Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [2219]

“I’ve heard of places like that,” Bankole said. “They were supposed to provide jobs for that northward-flowing river of people. President Donner’s all for them. The workers are more throw-aways than slaves. They breathe toxic fumes or drink contaminated water or get caught in unshielded machinery… It doesn’t matter. They’re easy to replace—thousands of jobless for every job.” — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 2219

Note

The grim economics delivered as a shrug: ‘It doesn’t matter’ lands mid-paragraph and retroactively cheapens the whole catalogue of poisons and mutilations that precedes it. Bankole’s voice — the doctor’s clinical listing (‘unshielded machinery’) colliding with the political aside about Donner — makes the horror sound like policy, which is the point.