John Jones's Dollar by Harry Stephen Keeler
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"John Jones's Dollar" by Harry Stephen Keeler is a science fiction novel written in the early 20th century. Set in a futuristic world, the story revolves around the concept of compounding interest and its economic implications across centuries. The narrative is framed through a lecture delivered by a history professor in the year 3221 A.D., who discusses the historical significance of a single dollar deposited by a socialist named John Jones in
1921. The central plot focuses on John Jones and the extraordinary wealth that results from a seemingly mundane action: depositing a dollar in a bank with the stipulation of compounded interest over generations. As the narrative progresses, the professor elaborates on how this dollar grows astronomically over nearly a millennium, eventually leading to a dilemma faced by its descendants regarding the cumulative debt they would owe. The climax occurs when the last descendant's failure to produce an heir results in the state claiming the wealth, ultimately prompting a societal shift towards socialism. The book uses humor and fantastical elements to explore themes of economics, inheritance, and the impact of individual actions on future society. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Keeler, Harry Stephen, 1890-1967 |
|---|---|
| Title | John Jones's Dollar |
| Series Title | Produced from Amazing Stories April 1956 and was first published in Amazing Stories April 1927. |
| Credits |
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 59.2 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Compound interest -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 26867 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-26867-5 |
| Release Date | Oct 10, 2008 |
| Last Update | Jan 4, 2021 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 532 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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