account with my current bank. I’ve been with them a long time, and I know all of my passwords…” Kris smiled when she said it hoping to establish a little bit of a friendly rapport, but the clerk did not smile or respond.
    “We don’t care whether you keep your account or not.  However, your compensation is not coming in the form of U.S. dollars—you are being compensated in community credits for use in the Smart Community where you have been assigned housing….”
    Now it was Kris’ turn to interrupt. “What! Wait; I can’t be paid in credits. I have to be paid in money—regular U.S. money.” She was gesturing with her hands as if to try to explain to this obviously clueless person in front of her what constitutes regular U.S. money.
    “All employees in this program are paid exclusively in credits. That’s how this works. The Smart Communities have a credit bank. The website address is on this sheet of paper,” he highlighted a page with the address. “This number here,” he wrote a number alongside it, “is your FE number. Within forty-eight hours you need to log on to the website, enter your number, and set up a log-in ID and password. When your credits are deposited, the system will automatically generate an alert which will be sent to your federally-issued secure email address that new credits have been issued. If there are any changes to the credits being deposited, you will be issued an alert for that also.  By logging in, you can check the status of your credits to see what you have spent and what you have left.”
    “That’s not going to work for me. I have bills to pay. I have credit card bills that I have to make payments on. I have expenses. I need to opt out of this.”
    “There is no opting out. The forms I just gave you are for deductions. The deductions are for the bills you want to have automatically deducted from your gross pay. Fill out the forms completely with the name of the creditor, the full account number and the amount that you want deducted from your check to go to each creditor. The balance will be deposited into your credits account for use in the community.”
    Kris stared at him wondering if she looked as confused as she felt. “So I fill out one of these forms for each creditor that I need to pay? And I fill in the amount that I want deducted? What if I need to change the payment amounts? I was hoping to get some of the small ones paid off and then work on the larger amounts….”
    “You can make changes—within the coordinated election period. During the coordinated election period, you can change the amounts of the payments that are going to creditors, add creditors, remove creditors….”
    “The coordinated election period,” Kris repeated, while thinking that it was very ironic that she was now stuck in a system modeled after the Medicare program that the government supposedly wanted to fix.  “How often is that?”
    “Every six months a new coordinated election period opens for fifteen days. Any changes that you want to make can be made only during that time. Is there anything else?” The clerk actually looked up at her this time. Kris glanced down at her watch. Class would start again in less than five minutes.  She was still so confused, but there was no more time to ask any questions. Grabbing the forms, she stuffed them into her purse and headed back to her class. Janice glared at her as she walked in about two minutes late.
    Kris finished the rest of the day sitting quietly and making notes without asking any more questions. The strong anti-capitalist tone of the sessions bothered her some—more than she cared to admit. On the other hand, she needed this job, and she could not afford to get into a personal disagreement about how the world ought to be. Maybe just sitting quietly and listening and learning was her best course of action for a while.
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