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On a more topical note I always wondered if the Judges deliberately kept the unemployment levels so high so as to keep the cits isolated in their apartments (watching game shows and partaking in wacky hobbies.) You are less likely to create an environment for sedition if the masses are prevented from freely associating in the workplace. Divide and rule.

Considering the correlation between unemployment and crime, from an economist's point of view that would be pretty dumb. Granted, the Judges don't seem to be great economists so its possible.

Thank you guys so much for the flurry of replies! I honestly did not expect this much attention. Clearly, I have a lot of reading to do.

Go way back to a very early story (although I can't place it right now), and the Chief Judge is saying how citizens wouldn't stand for working more than just an hour or two a day. It's a curious shift from MC1 as a kind of futuristic utopia to a satirical comment on contemporary society.

I read Casebook 1 last night and noticed that (btw it was AWESOME). I'm just going to ignore the utopic references for my paper -- I imagine its just the comic finding its footing, much akin to Batman using a gun for the first few issues.

If you can track down a copy of Megazine 215, then My Beautiful Career is a wee goldmine - it features Employees Anonymous, a self help group embarrassed by the fact that they have jobs in a jobless society, whose meeting is interupted by a crazed gunman. The gunman's lifestory is one of woe and has some great examples of nutty Big Meg jobs - he started off in a supermarket as a Trolley Jerk – responsible for placing expensive goods in customers' baskets, who are too embarrassed not to buy them. After a robot complains on behalf of its owner and gets him fired, 14 years of unemploymet follow before he gets a gig for the Judges as a Civilian Perpetrator - human punching bags to help Judges prepare disarming and disabling tactics against perps. His beatings eventully leave him so mangled that the Judges have no further use for him - 'I'm sorry, Flip. We're not going to be able to beat you up any more.' Tossed back onto welfare, he flips out and his descent into criminality begins. Needless to say there isn't really a happy ending!

That does sound useful, however, if its not in a casebook, I have no idea how I'd track it down. If I had more time to search through libraries (paper is due Monday), I would, but I don't think that's feasible. :/

Howdy folks!

I'm currently working on an economics paper on robotics that is using cultural examples as a type of economic model. I happened upon Judge Dredd last weekend (I'm enjoying what I'm reading right now of it) and I found that it would be perfect for my paper -- 96% of the population is unemployed due to automation. However, I can't find relevant comic arcs that deal with unemployment in MegaCity-1. Can anyone point me towards certain arcs and which Case File books they'd be in would be relevant to my research? I found one arc called the "Unemployment Riot" which looks like it hits the nail right on the head for me but it looks like it hasn't been reprinted since the 80s.

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it!