This falls under the category of "spamfic", I suppose, because there's really
only one idea to it (which has been bothering me ever since watching a certain
anime) and is very short.  Still, it's not a Pinky and the Brain go to
Jyusenkyou sort of thing.
---
                                CAUSE AND EFFECT

    Little Mari knocked on the big door of the jewelry store in front of her.
The person who answered was very familiar to her.  "Hi, Mari-chan", said the
middle-aged man, "I've been waiting for you to come.  You wanted to visit so
much...."
    Mari smiled.  "Hi, Dad!  I wasn't sure this was the right one but the sign
was all blue and I figured it must be Blue Planet Jewelers and...."  Her
father cut her off.  "Mari-chan, someday you'll learn to read well enough to
read signs...  well, you wanted to see where I work.  There it is.  I'm a
security guard here...  I keep people from trying to take all those jewels from
the store!  It's my job to stop all sorts of trouble here."
    Mari-chan sped from case to case looking at all the pretty jewelry and
gems.  "I've never seen so much in one place before!  Dad, do you know any
people who really wear these?"
    "Mari-chan, nobody wears all of these.  Some people only ever buy one.
Even a person who can't usually afford real jewelry will buy a wedding ring.
Sometimes a rich person comes in and buys and buys...  but even a rich person
never has a whole store full of them!"
    "Daddy, what is that thing?  It has jewels on it but it looks so _ugly_!"
Mari pointed to a cylindrical object several feet in length.  Her father
laughed.  "I raised you to have good taste.  That one's a jeweled golf club
case specially made for the Prime Minister of Earth.  People like him never
understand what ordinary working guys like us have to go through.  But selling
ugly things like that to ugly men like him makes profit for the store, and
_that_ helps a dozen people like me me pay the rent and even get you things
like that nice doll you were looking at the other day...."
    He stopped.  "Mari-chan, do you see that spaceship over there?"
    Mari squinted at the sky, but all she could make out was a white dot
moving.
    "Oh, it'll get closer", said Mari's father.  "It's the transport ship.
You know, you're very lucky you came here today.  This ship only comes once a
year!  You're very privileged!"  He pointed to a red dot in the sky.  "Look,
Mari-chan, if you look _just_ over there, you can see Mars."  His daughter
tried to follow the pointing hand, and finally stood directly behind him,
barely even crouching at her height, and looked directly out along her
father's arm at the starlike object.
    Her father continued to explain.  "That, Mari-chan, is Mars.  That's where
the ship is going.  Each year over half the entire stock of Blue Planet
Jewelers gets taken to Mars and back!  There are some very rich people on
Mars with summer vacation homes there, all living in the same spot.  It's a
great part of the success of the store.
    "Daddy, if there weren't any rich people, would you not have a job?",
asked Mari-chan.
    Her father shook his head.  "Don't worry, Mari-chan.  There's nothing
that could get rid of all the rich people in the universe, and I'm sure that
if Mars was no longer a summer vacation spot, boss Matsuda knows plenty of
other resort towns to try."  He thought to himself that about the only thing
that could ruin the store was having the transport ship lost in space, but
that was no more likely than the store getting hit by a hurricane, or any
number of other natural disasters.  He wasn't going to tell Mari-chan that and
frighten her for a week.
    They watched as the vaults were opened, Mari-chan gaping even harder at
all the shiny gold and silver and cut gems revealed within.  A procession of
uniformed people, her father among them, helped bring the gems aboard the
vessel.  At first she could not take her eyes off the glistening jewels, but
when the procession began to exceed her attention span, she fidgeted, wishing
for a hot dog or a bowl of ramen.  Finally it ended and her father returned
to her side.  Mari watched the slowly disappearing spaceship zoom off into
the distance.  She got a scary idea, but decided not to ask her father
about it.  "I'm too old to be afraid over something that may never happen",
thought Mari to herself.  "I know Dad works hard and I'm not going to be
afraid of him not being able to...."

    The captain of the transport ship noticed a strange signal, and signalled
his first mate to put it on audio.  The voice boomed over the ship's speakers.
"Repeat.  This is Captain Harlock, of the pirate ship Arcadia.  Prepare to be
boarded."  The viewscreen panned across the skull and crossbones of the pirate
ship's flag.
    It happened at an incredibly rapid pace.  He boarded--the pirate leader
himself, unafraid of danger, stepped off the ramp, followed by at least ten
crew, who restrained the captain and first mate while the rest searched the
ship for any valuables they could find.  Harlock's crew brought him cases full
of gold and diamonds and other jewelry, but he only seemed more and more
displeased.  With disgust, Harlock ordered "Throw those out."  The captain
managed to stammer "If...  if you don't want them, surely you can let us..."
    Harlock would have none of it.  "While trouble is out there, men play
around with pretty things and ignore the universe because of their greed and
thirst for leisure.  Let a few rich folks miss a few bits of glitter.  That's
all those gems are good for, anyway."  His crew obediently dumped them
overboard and they vanished into the void of space.  "Now, let's get back to
the Arcadia.  We have work to do."