"FWLS6" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

multiple pockets for valuables. We believe greatly in both
functionality and design. I was setting out on my rounds that
day, basically wandering around the colony achieving inner peace
and harmony and answering the occasional question.

The colony is so lovely this time of year. In sharp
contrast to the freakish weather down on C'atel, here on its
third moon, it is a pleasant sunny spring day year round. (They
never named the moons. 'Moons are moons,' most C'atellians
claim, sometimes inserting an interesting gesture wherein they
drop their pants and reveal their buttocks. I will probably
never understand SOME young people.) Of course, the atmosphere
outside isn't suitable for breathing so we very rarely get to
take a quiet step outside to watch the sun rise, but it's the
thought that counts.

I went about wandering that morning, as is traditional
Guidereader activity according to the Guide, watching the
colonists set about the daily business of preparing the shops and
stands. The colony did a brisk trade with the Yttians passing
through this system on the way to Macroworld or some of the other
business oriented districts, in addition to the usual C'atel
clients. As a result, you might see neckties and the latest in
briefcase security technology at one stand, and bandannas and
green herbs of questionable origin at the next.

The whole colony is built like this, one huge ring of shops,
offices, homes, and storehouses around a central docking area
where ships can transfer customers, then park by automatic pilot
in the garage built next door. The colonists were busily
preparing the days stock, awaiting the first clients with eager
faces and open cash registers.

"Guidereader?" a young music provisioner called out to me as
I walked by with Walk #34 (harmony and tranquility).

"Yes?"

"Is it wise to mark up a product more than twice its retail
price if it is a popular item?"

"The Guide refers to the act of popular markups with dual
judgements," I repeated from memory. "In the Book of Popeil,
1:34, it is said that Popeil realized the demand for a certain
kind of medicine his planet of business, after a plague had
broken out overnight. Foolishly, he set his prices to double,
and went out of business as victims fled to his competitors who
had considerably cheaper rates. However, when he later sold a
special kind of firework before a great celebration that nobody
else had, the customers did not mind the markup."