At first, everybody thought it was just some mistake or prank, so they just wrote it off and abandoned their attempted transaction and left the store (or wherever) empty-handed.

But when they got home, all the items purchased by whoever'd stolen their IDs, were waiting there all piled up on their doorsteps.

So, at this point, commerce was effectively ended1 and people had to make do with whatever the identity thieves had chosen to buy for them, plus what they already had on hand, and whatever cash was in their shoes.

Quickly, people were all evicted from their homes because they couldn't pay their rent or mortgage, and they couldn't even prove they belonged there.

And, since paychecks couldn't be cashed, employment ended too.

People migrated to warmer southern climates where they could sleep outside. They survived by endlessly trading and re-trading the same goods and services over and over again among themselves. At the bottom of the chain were thieves who stole food, clothing, and handheld devices from the few remaining haves in whatever place they were currently passing through on their way farther south.

But despite the stolen food moving through their black markets, they still subsisted mostly on nuts, fruit, and berries, and as a result their health improved overall and they lived longer than their former selves and everybody else.

Their children started being born with GPS-video camera phones already integrated into one ear.

Suddenly a new world was appearing made of people with advanced technological concepts living like savages without identity or possession, rarely sick or dying.

And neither religious capitalism nor capital religiosity could compass this change.

Reflexively they responded by just pumping out more "product". Then they upgraded packaging and logos and launched new ad campaigns -- to try to save themselves.

But all that happened was the savages didn't see the packaging or ads or even the products or their purpose or design. They only saw the abstract functional sub-units they could pull out of them and recombine into new products bearing no relation whatsoever to what The Man had always thought desire was.

Notes

1. Because they could now no longer verify IDs, merchants would only take cash -- but banks and ATM machines wouldn't give people cash because they could no longer verify IDs either.

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