"I don't know. We're building up to a whale of a depression as it is, even with half the economy running full blast producing defense materials." Vovo chuckled, "Defense materials. I wonder if ever in the history of the human race anyone ever admitted to producing _offense_ materials." "Well, you call it the same thing. All your military equipment is for defense. And, of course, according to your press, all ours is for offense." "Of course," Vovo said. He brought the glasses back and handed one to the other. He slumped back into his chair again, loosened two buttons of his trousers. "Jim," Vovo said, "why don't you divert more of your economy to public works, better roads, reforestation, dams--that sort of thing." Jim said wearily, "You're a better economist than that. Didn't your boy Marx, or was it Engels, write a small book on the subject? We're already overproducing--turning out more products than we can sell." "I wasn't talking about your government building new steel mills. But dams, roads, that sort of thing. You could plow billions into such items and get some real use out of them. We both know that our weapons will never be used--they can't be." Jim ticked them off on his fingers. "We already are producing more farm products than we know what to do with; if we build more dams it'll open up new farm lands and increase the glut. If we build more and better roads, it will improve transportation, which will mean fewer men will be able to move greater tonnage--and throw transportation employees into the unemployed. If we go all out for reforestation, it will eventually bring down the price of lumber and the lumber people are howling already. No," he shook his head, "there's just one really foolproof way of disposing of surpluses and using up labor power and that's war--hot or cold." Vovo shrugged, "I suppose so." "It amounts to building pyramids, of course." Jim twisted his mouth sourly. "And since we're asking questions about each other's way of life, when is your State going to begin to _wither away_?" "How was that?" Vovo asked. "According to your sainted founder, once you people came to power the State was going to wither away, class rule would be over, and Utopia be on hand. That was a long time ago, and your State is stronger than ours." Vovo snorted. "How can we wither away the State as long as we are threatened by capitalist aggression?" Jim said, "Ha!" Vovo went on. "You know better than that, Jim. The only way my organization can keep in power is by continually beating the drums, keeping our people stirred up to greater and greater sacrifices by using you as a threat. Didn't the old Romans have some sort of maxim to the effect that when you're threatened with unease at home stir up trouble abroad?" "You're being even more frank than usual," Jim said. "But that's one of the pleasures of these get-togethers, neither of us resorts to hypocrisy. But you can't keep up these tensions forever."