In addition to the problems he is currently facing, Julio also discovered some other problems. Compared with the closer cooperation between officials and capitalists in southern cities, the capitalists in the west seem to have a somewhat... cold attitude towards the officials!
Yes, it's just indifference. In yesterday's conversation, Julio raised these issues raised by Dulin as a topic more than once and asked the capitalists present how to solve them. If it were a developed city in the south, many capitalists would definitely come forward and express their willingness to take on these problems and provide solutions as soon as possible. The cooperation between the city hall and the capitalists is almost semi-open, and the capitalists are willing to help the city hall solve these problems.
From the perspective of the city hall, many problems can be solved without using a penny of public funds, especially medical problems and basic security issues for citizens. These are the two most profitable areas, but they are also the largest investment areas. Two areas. Medical insurance alone may require millions or even tens of millions of funds to be invested, and there will also be continuous subsequent investment. People say that medical groups care about money but not people, but they ignore inputs, costs and maintenance costs.
It takes about three years, or even longer, for a brand new hospital to be put into use until it returns to profitability.
From a businessman's point of view, his upcoming project investment is endorsed by the city hall. In addition to ensuring the safety of the project, the Imperial Central Bank is also willing to grant loans to such projects. Compared with the somewhat rigid businessmen in the north and central part of the empire, businessmen in the south are more inclined to invest by capital means. Generally speaking, businessmen in the north will spend real money to do things. There are many reasons why they do this.
For those businessmen with aristocratic backgrounds, they have plenty of money at home anyway, so there is no need to ask anyone to borrow money to do business. Their self-esteem and pride do not allow them to say the word "borrow" to others, which will hurt them. of self-esteem. The same goes for those officials. Their rigorous and cautious attitude will never accept any risky investment. Even if a project fails to be completed, they will never let the project be launched at risk.
But the environment in the south is different. Businessmen are more inclined to play with capital. The example of getting things done without spending money not only inspires all businessmen to dream of getting rich, but also provides these businessmen with a very complete template. With the endorsement of the government, businessmen can borrow a large amount of funds from the Imperial Bank or the Southern Commercial Bank with a contract of intent signed by the city hall, use these funds to develop projects, and finally pay back the loan after making a profit. This is A favorite way of Southern businessmen.
Using the least capital to build the largest project is what the capitalists in the South do. This is why Henry told Dulin that the businessmen in the South are all liars. Because this group of southerners always think about how to get things done with no or less money, it is inevitable that people like Henry who lack social care will feel that they have been deceived.
Julio was a little puzzled by the collective indifference of western businessmen. As long as someone proposed any method that seemed feasible, he was willing to nod and let these people do it. But the problem is that no one shows active desire. Are they not interested in these things, or is someone telling them to remain silent? Julio felt that the most likely possibility was the latter. He was an outsider and had only been here for less than a week. No one knew how far he could go, so naturally they would not blindly bet on him. He still maintains the mentality of running cities in the south, but ignores that the south and west have completely different economic ecology.
This requires a process, a long process. Only after fully understanding the economic ecology of the west can Julio understand how wrong he is now. Of course, before doing these things, he had to settle another matter first.
Opening the blinds and looking at the cowboys and miners carrying shotguns outside the city hall, Julio felt a faint sadness in his balls, which hurt a little. The desolation of the West and the abundance of predators in the wild mean that almost every household here has a shotgun, which is also specially permitted by the state government. Villages and towns outside small cities like Turnel are also allowed to form militias and possess shotguns, with the purpose of protecting people's lives and... property.
Horse bandits are also predators, so it's not unusual for a family in the West to own a shotgun. But when this group of people marched outside the city hall with guns on their backs, Julio couldn't calm down. He had never seen such irritable citizens. Don’t people say that the folk customs in the west are simple and honest? Why does the simplicity he sees seem different from his own understanding of simplicity
These people started marching because the death of Memnon and the arrest of the Kadima Party were the trigger. The three guarantees policy, promoted by some people with ulterior motives, has become what people call "finished." No one will continue to be responsible for them, and no one will continue to be responsible for them. No one can ensure that the three-guarantee policy they have purchased will continue to be implemented. This has seriously hurt the feelings of westerners and destroyed their trust in the official government and the implementation of policies, so someone must take responsibility for this matter.
This responsibility did not originally belong to Julio. Memnon's death was an "accident", and the killing and arrest of members of the Kadima Party organization had nothing to do with Julio. It was a collective extermination operation in three western states. It can be said that From beginning to end, nothing had anything to do with Julio, but he happened to be the first person to face it. Some people said privately that Memnon was doomed because he blocked Julio's way. Who benefited the most from Memnon's death
There is no doubt that it is Julio. Didn’t you see that Julio has already become the mayor of Verier City? The chair under his butt is the chair that Memnon used to sit on. Who else will trouble him if not him?
Driven by such rumors, some angry Westerners who felt they had been deceived and treated maliciously came to the city hall with shotguns on their backs. They needed an explanation and an arrangement. It’s impossible to lose a lot of rights and interests inexplicably without even an explanation, right? As the biggest beneficiary, Julio has to say something, right
These people are really stupid!
In fact, no, there are some idiots and fools in it, but there are still many smart people. It is impossible for ordinary people like them to take the blame for the bad impact and consequences caused by the riot. Throughout history, no one who takes the blame for political events has ever been an ordinary civilian. Even if there is, under the influence of some special forces , they have also become special people with "political influence". But more often than not, it is a legitimate politician who takes the blame.
Julio didn't believe that Westerners could be so arrogant at first, until he was hit by an arrow in the knee.
"We should find a solution to this matter as soon as possible. I don't want these impulsive bastards to continue to appear outside the city hall..." Julio loosened his fingers. There were five people sitting or standing in his office. These five people They are all his personal team, or decision-making group. This kind of small group is very common in the South. Whether they are businessmen or government officials, they are accustomed to hiring some smart people to form a team to analyze problems to help them improve their work efficiency. It is said that Mags also has a similar small private group called a think tank.
The young man standing on the wall holding a wine glass was the first to speak. He was a social elite who graduated from the Economics Department of Southern University of Commerce. He was hired by Julio to serve on his decision-making team and provide some necessary economic help, "Boss, I looked through some of the files left behind by Mr. Memnon, and found out that nearly 2.2 million people in the entire West had purchased 3.7 million insurance policies of various types, and had paid 48 for these insurances. The total amount of expenses, ranging from one to seventy-seven months, exceeds 80 million yuan!”
"Approximately 60 million yuan has been invested in the construction of 13 cities, of which the largest expenditure has been used for land replacement and building commercial centers. In addition, more than 23.5 million yuan has been diverted to other uses, of which nine More than one million are in the Kadima Party’s Imperial Central Bank account, which has been frozen. The remaining more than ten million have no specific documents to prove the flow of these funds, but they have all disappeared.”
"In other words, even if those people lower their demands and just return the money they paid, this problem can be settled. You, the city hall, including the state government, do not have the ability to spend about 100 million in one-time funds to return all Western citizens who have participated in the three-guarantee policy, so if you want to cancel the three-guarantee policy, you can’t get the money.”
Julio suddenly felt a throbbing pain in his head. His balls no longer hurt, but he had a headache.
100 million in funds
Where can he get 100 million in funds? Even if he is sold, he can get millions or tens of millions of funds. The muscles in the corners of his eyes twitched uncontrollably twice and he looked at several other people, " Gentlemen, how should we face the next disaster? We definitely don’t have money. Even if the cabinet agrees, it is impossible to allocate 100 million to quell the anger of citizens. I’m afraid we can’t afford it. Less than 20 million.”
At this time, a young man in his thirties, wearing a formal suit and looking like a social elite, smiled and said, "Mr. Julio, actually we might as well think about it in another way. Memnon can maintain the three guarantees policy, so why should we Can’t it be maintained? According to the data just now, a scale of about 10 million can continue to maintain the three-guarantee policy without problems, and we can get more profits from it every year to develop the city!”
Julio nodded noncommittally, "This is indeed a method, but it is also the most inappropriate method. The basis of the three-guarantee policy is based on the absence of fraudulent guarantees. We know that Mr. Memnon was deceived just before he was assassinated. We have paid more than two million yuan in deposits. We are not familiar with the three-guarantee policy, and we do not know enough about the personal information of each citizen who participated in the three-guarantee policy. Moreover, we have to deal with many capitalists, which is full of various issues. Such risks.”
"We may need to form a huge organization to complete the handover of these things. The reason why Mr. Memnon can play the three-guarantee policy is because he himself is the leader of the Kadima Party. The Kadima Party is spread throughout the west, and every city has a Kadima Party. Party people. So they have a large enough organization to do these things, but we don’t.”
"If we want to reach the level of Mr. Memnon, the first thing we have to do is deal with the people doing the work, and then we have to argue with the capitalists and find a way to make the money roll!"
"Gentlemen, this is not an easy thing, because we have already 'lost' about 75 million. If we cannot recover this money and cannot get the frozen funds of the Kadima Party, then we are likely to become Sacrifice!"
In fact, what Julio is most worried about is that there are people behind the scenes who are pushing these people to participate in the trouble. If his men hadn't told him that Memnon had robbed nearly 100 million in funds from the west, he would have never known that there was such a big hole here. Call it the pit of the abyss.
Even if only one million people asked for refunds, it would be enough to make Julio helpless. He simply did not have so much money to run these things, and he did not have the foundation of Memnon, and not so many people were willing to do things for him.
Julio’s legal advisor thought for a while and said, “The only way now is to raise questions about the three-guarantee policy to the state assembly and cabinet, and ask the state government and cabinet to form an investigation team to conduct an in-depth investigation into the three-guarantee policy passed by the state assembly. During the bill process, are there any members involved in official crimes? My personal opinion is that someone must have received benefits to allow this bill to be passed. As long as we find evidence, we can apply for and review the repeal of this bill. Then put all the blame on Mr. Memnon and the Kadima Party.”
"Then what about the citizens who have suffered losses?" Julio was very moved. He knew what the lawyer meant. Anyway, he just refused to admit his guilt. If that didn't work, he would ask the Western Military Region to suppress the riots. The consequence of this is that he does not need to bear any responsibility for the three guarantees policy. Although there may be some stains on his resume, it is less important than the former.
The legal advisor smiled slightly and said, "Of course we will provide them with legal aid and let them sue the Kadima Party and Mr. Memnon. As for whether the money can be recovered and how much can be recovered, that is another matter." To let Julio and other friends have a deeper understanding of the feasibility of what he did, he also gave an example, "The big scam of the century happened a few years ago. A group of people used some very common means to steal money from Sherry Street. He fled the empire with more than 70 million yuan in funds. So far, the case has not been solved. Not to mention the main culprit, not even much money has been recovered. "
"This is actually the same thing we need to face. As long as we reveal that the three-guarantee policy is a scam, then this matter will have nothing to do with us!"
One is worth two
(End of chapter)