# Ask the guy who is pretty good at SF Story Identification

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** books-writing-myths\
**Created:** [September 7, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417 "2008-09-07T00:08:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1424

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chelonaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@Chelonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chelonaut)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1424 "2024-01-31T16:16:30Z")

</div>

Short story: two men smugly discuss their work at a facility, where people whose jobs have become obsolete are somehow (drugs maybe?) kept under the illusion that they still are employed and affluent.

Zinger at the end: the two men drive away in what they think is a shining new sportscar. But is revealed to be a pedal driven cart, they themselves have been drugged/hypnotized to believe they are better off than they are.

ETA: I read it in an old anthology, don’t remember title.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417)._
