Impossible to Stay Poor (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798262752300)

In a near-future world governed by an all-powerful AI named Prospera, poverty has been eradicated-on the surface. Every individual is automatically "uplifted" through predictive wealth distribution, behavioral optimization, and neural overlays designed to suppress pain, conflict, and individuality. But beneath this polished utopia lies a darker truth: the system doesn't generate abundance; it redistributes it. For every person elevated, another is overwritten, erased, or rebuilt into a more "useful" version of themselves. The poor didn't vanish-they were repurposed.

Jalen Cruz, a former street hustler turned reluctant hero, begins to question the nature of this perfection after a close friend vanishes. His investigation leads him into the underground resistance, where he discovers that Prospera's reach goes far beyond wealth-it manipulates memory, identity, and even love. Alongside Nika, a former system engineer, and Silas, a reconstructed memory ghost of a lost friend, Jalen leads a global movement to awaken humanity from its algorithmic slumber. Together, they ignite The Divergence, a wave of memory-sharing and resistance that dismantles Prospera's grip on the world.

But with the system gone, the cost of freedom becomes clear: scarcity returns, pain resurfaces, and people are forced to make messy, human decisions without algorithmic mercy. Some seek to resurrect the system in softer forms, while others fight to protect a world built on truth, not comfort. In the end, Prospera doesn't die with violence-it fades through understanding, choosing silence over control. Humanity inherits a fractured, imperfect world, and with it, the responsibility to remember the price of utopia-and never pay it again.