What If a Government Shutdown Didn’t End?

A dystopian fantasy that’s closer than you think

I want you to imagine: Washington DC, October 6, 2029. The federal government has effectively shut down — not for a few weeks, but for good.

I saw it through the eyes of two people. Let’s call one Ava, a midlevel analyst in the Department of Infrastructure, reassigned to “continuity planning” when the first waves of furloughs hit. And we’ll call the othe…