Philip K. Dick book

[ExodusMaximus]

Hi, I can't remember the title of the book I did read as a kid (in a different language)
here is what I remember

1. people were paid in points they stored on a "key" - red (everyone got equal number of red), blue (blue were given based on mental category 9-0 with 0 being the highest) and yellow which people earned on a job. lets say medical services available to people with only red points weren't any good (there is a reference to it in the book)
2. main character hides "under the radar" by being category 4 (not stupid but not smart enough to yield employment) and helps people cheat qualification exams
3. latter in the book he discovers that 0 class is not "the highest" that it is a start of the uppers scale 0 to x (9 to 0 scale is actually -9 to 0)
4. if I can remember there is some conspiracy where the upper levels of government cancelling the fact that they have to cooperate with aliens (not sure about that)
5. in the last part of the book (if I remember correctly, someone tells him "now pull this world, that's why I gave you the strength"

its killing me that I can't remember the name of it - thanks

JJ

 

[THX1138]

Hello @ExodusMaximus, and welcome to Chons!
I did some searching and Paycheck came up and so did Valis, but I drought that one. And so did Minority Report.
He wrote so many stories, and they many share the same ideas and tech/gov concepts.

Sorry if I'm not much help, but I'm certain others that are more knowing than me will be here to guide you.

 

[Dave]

There was a period when I used to read avidly the Gollancz yellow hardback anthologies of PK Dick short stories borrowed from my local library. I've read some short story by PK Dick that was similar to that, but I couldn't now tell you which one (actually it was probably the novel Valis) but as @THX1138 says, he wrote piles and piles of short stories and frequently reused his ideas.