Dr. Ewing J. Halyard works for the State Department as a tour guide for important visitors. He is showing the Shah of Bratpuhr, leader of 6 million people, and his nephew/interpreter Khashdrahr Miasma, around the country. Currently, they are touring Ilium, New York. Halyard explains that anyone who can't do a job better than a machine must join either the army or the Reconstruction and Reclamation Corps, a public works department.
The Shah at first thinks the system is communism, but Halyard corrects him. Then the Shah thinks the people are slaves, and Halyard realizes that he'll never get the Shah to understand. He tries to explain the concept of "citizen," and the Shah learns his first American word, translating "citizen" as his native word for "slave."
The story returns to Paul Proteus......
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