Explore "Gone Fishing" by James H. Schmitz on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
There probably will never come a society of human beings without its human parasites. The notion that material progress through the invention and development of the technical bases for a universally high standard of living will bring with it a perfecting of man's moral fiber-if it ever really existed, as it may have in some naive minds during the Nineteenth Century-simply will not work. It is not only the lure of "something for nothing" that makes such parasites-con men, blackmailers, what have you-tick, it is also the excitement of using one's wits, the hatred or contempt of conventional society, or the feeling of power that comes from putting something over on another person. These are basic supra-economic motivations for people like Schmitz's "anti-hero."
If all this is so, the only cure (for individual parasites, anyhow) is somehow to change their motivations. This is a noble goal, but just try and do it! Whether the pretty drastic punishment that is envisioned in this story as being used against the successful sharpie who got caught would actually reform him in "real" life is a matter of acerb controversy. However, what is not controversial is the fact that in telling us about it the author has had a ball, and helps us to have one, too.