As the state proved that it was no longer able to support the ever-growing poor population during the collapse, it resorted to what many have since called "drastic, anti-democratic methods" to keep the populace from levels of poverty and homelessness predicted by many "CyberPunk" authors. Citizens were given the option of selling their vote to corporate sponsors. These sponsors in turn were governed by a set of hastily-created laws which told them what they could and could not offer to purchase these votes. The final laws indicate that to purchase a vote, the corporation in question must provide the seller of the vote with a subsistance-level lifestyle. This subsistance-level lifestyle includes no less than $50 dollars a month expenses (payable in US dollars or, with the 41st amendment, corporate script), a private appartment with no less than 150 square feet of floor space, basic furniture, personal television and other media access, and nutritious food meeting the minimums of the FDA's 2,000 calorie diet. For the vote to be valid, the corporation in question has to have been providing these services to the seller for a minimum of three years prior to the vote, and then is contract-bound to continue to provide this service for three years after the last time the person's vote was used. The cost of this subsistance-level existance is paid for by a combination of the State and the Corporation in question. The state offers a $200 subsidy each month per person supported in this way, the remainder is absorbed by the corporation purchasing the vote. Now, as we approach what may be the first "democratic" election in almost 20 years, the number of people receiving Corporate Welfare is in the millions. Known as "subs", they live in large, clean buildings in their small apartments or somewhat roomier family units, watch all the TV they can absorb and eat the bland kibble they are fed. Some corporations (ones who note they have less votes according to the census) offer food delivered to the sub's apartment, but most use common cafeterias for dispensing the kibble. But there is a more sinister side to the corporate welfare roles than just the subversion of democracy. Since 2012 and the passing of the 52nd ammendment to the US Consitution, all recipients of corporate welfare are implanted with a "welfare chip". This was originally passed through the House as a bill to make sure that the government could track if corporations were claiming dead subs' votes by implanting a biomonitor chip in each sub after the 2010 scandal involving the Tereko Corporation and an aparment block with 900 dead subs in the basement storage. The Welfare Chip is more than a simple biomonitor. Encoded in the chip is the recipient's SIN number, with which corporation they are currently registered (if any) and any and all pertinent data for easier tracking by police, corporate and government agencies. Removing the chip is illegal according to the same bill, supposedly to stop corporations from perpetuating vote fraud, but mostly so that the government can keep track of all past welfare recipients. It is a known fact that welfare chip bearers cannot receive TransitCards, and are often refused better jobs, especially with corporations other than the one they were selling their vote to. A whole new part of the underground has risen up because of these prejudices. If you know the right people and have the cash, you can find someone who specializes in the removal of Welfare Chips. These fixer/medtechs are known as Scrubbers and a few can be found working out of most major cities.

Scrubber
	Most scrubbers handle all of their own business, not willing to trust a middleman to set them up with prospective clients. They live the edge, "farming" for new clients that need their special services wherever the few edgerunners of the Police State hang, or by making their name quietly known in most of the "sub" bars. Since Scrubbers are so fiercely independant and generally edge-runners, they dress the part, rarely showing off their medtech side except when actually "scrubbing down" a client. Scrubbers have both MedTech and StreetDeal, but their MedTech level must remain lower than their StreetDeal level. Some rare scrubbers are pure medtechs working with a frontman / middleman fixer, but these use the standard MedTech role. Scrubber pay is equal to MedTech pay at their MedTech level or Fixer pay at their StreetDeal level, whichever is higher.	StreetDeal MedTech Awareness CyberTech Hide/Evade Persuasion Human Perception Education Electronics SMG / Pistol