"Frederik Pohl - The Midas Plague" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pohl Frederick)

chines, automatic factories, hydroponics and food syn-
thesis, nuclear breeder plants, ocean-mining for metals
and minerals . . .
And a vastly increasing supply of labor . . .
And architecture that rose high in the air and dug deep
in the ground and floated far out on the water on piers
and pontoons . . . architecture that could be poured one
day and lived in the next . . .
And robots.
Above all, robots . . . robots to burrow and haul and
smelt and fabricate, to build and farm and weave and sew.
What the land lacked in wealth, the sea was made to
yield and the laboratory invented the rest . . . and the
factories became a pipeline of plenty, churning out enough
to feed and clothe and house a dozen worlds.
Limitless discovery, infinite power in the atom, tireless
labor of humanity and robots, mechanization that drove
jungle and swamp and ice off the Earth, and put up office
buildings and manufacturing centers and rocket ports in
their place . . .
The pipeline of production spewed out riches that no
king in the time of Malthus could have known.
But a pipeline has two ends. The invention and power
and labor pouring in at one end must somehow be drained
out at the other . . .
Lucky Morey, blessed economic-consuming unit, drown-
ing in the pipeline's flood, striving manfully to eat and
drink and wear and wear out his share of the ceaseless
tide of wealth.
Morey felt far from blessed, for the blessings of the
poor are always best appreciated from afar.
Quotas worried his sleep until he awoke at eight o'clock
the next morning, red-eyed and haggard, but inwardly
resolved. He had reached a decision. He was starting a
new life.
There was trouble in the morning mail. Under the let-
terhead of the National Ration Board, it said:
"We regret to advise you that the following items re-
turned by you in connection with your August quotas as
used and no longer serviceable have been inspected and
found insufficiently worn." The list followeda long one,
Morey saw to his sick disappointment. "Credit is hereby
disallowed for these and you are therefore given an addi-
tional consuming quota for the current month in the
amount of 435 points, at least 350 points of which must
be in the textile and home-furnishing categories."
Morey dashed the letter to the floor. The valet picked
it up emotionlessly, creased it and set it on his desk.
It wasn't fair! All right, maybe the bathing trunks and
beach umbrellas hadn't been really used very much