The comparative happiness study is good; do that.

Deskyl herself was raised in a communist village, as it happens, so she knows a bit about that. In particular, having it imposed from the outside isn't likely to go well; you need actual cooperation from the people involved. Also it doesn't solve problems stemming from not having enough resources in the first place, which is the case here. Giving the reds information about how to set up that kind of system might be useful, though, and some collectivism-inspired resources: perhaps a lending library for tools and other durable goods? (Do they already have that? She has DZ ask Peka before sending the message off.)

They do obviously need more information about what reds' lives are like, but at this point they're unlikely to find volunteers for that kind of surveillance; perhaps they can come up with some less intrusive ideas.

Are undertakers' companies' names usually that obvious? It may be reasonable to ask them to change them, if that's the problem. (She has DZ run this one by Peka, too.)

There isn't, at least in Peka's neighborhood, a library per se, just people borrowing from each other in a coordinated fashion. She does not think most reds want to be communists outright.

If the reds won't volunteer to be surveiled and Deskyl doesn't want them to just do it anyway that sure seems like a stumper.

It's not the company name, it's identifying the service they're charging for; you have to do that or frauds could bother people about their unspecified bills.

She forwards this opinion to the blues; if they'd like to try distributing information on it anyway, they can do that, as long as they don't pressure the reds about it. And they should do the library thing, too, or at least put it on the list for when there's funding available.

"Less intrusive surveillance" doesn't mean "no surveillance". They could for example ask them to keep track of how often certain things happen and report just that, instead of asking them to give up all their privacy. What would they do if they found themselves wanting to know how purples or greys or oranges live?

She'll leave them to their debate; she genuinely does have better things to be doing with her time, at least if they're not letting it slow down other kinds of collections.

Yep, the plumbers and the trash collectors in that city have sold in some cases quite massive debt off to various agencies, although they aren't being allowed to charge any interest on stuff from thirty years ago when tap were worth more.

They'd expect honesty more confidently from greys/oranges/purples, and would also know any of them personally to sanity check.

Really they aren't being allowed to charge interest?

...they can charge a little interest but they really really don't want to ruin random purple's lives with an enormous bill that's been languishing for thirty years that their grandparents didn't pay. Unless Deskyl really wants that. They'd just like to put in a word for the random purples.

Gentle repayment terms are fine; failing to make this right isn't.

There aren't comparable non-red outstanding debts this old but they are confident that if there were there would be some reasonable cap on how exorbitant they could get while dormant.

Fair. Do they have a proposal for how to determine the cap?

...probably she will like the results best if they propose it as a hypothetical to an intern who doesn't know it has to do with reds or aliens, and see what the intern says?

Oh, good, they're learning. (She doesn't say that part.)

Yes, do that.

The intern says interest should not result in more than 3x the inflation-adjusted value as an asymptote on a prettily curved graph she mocks up, when presented with a toy problem about unpaid surgeons. ...this is still in occasional-purple-life-ruining territory and people reasonably expect surgeons and not reds to go to collections so they haven't been making informed choices about whether and when to pay up.

They can do gentle repayment terms and a fair cap, she doesn't have a problem with gentle repayment terms as long as the repayment actually happens.

The repayment terms are actually up to the collections companies, it'd be special intervention to say they must offer them.

There is a natural category, here, of very large, very old debt, that it would make sense to want to be gentle about even if it had nothing to do with reds. And the collection companies would probably prefer that to not being able to collect the entire debt at all. Ask them.

The collections companies have already bought some debt from plumbers and garbage collectors and do not want to suddenly have to have paid more to the reds for it. They are agitating for any allowed interest to accrue just to them, at least for the first batch of debts.

...no.

Two companies would in fact rather not be jerked around like this and return the debt less what they already managed to collect on to the reds. One is still in the game but has no competition anymore and is only willing to buy more under guaranteed legal conditions and at less favorable rates.

She tries not to take it out on her sparring partner. She even mostly succeeds.

Okay, what she needs is an economics advisor. She doesn't quite trust that the blues won't pick someone who'll try to sabotage the project, but she does trust that she'll notice if that's happening, if they're meeting in person. She asks for that to be set up - weekly meetings, the day before her sparring session. And then she gets back to work.

They find her an elderly nerdy green who they induce to appear on time by telling her to be there an hour early. She arrives with her face bent to her pocket everything.

DZ lets her in. "Hello, Kesa? Deskyl's meditating, I'll go get her; go ahead and make yourself comfortable."

Kesa nods and sits.

And DZ and Deskyl return after a minute. Deskyl's confident enough in her Tapap to handle the greeting, and then has DZ take over: "How much did they explain to you?"

"They said they needed an economist with teaching experience who'd qualify for top secret clearance and when I told them to go on they said an alien wanted an economist for something. I hope you don't eat economists, that would be disappointing."

Deskyl laughs, and then signs.

    "No, but some of the blues have been a little tempting. She's a wizard, in addition to being an alien -" DZ pauses, and Deskyl levitates Kesa's pocket everything out of her hand and around the room, returning it neatly when she's done.