Riders of the Purple Wage (1967) is a science fiction novella by American writer Philip José Farmer.

It appeared in Dangerous Visions, the New Wave science fiction anthology compiled by Harlan Ellison and won the Hugo Award for best novella in 1968, jointly with Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey.

[1] Riders of the Purple Wage is an extrapolation of the mid-twentieth century's tendency towards state supervision and consumer-oriented economic planning.

For those who dislike this lifestyle, there are wildlife reserves where they can join "tribes" of Native Americans and like-minded Anglos living closer to nature for a while.

The second change derives from the so-called "Panamorite" religion, which features total sexual freedom including oral sex between parents and their children.

One source of frustration for the main character is his mother's decision to "cut him off" from intimate physical contact, a situation made worse by her becoming morbidly obese, which is not unusual in this society.

The resentment which this caused motivated the "gummint" to close down his business, whereupon he managed to steal twenty billion dollars, which has never been found, and (apparently) died.

He needs to win a grant to continue painting, otherwise he will have to take forced migration and live in another society, a practice by governments to prevent populations from becoming insular.

Dressed in fur-like characters from The Wizard of Oz they use electric tricycles no faster than golf carts, which nonetheless are equipped with sirens "to warn the bad guys they are coming".

A devout Catholic himself, according to this last note he comforts himself in an atheist world with the thought that profound hatred of religion means that people still believe God exists, otherwise they would not hate him so.

The note simply says that Chib must abandon Ellay, leave his mother, and break free so he can paint from love, not out of hatred.

The source of Rex Luscus' name is described in the story as the quote, "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is King".

The original phrase is "In regione caecorum, rex est luscus," from Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus' Collecteana Adagiorum.

[2] A short story called "The Oögenesis of Bird City" (1971) describes an earlier time when the arcologies and the egg-houses were being introduced to society.