"Damn it to hell, it doesn't make sense!" protested Arch. "A new energy source should make everything cheaper for everybody—more production available for less work." He felt a nervous tic beginning in one cheek.
"Production for use instead of for profit—"
"Oh, dry up, will you? Any system is a profit system. It has to show a profit in some terms or other, or it would just be wasted effort. And the profit has to go to individuals, not to some mythical state. The state doesn't eat—people do."
"Would you have the oil interests simply write off their investment?"
"No, of course not. Why couldn't they—Look. Gasoline can still run generators. Oil can still lubricate. Byproducts can still be synthesized. It's a matter of shifting the emphasis of production, that's all. All that's needed is a little common sense."
"Which is a rather scarce commodity."
"There," said Arch gloomily, "we find ourselves in agreement."
"The trouble is," said Bob earnestly, "we're faced with a real situation, not a paper problem. It calls for a real solution. For an idea."
"There aren't any ideas," said Elizabeth. "Not big sweeping ones to solve everything overnight. Man doesn't work that way. What happens is that somebody solves his own immediate, personal problems, somebody else does the same, and eventually society as a whole fumbles its way out of the dilemma."
Arch sighed. "This is getting over my head," he admitted. "Thanks for small blessings: the thing has grown so big that I, personally, am becoming forgotten."