At dinner that night, the king has an announcement.  Twos and Threes will no longer get paid for being in the Selection, only girls who are lower than that, and they’ll be getting less money.  Once again, for some reason, it’s the richer girls who are more angry over this.

Celeste, for example, was fuming. I guessed if you had a lot of money, you got used to the idea of collecting it.

Look, Celeste is a Two.  We can assume she has plenty of money, although we don’t really know, because if Kota can make a killing then why can’t a Two be broke?  Either way, we’re led to assume that loosing this payment will only be an inconvenience to her.  Now, the few Fours that are left and who will be getting less money than before?  Presumably they’re in the same situation as America, with their families dependent on that income.  And, likely, that income will have to stretch on for years and years after the Selection, since this is a one-time gig.  Those are the people who rightly should be angry over all this.

I’m not saying that rich people don’t get mad over an inconsequential loss of riches.  Of course that happens.  But it doesn’t make sense for that to happen and for the poor girls to just shrug it off.  If it’s enough of a deal for Celeste to be fuming, it should be enough of a deal for poorer girls to be even angrier. 

I kept watching Maxon. I tried to catch his attention so I could tug my ear, but he didn’t look my way.

This is yet another reason your insistence on unofficial communication makes no fucking sense.

In her room later, America is fretting and getting ready for the Friday news show.  Her maid is tossing her practice interview questions, since she’ll be interviewed tonight by that Gavril guy.  Because, you know, that’s totally newsworthy and shit.  Then the other maids come in with her brand new dress for that evening.  It’s red, so that she’ll stand out.  Seems that ever since she started wearing blue, dressing simply, and eschewing jewelry, the other girls have been imitating her.  And now it’s time to buck the fad simply because it is a fad.

See, this is why I’ll never be impressed at America’s fashion choices.  She’s not making them because she has any strongly held beliefs about waste in fashion or trotting about in expensive clothes while her friends back home starve.  She’s just doing it because, and therefore it takes nothing more than a suggestion to get her to change.  All of her fashion choices revolve around idle whims and upstaging the other girls.  That’s not heroic.

“Oh, Lady America, if he really likes you, you have to keep standing out. You’ve been so generous with us, especially Lucy.”

Generous how?  What has she done that’s been so generous?  What, just because she’s mildly nice to them?  That should be a given.  Despite what this book keeps trying to imply, most people don’t treat their servants like shit, because most people 1) are not sociopaths and 2) don’t want to piss off the people that help them look good and are in a good position to sabotage them if crossed.  America hasn’t done anything exceptionally good for her maids, and has even participated in preventing Lucy from getting the medical care she needs. 

Good characters need to do something other than ‘not be mean’ in order for me to like them.  If you have to make the rest of your world terrible in order for your very average and un-special heroine to stand out, that makes for a pretty shitty book.  (Well, what it really does is play into teenagers’ need to feel validated without putting out any actual effort, so telling them what they’re already doing is special will of course appeal to them.  On the other hand, why the fuck would you want to encourage that kind of entitled, bratty behavior?  Oh, right, money.)

So America puts on the dress and has to be literally sewn into it.  They finish sewing it after it’s already on her.  That’ll be fun to take off later.  And then it’s off to the news show.  The stage is set up to revolve around the interviews, because clearly that’s the most important thing going on here.

When she gets there, she sees that all the girls are dressed in blue, and they’re staring daggers at her for dressing in red.  Celeste pulls her off to one side and demands to change dresses with her.  Um, Celeste is one of the richies.  She should be well aware of the idea that you can’t just switch around tailored clothes.  America’s dress has been created to fit her exact body shape, and no two girls have the same body.  It would look terrible on Celeste, even worse than wearing blue, because it would hang all wrong and make it look like she was dressed by blind mice.  But I guess this author has no real concept of ‘tailoring’ or why it’s a thing, so no mentions that.  Instead, America just refuses and then insults her.

Next time you pick out your clothes, maybe you should try being yourself instead of me. Oh, wait, but maybe then Maxon would see what a brat you are and send you home, huh?

But…but…you aren’t even trying to be you anymore!  You have so little attachment to your style that you were willing to completely change it just because people were copying you!  And also, it’s just a fucking color!  Dressing the same as someone isn’t trying to ‘be’ that person, it’s just picking up on a fashion fad. 

Celeste rips one of her sleeves and then walks off in a huff.  If I got called a brat by the brattiest of all brats, I’d probably have the same reaction.  I’d be wrong, just like Celeste is here, but I wouldn’t be evil for it.  Just really, really frustrated and short-tempered.

The other girls help America hide the torn sleeve as if it never happened, so America doesn’t even have to deal with the dubious ‘drama’ of looking imperfect.  Now she just looks like she wore an asymmetrical dress which, hello, is a perfectly valid design choice that gets used all the time. 

For the news tonight, there’s only going to be one announcement and then the interviews.  Because, you know, nothing of importance happened in the country this week.  We just all want to talk to these girls because that’s so fucking important that it takes up our entire news time.

And boy is that announcement a doozy.  Starting in about three months, when they can get it set up, they’ll start having a food assistance program where any Five, Six, Seven, or Eight can go in and get a free hot meal.  The girls’ compensation money is going to go toward helping with that program.

It’s math time again!  Bear with me if I make any mistakes.  (I’m going to be using current money numbers under the assumption that buying power is still relatively the same in the future, regardless of what inflation does to the numbers involved.  And also because I don’t have much choice, seeing as the author hasn’t said shit about money.)

Now, when America saw the first compensation check, she said that the amount would see her family through for a year ‘if they’re careful.’  The poverty threshold for a family of four is $23,050, so it should be at or a little below that.  Let’s assume that her family is shit at money and ‘careful’ doesn’t mean the same for them as it would for us, and we’ll round the check number up to a nice $30,000.  There’s 25 girls left in the Selection, so that’s $750,000 going into this program every week.

One meal at a soup kitchen costs roughly $1.80.  We don’t know what the population of Illea is, but it’s American and at least some parts of Canada combined.  Since I’m sure people died in their various wars, let’s just stick with 300 million, the population of the US.  That would allow for a decrease once you consider that it’s supposed to be two countries combined.  Now, we also don’t know what the breakdown of the caste populations is, but one would assume the lower castes would be larger than the upper ones.  There’s no point in subjugating them if there’s only a few of them; caste systems were invented so that a small number of people could control a large number of people.  So if the split between ‘good life’ and ‘shitty life’ is at Four, then the 4-8 group should be larger than the 1-3 group.  Let’s go ahead and be nice here and say it’s only 51%.  That technically satisfies the statement, but gives the book the largest benefit of the doubt.  So, that’s 153 million people who could get a free meal.  At $1.80 each, that’s $275.4 million for each meal.  $826.2 million every day.

And the girls are only donating $750,000 a week.  Yeah, I’m sure it was just so vital to take away their compensation checks.

To further compound this stupidity, Maxon got approval for this program in less than a day.  How did he find funding for $800 million in a budget that couldn’t be convinced to give more money to education because it was too tied up in government pork?  How did he get the other officials to agree to it?  Where did this money come from?

Let’s take the numbers down.  Let’s say they’re only going to feed those who are below the poverty line, not a whole half the country.  25% of people right now live below the poverty line.  So, that’s $400 million a day instead of $800 million.  Still a fuck-ton of money.

Okay, let’s assume that the population is going to be nice to him and only go in if they absolutely can’t buy their own food.  Wait, no, why the fuck would they do that?  They’re living at near-poverty levels.  They’re going to go get the free food when it’s offered, because they’re going to be saving their grocery budget so they can buy new shoes for the baby and fix the water heater when it inevitably breaks down.  Not all of them will, but enough of them will.  Let’s be generous and say about half.  $200 million every fucking day. 

So where is all this money coming from, and why was it just sitting around to be used in the prince’s pet project?  Governments do not generally have billions of dollars just hanging out in a corner somewhere waiting to be used.

And how did this project get approved?  This whole time I’ve been assuming that the caste system is an oppressive government and yelling at America for not getting angry at the upper castes.  If the money is hanging around to just give out to people, then it’s because the crown was just keeping it.  They were keeping money and furthermore they were keeping it away from the people who needed it.  That’s a valid narrative choice if you make it deliberately, because it turns the government into a corrupt boogieman, and plenty of governments are really like that.  But, see, governments are made of people.  It’s not just a system handed down from on high that’s unchangeable, it’s people deciding to be shitty, and deciding it over and over again, every day.  Here, with this revelation that everyone is cool with giving up their hard-stolen cash in order to feed the poor, it leaves the impression that they just didn’t know people were hungry, and of course if they’d known then they would help.  It makes it seem like no one has any idea that their system is fucked, or if they do know, there’s nothing they can do to change it.  It makes the upper castes just as powerless as the lower castes.  Furthermore, it’s as if it’s trying to make them blameless.  It’s putting the fault for all this misery and starvation on no one, because even the richies are just victims. 

No, book.  No.  When you have an oppressive caste system, the people at the top are to blame.  When you have situations where an entire caste is homeless, someone needs to be held accountable.  Don’t sit there and tell me that no one noticed that the homeless people are hungry, because that’s fucking stupid.  The reason we have poverty and homeless right now is not because Washington just doesn’t notice.  It’s because…well, it’s because of a lot of reasons, actually.  It’s a complex issue, not something that can simply be fixed by throwing money at it, especially when we don’t have $200million to throw every day.

And, hey, there’s another issue.  Why are you just throwing money at the problem?  Giving out free money to people for being poor is not the right answer.  You know what would help more?  INSTITUTE A FUCKING MINIMUM WAGE.  Put in employee-protection laws.  Give job assistance to those that need it, like Aspen’s mom, who can’t figure out how to negotiate a work contract.  Create an adult education program.  Offer small business loan assistance.  Then Aspen’s mom could make a maid business, hire on a bunch of other maids, and make contracts with those who need house cleaning services.  You know, like how most maids operate right now.  All of these would be better uses of that $200 million than just tossing out free meals to large masses of people.

There are situations where people just need a bit of money to help themselves crawl out of a hole.  On occasion, ‘free money’ really is the best solution.  However, it’s not an across-the-board fix, and “free food for half the country until the money runs out” is not a good policy.

And while this assistance may not be able to last forever, we will keep it running as long as we can.

This is why it’s a bad policy.  Because when your money runs out (which, I’m assuming, will be very soon) then everyone will be in the same shitty place as before.  “Teach a man to fish” and all that.

Then the prince calls on the other Twos, Threes, and Fours to keep the program alive by donating. 

By birth you have been blessed, and it is time to acknowledge that blessing.

See?  See?  There’s no blame!  There’s no indication that they don’t deserve these ‘blessings’ and rather they are just taking stuff.  It’s like saying that God just gave you shit, and because you’re a good person, you should share.

I’m not the most liberal person around, and I don’t believe in an equal share of wealth by everyone, but even I can see how fucking wrong and sick this is.  There’s a difference between a free market and…and whatever the fuck we’re looking at here.

There was a smattering of applause from everyone in the room, though it was obvious not everyone was as enthusiastic about Maxon’s announcement… The advisers also seemed torn about whether or not this was a good idea.

Then how the hell did it get approved in a day?  Governments don’t work like that.  You can’t get something like this approved in a single day unless either everyone approves or the prince has absolute power.  We already know that the prince doesn’t have any influence, the king doesn’t have absolute power but is held accountable to his officials, and now here we have confirmation that not many people even like the idea.  So how did it come into being?

And WHY THE FUCK WAS THE PRINCE ABLE TO FOCE THIS THROUGH WHEN THE QUEEN COULDN’T EVEN GET A FEW EXTRA THOUSAND FOR EDUCATION!?!?!?!?!?!

Clearly, the queen doesn’t actually have any power or influence or voice in the government at all.  Because fuck feminism, that’s why.

And then we move right from that into the interviews, because that’s what’s really important, right?

[Celeste’s] interview was predictable, and so was Bariel’s. They tried to be sexy, bending forward a lot to get clear shots down their dresses. It looked fake.

Because fake is bad.  Did we tell you enough that fake is bad?  Because we really, really want you to understand our point that fake is bad.  I mean, it’s not like these two women are sexy, are aware that they’re sexy, and are proud of their bodies.  They can’t just have developed the habit of showing off because being sexy is something that they’re proud of.  Nope, that’s just downright impossible.  Everyone knows that the only girls who are really sexy are those who are shy, meek, good little girls who are unaware of their bodies and try to hide in a corner.  Anyone who does anything else is ‘fake.’

Because even though you have to conform to ridiculous physical standards of beauty, you have to just naturally conform to it, you can’t work at it.  If you do, you deserve to be ridiculed and painted as an evil whore. 

Because fuck feminism, that’s why.

Gavril asked a variety of questions, but there were two that seemed to pop up with everyone: “What do you think of Prince Maxon?” and ”Are you the girl who yelled at him?” I wasn’t looking forward to telling the country that I had chided the future king.

Who says you have to tell the truth?

“Yes, actually. While my mom was pregnant with me, I kicked a lot. She said she had a fighter on her hands, so she named me after the country that fought so hard to keep this land together. It’s odd, but to her credit, she was right—we’ve been fighting ever since.”

1) The United States lost that war.  2) Unless Magda is supposed to represent China, that whole bit makes no sense.  That’s a difference between having a strong, fighting spirit and getting into petty grudge matches with your mother for fuck-all reason.

And if Magda is supposed to be China, then fuck this book.

Then she admits that she yelled at the prince.  She tells the whole story and makes very little effort to be diplomatic about it.  There’s no showmanship, no banter, no attempts to make it an engaging story.  The author seems to think that the event itself is so interesting that America can just tell it plainly and everyone will be riveted.  It’s not that interesting, especially when given with such a dull delivery. 

They talk more about her and Maxon’s dates, which have been pretty tame next to the other girls’.

But I suddenly understood why he had been speed dating over the last week. The girls needed something to tell Gavril, so he had to provide it.

Because, as we all know, these girls have no lives and no personality and no action and no interest outside of Maxon.  Their whole lives revolve around him, to the point where if he didn’t date them, they’d just be dull little lumps of wasted space.

Because fuck feminism.  And while you’re at it, fuck this book. 

Gavril asks what she thinks of the prince.

And I couldn’t poke fun at him, not when I had a chance to say what I’d really started to think now that he was my friend.

Why the fuck would you make fun of him while on national TV?

See, this is what I mean when I say it takes work to not fuck up being a queen.  The queen is going to be in front of cameras, and she needs to understand the concept that making fun of people and being a dull public speaker are both bad things.  She doesn’t have to be brilliant, but some of the basics of PR would go a long way.

“Maxon Schreave is the epitome of all things good.

This is just shit.  I mean, calling him this just makes me sick.  Not because Maxon is particularly bad – he’s really just run-of-the-mill whiney – but because it’s such blatant authorial doting.  She’s not supposed to be embellishing here; supposedly we’re supposed to agree with America when she says this.  It’s Mary Sue trying to convince us that her Gary Stu is just as awesome as she is, but without putting the effort of making him live up to it, because this book was written by a lazy, lazy hack.

Maxon comes to visit her that night and gush about how awesome the interview was since they both got to show off their supposed specialness and Mary Sue Powers and such.  They spend a while assuring each other that they both really are awesome, because that’s all this book is.  People talking about being awesome and no one actually being awesome.  The few times they try to justify their supposed awesomeness, they just vomit stupidity all over the place.

Then Maxon kisses her, because yeah, no one saw that coming after a whole conversation about how she’s beautiful and also awesome.  Maxon gets all stuttery and apologizes, saying he thought that she’d changed her mind about him because she’d been sending out ‘I like you’ signals.

America takes a moment to realize that, even though she still likes Aspen, she’s not with Aspen, in any way, so it’s okay to like Maxon too.  It’s probably the most reasonable thing that’s happened yet in this book, and these two were clearly made for each other, so I’m pretty okay with the fact that they continue to make out after this.  It’s even a decently cute scene.   Nothing special, but at least it doesn’t offend me.

Honestly, I think this author could do straight-up romance pretty well.  It’s the world-building and the sad attempts at governance that fail so hard.  If this book had been about a normal high school girl getting dumped and then falling for a new boy, it would probably be alright.