stock, it's
pretty drab, captain. You wouldn't know."

Joe said, "Why don't you work? A Lower can always add to his stock by
working."

Max stirred in indignity. "Work? Listen, sir, that's just one more field
that's been automated right out of existence. Category Food Preparation,
Sub-division Cooking, Branch Chef. Cooking isn't left in the hands of
slobs who might drop a cake of soap into the soup. It's done automatic.
The only new changes made in cooking are by real top experts, almost
scientists like. And most of them are Uppers, mind you."

Joe Mauser sighed inwardly. So his find in batmen wasn't going to be as
wonderful as all that, after all. The man might have been born into the
food preparation category from a long line of chefs, but evidently he
knew precious little about his field. Joe might have suspected. He
himself had been born into Clothing Category, Sub-division Shoes, Branch
Repair--Cobbler--a meaningless trade since shoes were no longer
repaired but discarded upon showing signs of wear. In an economy of
complete abundance, there is little reason for repair of basic
commodities. It was high time the government investigated category
assignment and reshuffled and reassigned half the nation's population.
But then, of course, was the question of what to do with the
technologically unemployed.

* * * * *

Max was saying, "The only way I could figure on a promotion to a higher
caste, or the only way to earn stock shares, was by crossing categories.
And you know what that means. Either Category Military, or Category
Religion and I sure as Zen don't know nothing about religion."

Joe said mildly, "Theoretically, you can cross categories into any field
you want, Max."

Max snorted. "Theoretically is right ... sir. You ever heard about
anybody born a Lower, or even a Middle like yourself, cross categories
to, say, some Upper category like banking?"

Joe chuckled. He liked this peppery little fellow. If Max worked out as
well as Joe thought he might, there was a possibility of taking him
along to the next fracas.

Max was saying, "I'm not saying anything against the old time way of
doing things or talking against the government, but I'll tell you,
captain, every year goes by it gets harder and harder for a man to raise
his caste or to earn some additional stock shares."

The applejack had worked enough on Joe for him to rise against one of
his pet peeves. He said, "That