Your reference to "clear eyed , hardball reality based decisions made in the Nixon era" got me thinking. There was a good man named Tom Roeser from Illinois. He worked at Quaker Oats and was employed by Nixon administration to work on Affirmative Action as Assistant Commerce Secretary until he was fired.He had a blog, in which he wrote of many things, including his time in the Administration and on affirmative action when he was back with Quaker Oats. Here's a post which is ostensibly about the Nixon-Frost interviews, but has a long digression about what he did as Asst. Secretary and what got him fired. http://tomroeser.blogspot.com/2008/12/personal-aside-oh-that-brilliant-david.html?m=1 He died in 2011. He went to my Church in Chicago (St John Cantius) and also wrote for the Wanderer. I found his blog to be well worth reading. Every couple of days there would be Illinois/Chicago political commentary, personal stories, and long pieces on his life. Definitely a hard eyed realist.

A possible solution would have been for the customer To front the money and borrow the tool. Customer breaks tool? Customer buys tool. Business gets immediate payment in case of breakage, customer gets to use tool without buying a 1 or 2 time use tool. Rent that bike stand to the customer for a reasonable rate. This breaks down if the customer doesn't get that things cost money, but I would be happy on either side of the above. Cowboy Wally

I am a big fan of the Laundry Files. I haven't read his other stuff, but I will check it out, as I will Bamks and Wolfe. I can recommend the Milkweed Triptych by Ian Tregillis and his latest : The Mechanical. Top notch stuff, although more of an evil fantasy element with science fiction. For science fiction that asks interesting big questions (what happens if Artificial Intelligence takes over as man goes to the stars? How do I feel about being governed by autocrats, but autocrats who are committed to maximum liberty consistent with an ordered society and who are far better at governing than humans? How do I really feel about consent of the governed?) I like Neal Asher's Polity series.