MARCH 2020 PCWorld 95everyone else and left her here in the dark to
do the work of thirteen people, forever.
That it’s cheaper for them that way.
I don’t know why that sequence hit me so
hard. Of all the criticisms Kentucky Route Zero
levies at capitalism, this is neither the subtlest
nor the most poignant. I suspect it’s because
journalism’s taken on that same feeling for me, of
everyone making do with less and less. Less
money, less people,
less time. To be clear,
journalism is not the
only industry suffering
under those
conditions, and I am
(comparatively)
blessed to work with
PCWorld of all outlets.
But still, for a moment
I recognized me and
my compatriots andbe a train station, before it
was flooded. It was then
reclaimed for use by the
phone company, housing
the switchboards and the
operators needed to run
them. Then the
omnipresent
Consolidated Power
Company (a key
antagonist) bought up the
phone lines and fired all
but one of the operators,
saying they needed her to train an automated
system to eventually do the work.
She explains all this, the slow decay of this
once vibrant work environment, victim to an
unfeeling and unsympathetic corporation.
And then, having talked through it, she
realizes the truth: That there is no automated
system, no relief coming, and that the
Consolidated Power Company simply fired