"Singularity Sky"

Charles Stross is another mefite. That he's familiar with Marxist theory is just gravy.

__ "Mmm. How about a post-Marxist theory of post- technological political economy, and a proof that the dictatorship of the hereditary peerage can only be maintained by the systematic oppression and exploitation of the workers and engineers, and cannot survive once the people acquire the self-replicating means of production?"
__ The new economy is being born; the marginal cost of production has been abolished, and from now on, if any item is produced once, it can be replicated infinitely. From each according to his imagination, to each according to bis needs!

The set-up is brilliant:
__ A tinny voice spoke: "Hello? Will you entertain us7" The Festival had come to Rochard's World.
__ By the end of that day, when the manna had begun to fall from orbit and men's dreams were coming to life like strange vines blooming after rain in the desert, Rudi and his family- sick mother, drunken uncle, and seven siblings-ware no longer part of the political economy of the New Republic. <> War had been declared.
__ The Festival was a traveling embassy, a nexus for the exchange of cultural information between stars. It was primarily interested in other upload cultures, but anyone would do at a pinch.

I can't figure out which P.T. Barnum quote he was referring to though.