wages so low / cost of living so high that people can’t pay for bread with their wages, making subsidies / universal basic income a necessity.
US goes on the brink of a civil war before the rich agree to pay for said subsidies, probably some people die because of it.
US slides into a mixture of tech-authoritarianism/fascism
martian settlement/research makes surprisingly fast progress, with wide bi-partisan support because people realize it’s actually a good idea for everyone, creating demand for human labor and driving up the wages.
lol at that last one