out there the rest of their lives; most of them intended to make
themselves a nice little nest egg, come back home, and retire. At the
same time, the World State was slowly evolving from its original loosely
tied group of independent nations toward what it is today.

"The people who came out here were mostly misfits, sociologically
speaking." He smiled sardonically. "They haven't changed much.

"At any rate, as I said, they were strongly tied to Earth. There was the
matter of food, air, and equipment, all of which had to be shipped out
from Earth to begin with. Only the tremendous supply of metal--almost
free for the taking--made such a venture commercially possible. Within
twenty-five years, however, the various industrial concerns that managed
the Belt mining had become self-supporting. The robot scoopers which are
used to mine methane and ammonia from Jupiter's atmosphere gave them
plenty of organic raw material. Now they grow plants of all kinds and
even raise food animals.

"They began, as every misfit does, to complain about the taxes the
government put on their incomes. The government, in my opinion, made an
error back then. They wanted to keep people out in the Belt, since the
mines on Earth were not only rapidly being depleted, but the mining
sites were needed for living space. Besides, asteroid metals were
cheaper than metals mined on Earth. To induce the colonists to remain in
the Belt, no income tax was levied; the income tax was replaced by an
eighty per cent tax on the savings accumulated when the colonist
returned to Earth to retire.

"They resented even that. It was explained to them that the asteroids
were, after all, natural resources, and that they had no moral right to
make a large profit and deprive others of their fair share of the income
from a natural resource, but they insisted that they had earned it and
had a right to keep it.

"In other words, the then government bribed them to stay out here, and
the bribe was more effective than they had intended."

"So they stayed out here and kept their money," Danley said.

"Exactly. At that time, if you will recall, there was a great deal of
agitation against colonialism--there had been for a long time, as a
matter of fact. That agitation was directed against certain
industrialist robber-baron nations who had enslaved the populace of
parts of Asia and Africa solely to produce wealth, and not for the
benefit of the people themselves. But the Belt o