User:DoctorWho42/How I Take Their Measure

"How I Take Their Measure" is a short story by American author Barry N. Malzberg under the pseudonym K. M. O'Donnell. It was first published in the January 1969 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Background
In 1961-1962 and 1963-1964, Malzberg worked as a social investigator for the NYC Department of Welfare. It inspired his 1968 novel Screen and "How I Take Their Measure."

Publication history
"How I Take Their Measure" was first published in the January 1969 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. In 1969, it appeared in the book Final War and Other Fantasies. In 1975, "How I Take Their Measure" reappeared in Social Problems Through Science Fiction edited by Martin H. Greenberg, John W. Milstead, Joseph D. Olander, and Patricia Warrick. In 1986, it was republished in the book 101 Science Fiction Stories edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Charles G. Waugh, and Jenny-Lynn Waugh.

Plot
In the near future, everyone is either on welfare or a welfare administrator. The narrator is a field investigator for the Department of Welfare. He visits an applicant named John Steiner at his apartment. He notices the mess when Steiner tells him he suffers from an external disorder from internal chaos. The field investigator begins an interview. Steiner lights a cigarette to smoke, but resists the investigator's requests to put it out. However, Steiner relents and throws it out the window. The investigator asks Steiner about his occupational training. Steiner was a sociologist on a government-funded research programme called the Blauvelt Project that dealt with genealogy and statistics. However, Congress ended the project hence Steiner's application for welfare. The investigator asks about other jobs but Steiner tells him the waiting lists for unskilled labour are backed up ten years. The investigator asks Steiner about relatives who might help but his parents are dead and his sister has been on relief for 18 years. Steiner mentions an ex-wife, which the investigator follows up on. Steiner was married in 2015 but hasn't seen her since 2021. She didn't care for the Blauvelt Project nor him so left the country. Ending the interview, the field investigator proceeds to leave but Steiner admits he has no money nor food. The field investigator tells Steiner he has running tapwater which is enough until then. At a bar called Joe's, the field investigator has a drink. A doctor asks him about work so the field investigator tells him about the Blauvelt Project. The field investigator gets drunk while the others help him get home.

Reception
Upon its publication in 1969, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction editor Edward L. Ferman noted its "grim versimilitude." In its 1969 reprint for Ace Books's Barry N. Malzberg collection Final War and Other Fantasies, the author remarked his work as a social investigator "provided me with one good novel [...] and this one good short story." In 2018, Rich Horton called it a "cynical story."