Short story

Titles are overrated

Extrapolation
        “Untouched! Pristine, white Ferrari! Made in two-thousand sixteen” the auctioneer announced in the the creaking “vintage”  wing of the auction house. No one made a sound, not even a whisper. All the auctioneer heard was the shuffle of disappointed patrons exiting the room. The original setting prices was about $300,000 dollars but the auctioneer knew it would never sell at that price, already getting discouraged the auctioneer calls out “100,000 dollars…. Anyone?”. Whatever patrons there were with any sort of wealth harrumph and leave with their  fur coats and genetically engineered mink-dogs and land-octopi. All that are left in the room are vagrants and a particularly desperate looking middle-aged man.
        Giving up hope the auctioneer sighs and lowers the price again with unrealistic hopes “ One thousand? Anyone want this new luxury car?”. The man squeaks and stutters “M-may I get it at one hundr-” before getting cut off by a new arrival. A younger man enters, cutting short the stuttering plead of the desperate man and asserts “I will buy the new car at the starting price”.
        Exalted, the auctioneer cries out “Sold!” before starting to worry. The young man approaches the stage and extends his hand, expecting the comp-drive for his new car. The auctioneer slowly hands over the car keys and braces herself to be yelled at.
        No one wants what is considered vintage. “Newer is better” with everything. No one wants to wait four years for a new president so they arranged an election. They couldn’t wait for that, and so they expedited that. Only the people who voted in the first day or earlier were counted.  However that wasn’t enough, they didn’t want to wait for decisions so programmers made Represent-bots who instantly consider the opinions programmed to make votes and decisions. Everything was instant. The richest of the rich can Adiport, instantly teleport from their home base to other bases located in the nicer parts of cities. The system relies upon using the body fat of the teleported, leading the the tell-tale sign of affluence being slenderness. Cars were like toys, unnecessary but fun to show off. However, if the toys aren’t the newest (which would then equate to best) no one would like to waste their money.
        Great art pieces, printed out instead of enjoyed at a museum. Conversations shortened to letters sent in the wind. Appreciation was limited to only those that are instantly received or instantly understood. Older cars did not receive this appreciation, they took long times to get places and if they broke it was a struggle to fix. The auctioneer being the only one who had an appreciation.
The man looks up and asks politely, “How are these supposed to work?”, and there is pure curiosity in those words. The auctioneer feels hope and thinks, maybe I’m not the only one.