Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [238]

Yet no one has extra money for anything as nonessential as roof repair. At best, some of the neighborhood men go up with whatever materials they can scavenge and create makeshift patches. No one’s even done that for a while. If it only rains once every six or seven years, why bother? — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 238

Note

The economics of neglect in three escalating beats — no money, then scavenged patches, then not even that — closed by a question whose logic is airtight and fatal. ‘Why bother?’ is the whole dystopia in two words, and its being reasonable is what stings.