What you are describing is essentially the world in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Corey Doctorow.

Jules is a young man, barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies…and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World.

Since there was little scarcity of resources, society shifted (back?) to a Gift Economy. What you wanted was status (measured in "Whuffie"), which could go up and down like the stock market if you happened to be doing something public enough. There was a class of whuffie-less have-nots who just lived their lives and minded their business, and then at the top ranks people who were competing for status (and some willing to kill for it...)

In this society, if you have more status than another person, and see them with a luxury you (as a person judged to be doing more important stuff) could make better use of, you can just take it. That's viewed as legitimate. So the high-status people had all the nice cars and apartments, and the low status people (while having all survival needs taken care of) were forced to live in relative squalor.

Extrapolating to some stuff that isn't in the book... it seems to me that if you visibly belong to some prejudiced group (eg: wrong amount or kind of melanin in the skin), that may very well ... color ... how all your actions are perceived enough to make gathering reputation much more difficult for you.

What you are describing is essentially the world in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Corey Doctorow.

Jules is a young man, barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies…and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World.

Since there was little scarcity of resources, society shifted (back?) to a Gift Economy. What you wanted was status (measured in "Whuffie"), which could go up and down like the stock market if you happened to be doing something public enough. There was a class of whuffie-less have-nots who just lived their lives and minded their business, and then at the top ranks people who were competing for status (and some willing to kill for it...)

In this society, if you have more status than another person, and see them with a luxury you (as a person judged to be doing more important stuff) could make better use of, you can just take it. That's viewed as legitimate. So the high-status people had all the nice cars and apartments, and the low status people (while having all survival needs taken care of) were forced to live in relative squalor.

Extrapolating to some stuff that isn't in the book... it seems to me that if you visibly belong to some prejudiced group (eg: wrong amount or kind of melanin in the skin), that may very well ... color ... how all your actions are perceived enough to make gathering reputation much more difficult for you. Money may be the root of all evil and whatnot, but at least its colorblind.

What you are describing is essentially the world in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Corey Doctorow.

Jules is a young man, barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies…and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World.

Since there was little scarcity of resources, society shifted (back?) to a Gift Economy. What you wanted was status (measured in "Whuffie"), which could go up and down like the stock market if you happened to be doing something public enough. There was a class of whuffie-less have-nots who just lived their lives and minded their business, and then at the top ranks people who were competing for status (and some willing to kill for it...)

What you are describing is essentially the world in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Corey Doctorow.

Jules is a young man, barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies…and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World.

Since there was little scarcity of resources, society shifted (back?) to a Gift Economy. What you wanted was status (measured in "Whuffie"), which could go up and down like the stock market if you happened to be doing something public enough. There was a class of whuffie-less have-nots who just lived their lives and minded their business, and then at the top ranks people who were competing for status (and some willing to kill for it...)

In this society, if you have more status than another person, and see them with a luxury you (as a person judged to be doing more important stuff) could make better use of, you can just take it. That's viewed as legitimate. So the high-status people had all the nice cars and apartments, and the low status people (while having all survival needs taken care of) were forced to live in relative squalor.

Extrapolating to some stuff that isn't in the book... it seems to me that if you visibly belong to some prejudiced group (eg: wrong amount or kind of melanin in the skin), that may very well ... color ... how all your actions are perceived enough to make gathering reputation much more difficult for you.