Think of the status of the world economy, when it is known where every dime exists and where it is headed.

Think of the solving of traffic-control problems, land, sea, and air, when everything is regulated.

Think of ... Oh, hell!

I foresaw the coming of a Golden Era.

Crap!

A friend of mine having peripheral connections with the Mafia, it was, laughed at me, all starry in my eyes and just up from the university and into the federal service.

Do you seriously believe that every asset will be registered? Every transaction recorded? he'd asked me.

Eventually.

They haven't pierced Switzerland yet; and if they do, other places will be found.

There will be a certain allowance for residuals.

Then don't forget mattresses, and holes in the backyard. Nobody knows how much money there really is in the world, and no one ever will.

So I stopped and thought and read up on economics. He was right. The things for which we were writing programs in this area were, basically, estimates and approximates, vis-à-vis that which got registered, a reconciliation factor included.

So I thought about travel. How many unregistered vessels? Nobody knew. You can't keep statistics on items for which you have no data. And if there is to be unregistered money, more vessels could be constructed. There is a lot of coastline in the world. So traffic control might not be as perfect as I had envisioned.

Medical? Doctors are as human and lazy as the rest of us. I suddenly realized that all medical reports might not get filed, especially if someone wanted to pocket the cash and not pay taxes on it, and was not asked for a receipt.

When it came to people, I had forgotten the human factor.

There were the shady ones, there were people who just liked their privacy, and there were those who would honestly foul up the reporting of necessary information. All of them people who would prove that the system was not perfect.