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complexity, which forces every taxpayer to spend interminable time merely calculating what he owes
and requires many to seek some kind of professional help to draw up the required forms. Second, its
loopholes, which enable clever or unscrupulous people to escape without paying their proper share, thus
shifting the burden of payment to others. Third, its graduated stages, so that the person who earns more
pays a larger percentage of his income to the government. That discourages initiative and penalizes the
hardest or most efficient workers."
"It's not complex for the average wage earner," I countered. "He has no loopholes. It's only fair that he
pay the lowest rate; he barely has enough to survive on as it is. When I was with the migrant workers "
"He would be no worse off with a simple flat tax," Scar pointed out. "In fact he would benefit by "
"No!" I exclaimed unreasonably. "The old system's good enough for me. I won't listen to anything else!"
He looked at me and sighed. "I'm sorry to hear you say that."
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The session was over, I was conducted to my dark, filthy original cell, which had been saved unchanged.
The smell almost gagged me as the hatch slid open. This was my punishment for being recalcitrant, and
I knew that if my attitude did not improve, I would face more sessions with the pain-box and deprivation
of the drug-beverage. Two of those were real punishments, and the third I would have to honor as if it
were equally effective. Oh, yes, it was easy to reconsider my position with my self-interest so obviously
in the balance.
But now I was where, ironically, I wanted to be. I needed more information, and this was where I could
get it. I squatted in the grime and supported myself with my hands, and slowly I slid my fingers under
the muck, feeling out the next set of symbols. I had an irrational fear that the scratches would be gone,
but they were there:
which meant 7, counted off from the N in ABANDON, or T. , which was 19, counted off from the
space following ABANDON, or H. meaning 8, counted from the H in HOPE oh, the new
significance of my name! or O. , 4, from the O, or R. , 34, from P, or L. , 1 from E, which, of
course, was the same letter, E. , 34 again, this time from the comma following HOPE. I wrestled with
that and decided that most likely the order of punctuation in the font was space, period, comma; on that
basis it came to Y. , 1, which was a space, translating itself into itself, a space. I had my word.
I assembled the letters mentally, so that I could appreciate them as the word, so that my second memory-
vision could commence:
THORLEY.
Chapter 6 THORLEY
I quickly learned how naïve I had been about politics. I had thought I would simply pick an office, run
for it, and win it. Megan disabused me: rarely could a newcomer to politics pluck the office of his choice
from the electorate. The great majority came up through the grass roots, building their constituencies
before emerging as serious contenders for the favor of the voters.
What were these grass roots? She sent me into the turf to find out. The process reminded me of Basic
Training in the Navy, though the education was not physical.
I had to join a citizen's activity organization and do my homework. This was the Good Government
Group, better known as GGG, or Triple-Gee, or 3-G, whose stated purpose was to accelerate the existing
government into conformity with the needs of the citizens. The present government, GGG said, was
seriously out of phase, and hardly represented its constituency at any level. The result was corruption,
inefficiency, and despoliation. A monthly national publication, Gee Whiz, pinpointed specifics on the
planetary scene, and a state publication, Sun-Gee, covered the local issues. Everything was covered: the
nefarious influence of special interests; the ongoing weapons development race; sloppy accounting
practices by the government; the Saturn hot line that was supposed to keep interplanetary
communications open in times of crisis; the perennial Balanced Budget Amendment; controversial
subsidies for agricultural interests; wasteful use of chauffeured autobubbles by bureaucrats; tax reform;
the campaign for the G-l Space Bomber that threatened to bankrupt the planet before it was produced;
the question of monopolistic mail service; an attempt to enable Congress to overturn Supreme Court
decisions; protection of the atmospheric environment; the Equal Opportunity drive; pros and cons of
subsidized bubble-housing; the revised Planetary Voting Rights Act; another routine administration
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