Chapter 3510: The Study of Cats and Dogs (69)

Schiller shook his head and said, "I don't have time to deal with them for you. You go contact the Pale Knight and stop them outside Cat Getan. You take all the benefits, no need to give me anything."

"Are you sure you won't participate?" Amanda looked at him and said, "The client behind it can't be just targeting you; it should be related to the recent martial law state in Metropolis. Don't you want to ferret out the mastermind?"

"If you can ferret out the mastermind, the entire Justice League will thank you," Schiller looked at him and said. "I won't participate."

"Alright," Amanda shrugged and said, "I didn't expect them to thank me. It's just that some alien criminals touched the nerves of the lords in Congress, giving them some unrealistic fantasies again."

"What do they want to do?"

"Of course, it's to use the power of aliens to deal with the Soviet Union."

"In other words, in their view, the Soviet Union is more terrifying than aliens."

"That's no longer fresh news. If they could deal with the Soviet Union, what would cooperating with aliens count for? Even if it were a bill that would sell the entire Earth, they would sign it."

Schiller sighed and said, "What do they intend to do?"

"The wind I heard is that they intend to take the initiative to contact the guy who put Metropolis under martial law."

"And then?"

"Then I guess they don't have any good way to move him. After all, this guy is targeting Metropolis, and Metropolis is under the control of the Luthor Group."

"Luthor is not Wayne," Amanda shook her head slowly and said. "This guy's desire for control is boundless, and he is ruthless and has no scruples. If someone dares to move Metropolis, he will definitely make them look good."

"Will Congress yield?" Schiller asked.

"The Luthor Group has a great say in medicine and military industry. The current Lex Luthor is the leader of the Anglo-Saxons; whoever he wants dead, they won't live. Metropolis has been given to him, what room does Congress have to retreat?"

"Then they still dare to cooperate with aliens?"

"Cooperating with aliens is the only way to reverse this situation. They are probably betting that Luthor doesn't dare to kill them all."

Schiller laughed and said, "That makes a lot of sense. After all, if they were all killed, it wouldn't be easy to elect so many stupid people in a short time."

Amanda sat on the sofa nearby, thinking and saying, "This seems to be a game between aliens and Earthlings, and also like a game between the United States and the Soviet Union, but in reality, it is still a game between the federal government and the local government."

"If even aliens can't break into Metropolis this time, everyone will know that someone can make the federal orders unable to reach Metropolis, and Metropolis doesn't have to pay any price. Then it will be difficult for the federal government to push anything."

"Do you think this will exacerbate the division of the United States?"

"The division of the United States has no room for exacerbation. We are a federation ourselves, and each state is equivalent to a small country. I am just worried about the division of New Jersey."

"Do you think Metropolis will become independent?"

"Lex Luthor is doing just that. He is turning Metropolis into another country, you know which one I am referring to. This means that from the system to the economy to ideology, Metropolis will gradually move away from New Jersey."

"Is this not good?"

"Actually, I don't care whether Metropolis will become independent. The key is, once Metropolis moves further and further away from New Jersey under Luthor's leadership, then the political, economic, and cultural center of New Jersey will become Cat Getan."

Amanda looked at Schiller and said, "Do you think this is a good thing? To let this paradise that produces lunatics and killers become the center of the Northeast?"

"You are talking about the Cat Getan of the past..."

"No, according to my observation of your new mayor, he is also a lunatic."

"Despite the fact that he has been racking his brains to increase subsidies for the bottom-level people?"

"That's why I said he is a lunatic."

Schiller was speechless.

In the context of the United States, there are no slogans like "serving the people." Their slogans are to fend for themselves, pray for their own blessings, and achieve their dreams with their own hands. If they can't achieve it, then look for problems in themselves.

When everyone can't even take care of themselves, thinking about the bottom-level people does look crazy.

"Although I should say I understand your worries now, in reality, I don't. Are you worried that Cat Getan will take New Jersey together toward the abyss of madness, letting the bottom-level people here get subsidies and people's lives get better?"

Amanda rubbed her forehead with her hand and said, "I don't think giving subsidies to the bottom-level people is bad, but you need to think about where the subsidy money comes from. Napier already intends to implement a new tax law in Cat Getan, imposing an additional 60% tax on the rich."

Schiller heard this news for the first time. He paused and said, "That's actually quite good."

"Then do you know his definition of the rich?" Amanda sighed again and said, "University professors like you also belong to the rich and are within the scope of the levy. And, the tax law may take effect this quarter, which means you have to be prepared to pay 60% more tax in March."

Schiller calculated silently in his heart. Although buying a house spent most of his money, the money on hand was still enough to pay taxes.

"What about the tax exemption policy?" Schiller asked.

"Forget it. The tax exemption policy is unprecedentedly strict. The virtual tax avoidance methods used in charity and investment in the past are useless. The tax exemption quota for physical investment and consumption has also dropped significantly; you all have to pay real money."

Schiller mourned for his wallet for a second and said, "Alright. The tax bureau should cooperate with the police station to enforce the law, right? Otherwise, the taxes of those people are not that easy to collect."

"Are you really not worried about your assets at all?" Amanda looked at Schiller and said.

"A little bit heartbroken, but not much," Schiller shook his head and said. "If I wanted to make money, I wouldn't be a university professor. For a long time, my salary just covered my living costs, and I couldn't save a penny, but it doesn't matter."

Amanda was really speechless and said, "Alright, you are a saint with no desires. I am just worried that Napier's bloodletting therapy might bring chaos to this city again. After all, if you also count as a rich person, then the vast majority of the middle class will suffer, and they won't let it go."

"I believe the mayor has a sense of proportion," Schiller said. "He should have prepared some other methods; maybe we will know soon."

"Alright, you bunch of lunatics go play by yourselves," Amanda stood up and said. "I will try my best to stop those killers outside the city, but it is possible that one or two will run in. You just solve them on the spot, no need to contact me again."

After speaking, she left. Schiller watched her back and shook his head. Amanda has indeed matured a lot, but she still hates lunatics, normal to the point of being abnormal.

Schiller really didn't know about the new tax law, so he opened his phone to search and found that Amanda's words were true. If there were no accidents, he would have to pay about 60% more tax than last time when he filed his taxes next time.

Not everyone has spare money like him. Schiller estimated that if it were implemented so quickly, most people wouldn't be able to pay. Napier shouldn't do such a stupid thing.

Sure enough, scrolling down, Schiller saw that the regulation stated "exempt from forced collection," meaning that if they couldn't pay, it wouldn't be forcibly collected.

This made Schiller a bit confused. If that were the case, the middle class could also transfer assets, and then have nothing in their hands. And if it couldn't be forcibly collected, wouldn't it be impossible to collect much?

Scrolling to the end, Schiller saw that the release date of this news was already more than half a month ago.

He suddenly realized something was wrong. The day this new tax law was announced should have caused an uproar, but in reality, Schiller didn't feel any public opinion fluctuation, as if everyone accepted it so calmly.

Even if they could avoid it by transferring assets, the middle class should have had many complaints. They should have made a big noise on the internet; why didn't anyone talk about this?

Schiller felt something was tricky, but he didn't dwell on it too much. Anyway, his money was enough to pay taxes, and he didn't intend to transfer assets; that was too troublesome. He would rather pay taxes than engage in that troublesome asset transfer operation.

Schiller thought about going to see the shop again, but the city center should be congested by now. So, Schiller chose to drive there from the Inner World.

It was a bit coincidental today; Schiller just drove out of the house and brushed past a car. He didn't see clearly who it was, just guessed it might be some professor from the Magic Academy.

But on the way to the city center, he felt something was wrong, because he saw many people—accurately speaking, many humans, and of all age groups, who didn't look like students of the Cat Getan Magic Academy at all.

When going to the city center, there were even more such people, many of whom gathered in groups on the roadside, pointing at the buildings on the street.

There were actually a few people discussing the glass of Schiller's shop window at Schiller's new shop. Schiller got out of the car and walked over, and one of them enthusiastically said to him, "You also came to see the house here? If you ask me, this one is not bad, it's a pity the shopping guide said this one has already been sold; if I had come earlier, it would have been great."

Schiller sized him up. This was a lady who looked well-maintained, and the bag in her hand was expensive; she looked like a rich person.

"I am the owner of this house, but I bought it a long time ago."

"God, then you are a magician? They said there have only been magicians here all along. You look like that professor at the magic university, are you?"

"Suppose so," Schiller nodded and said, "What are you doing?"

"Looking at houses," the lady smiled and said, "Mayor said that the Inner World is about to open permissions to ordinary people, and you can enter in advance by paying a tax. We are preparing to come here to invest first; the land price in the city center is afraid to rise a lot in the future."

Schiller covered his forehead. He knew how that outrageous tax law was implemented; it turned out to be buying the early access qualification.

But this is indeed a clever move. In the case that the existence of the Inner World cannot be announced with great fanfare, using this method to collect funds from the rich can indeed solve the urgent need.

Rich people spend money to buy the qualification to come in and invest, enter the Inner World to invest, and then convert their money into subsidies and distribute them to people outside who have no money. A good trick of stealing the dragon and turning the phoenix.

Building the Inner World into a real garden city, and then imposing extra taxes on the qualification to enter the Inner World in the future, can achieve the purpose of letting the rich spend money to enjoy in the Inner World, and then take this money to subsidize the poor outside, raising everyone's living standard by a notch.

But the premise of doing this is that the money will really be used to subsidize the poor. It can only be said that to achieve this effect, all the mayors of Cat Getan in the future must be good enough.

At this very moment, Schiller suddenly realized the key point. The Pale Knight deliberately set the threshold for collection so low just to include himself.

He is not afraid of paying taxes, because tax revenue is the key to maintaining social welfare. But if one day he knew that he had paid so much tax, but it was not used in the right place, but was embezzled, then the mayor could basically choose his favorite seat at the bottom of the lake.

Truly a good trick of driving the tiger to swallow the wolf.

?? Genius

? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3511 =====