Chapter 646: Cook

After reading the document in his hand, Lanse pursed his lips and put it back.

"Ten thousand dollars.", he said the latest price given at the end of the document.

Yes, ten thousand dollars, per acre of land. If anyone wants it, they need to line up and then pay to get that land.

Mayor Williams had no expression, but at this time, having no expression is the most special expression.

Lanse felt the murderous intent. In his eyes, he really wanted to kill these people!

"Do you know... in the month before last, mid-September, what was its price?"

Lanse glanced at the document and read the number on it, two thousand five hundred dollars.

Mayor Williams took a deep breath, "Yes, two thousand five hundred dollars, now it's ten thousand."

"Lunatics should go to a mental hospital, not be here affecting some of my plans!"

He increased his tone, then coughed twice. His emotions were a bit agitated.

He took a cigarette out of the cigarette case, lit it a bit irritably, and took a deep breath, "I used to secretly laugh at Sidney at home. I laughed at him for being a fool, doing this wrong, and doing that wrong."

When he said these words, his expression was a bit exaggerated, accompanied by some movements of his hands to deepen his context, so that Lanse could feel the arrogance and mockery when he laughed at Sidney in the room.

He slowly lowered his raised hand, and his shoulders also slumped, "But now, Lanse."

"I finally understand, it's not that he was too stupid, nor that he couldn't do it well, it's that the problem was too big."

"Even if he is a mayor, of course I am the same as he was then, and the problems we face are the same."

"Even if we are both mayors, what we face is the entire urban interest group. We are confronting them!"

He raised his wrist and turned it over to reveal his palm, pointing at the document in front of Lanse, "Actually, not everyone wants to confront me. Some people didn't take the initiative to raise land prices."

"But when they found that some land owners around were quoting five thousand dollars to the outside, even if they didn't want to confront me, they stood on my opposite side at this time."

"Profit kidnapped them. For the sake of more profit, they had to stand on my opposite side."

"Now it's ten thousand. After a while, how much will it be?"

"Fifteen thousand?"

"Twenty thousand?"

"Fuck!"

Only a part of the people need to create a trend that these lands are worth a lot of money, and those people will always keep the land in their hands.

Unknowingly, they became bargaining chips for those interest groups to negotiate with City Hall. They actually knew they had become bargaining chips, but they were willing to be so.

They don't need to do anything. They just need to continue to play their greedy and innocent appearance to get more benefits. Why should they "wake up"?

Once land prices rise too high, whether City Hall intends to take back these lands or new investors want to invest here, they have to face huge investment costs.

The trend of Jincheng's consumption power will not increase much because of the increase in land prices here.

And the new tax law is about to be implemented. People's income may increase to a certain extent, but their disposable portion will decrease instead.

Previously, the federal tax law implemented for ordinary people was that those with a monthly income of less than one hundred dollars did not need to pay taxes, but the new tax law stipulates that even if a federal citizen has an income of only one cent a month.

Then he also has to pay a three percent tax!

In other words, according to people's current income of forty-some dollars, they need to pay at least an eight percent tax every month.

If someone exceeds fifty dollars, that's even better, twelve percent is waiting for you.

Under these circumstances, new district investors will consider a problem: they have invested so much money in the most basic land, how can they recover these investments and make a profit?

The final result is that people start to wait and see, his plan becomes ridiculous, he becomes a joke in the city like Sidney, and finally has to make compromises to the interest group he once belonged to.

Before becoming mayor, he didn't think it was so difficult.

After becoming mayor, he felt how painful Sidney was at that time.

Lanse shook his head, "It seems there is only this one way."

Actually, the federal government had considered the possibility that capitalists would enclose land on a large scale and then do nothing but wait for land prices to rise to make huge profits, so they made many regulations.

For example, how many square meters of buildings to build, how many workers to hire, and how much output value to create.

But these things can't stop the capitalists at all. After all, the fact that these bills can be passed shows that they didn't oppose them—

They build simple warehouses on open spaces to ensure that there are enough bungalows in the buildings.

They hire some retired elderly people according to the standards, and only need to give them one-third of the wages of ordinary people.

As for output value taxes, etc., they have plenty of ways to complete City Hall's various requirements through false transactions.

It is said to be false... actually, it cannot be considered false. As a part of the entire "circulation" link, the factory has high costs and low profits.

Output value does not include costs.

If costs are included, they might even lose money. In the case where the net profit of the enterprise is negative, the tax bureau is embarrassed to ask them for taxes.

Especially when land prices are controlled by them, even if there is a little loss, it is acceptable in the face of huge benefits that are about to be generated.

Mayor Williams knows these things too damn well, so he never thought about using legal means to solve this problem from the beginning, because it can't be solved.

He can only turn to Lanse for help.

Lanse scratched his head, "This will offend many people."

He pursed his lips. It's not that he can't do it, but it depends on whether the price is enough.

If there is no income, and he offends a whole city of people, even if Mayor Williams has a good relationship with him, he won't agree.

It's just a good relationship, not his father.

Mayor Williams is obviously very clear about this point. Even if Lanse were really his son, he might not be able to do so much for him, so everything is based on the most naked interests.

"There is a part of them who are willing to relocate, but they are kidnapped by these people with constantly rising land prices and passively stand on our opposite side."

"For these people, those who can be persuaded will be persuaded. We have no conflict. When they realize that they actually can't earn so much, they will give up."

"As for the other part...", he pondered for a moment, "Since they have already stood on our opposite side, then swallow them."

Lanse took out a cigarette, took a puff, and after the cigarette was filtered through his lungs, it was sprayed out from his nose.

He understood what Mayor Williams meant by "swallow", including their lives, souls, and their property, everything, all into the stomach.

To put it in a more civilized way, that is to put them on the dining table.

The city's expansion represents more opportunities. There are so many new friends looking forward to joining this feast, looking forward to being able to sit at the table and enjoy a rich dinner.

Before anyone vacates a new position, they can only watch others eat delicacies in big mouthfuls, and can only find some oil and water from the plates that have been removed.

They look clear-eyed and behave simply, but if given the opportunity to let them sit at the dining table, they will become loyal running dogs of the decision-makers.

They will bite those people more fiercely than anyone else.

Lanse nodded, "Since you have made a decision, then do it!"

"When do we start?"

Mayor Williams licked his lips, "Wait a little longer. I asked James to talk to them. Before taking action, I hope we can solve it civilly. If they live up to my kindness, then we can only do that."

"After the New Year, it should be about right."

Lanse nodded, "Good, then after the New Year."

This matter is critical, and it is also the core of whether Mayor Williams can complete his administration program. He didn't talk to Lanse about the distribution of benefits, which essentially told Lanse that he eats first.

No matter how he eats, even if his appetite is good enough, he can eat everything! This is his attitude, let Lanse eat his fill first.

Lanse didn't talk to him about any three-seven split, which would instead make himself look like he had no pattern.

After negotiating this matter, Mayor Williams was obviously much more relaxed. He took a final puff of the cigarette, and suddenly had an awkward expression on his face.

These embarrassments came too suddenly, so suddenly that Lanse didn't even know what happened, and how to deal with it.

Mayor Williams even gave two awkward laughs, which made Lanse unable to bear it, "You'd better tell me what happened. I'm a little worried about you like this."

Mayor Williams' expression was very rich, first embarrassment, then embarrassment, finally some sighing, and finally some hatred.

"I really don't know how to say it, Arthur and that..."

"Kolinda.", Lanse reminded. The name of such a "small character" would not be remembered by Mayor Williams, even if it was his son's girlfriend.

Actually, when he talked about this matter, Lanse already had a premonition. He had told Kolinda before.

That kid Arthur is not a good choice, because no matter how much they love each other, Kolinda cannot marry into the Williams family.

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Unless she is Lanse's biological sister, otherwise it is impossible!

This is no longer the gap between the upper and lower classes, this is the gap between many classes in the middle!

Federal people are very realistic, much more realistic than rumored, unless Arthur can give up everything he owns.

Privileges, inheritance rights, wealth, everything, otherwise he cannot marry Kolinda at all.

But will he give these up?

Lanse stared at Mayor Williams, who could only sigh in Lanse's gaze, "He didn't know how to say it, he broke up with that girl."

He said and increased his tone, emphasizing, "It was a peaceful breakup, there were no other problems."

"But he is worried that you will beat him, so he asked me to say this."

Because Lanse had psychological preparation, he didn't have any strong reaction. He just nodded, "Young people's love and hate often rise in an instant and die in an instant. This is normal. I won't beat him."

Arthur is still quite afraid of Lanse.

Seeing that Lanse didn't get angry, Mayor Williams breathed a sigh of relief, "You can beat him up."

Lanse waved his hand, "I also warned her, but... you know, when love comes, even if there is a city wall, it's useless, so you don't have to worry."

People say that Mayor Williams loves his youngest son the most. It seems that this sentence is really not false. He would personally tell Lanse about such things. This is obvious favoritism.

But it is a pity that Arthur was born too late, otherwise the one who inherits the Williams family in the future would not be James, but him.

Perhaps James also knows this very well. Now it is too late to cultivate Arthur, so he never targets Arthur, but instead shows the style of a big brother everywhere, maintaining this little brother who always makes mistakes.

After coming out of City Hall, Lanse went around the naval base. It has become a bit more prosperous here.

The soldiers have initially begun to adapt to the environment here, and the base is also allowing them to move around in the surrounding area to a limited extent.

This made the area around the naval base much livelier, and also added many girls standing on the street.

Some are really forced by life, and they won't have food to eat if they don't do this line of work, for example, those refugee escorts organized by Karl.

There are too many people in the refugee group who are hungry. People who have never been hungry will never know how important and happy it is to have enough food for those who are hungry.

There are also some who just want to make money more easily.

When Lanse saved those girls in Red Heels, except for a few who already had stable jobs and lives, others went to do escort work again.

They couldn't stand the high-intensity work on the assembly line for eleven or twelve hours every day, and they could only get that little money every month.

They had long been accustomed to finding a place to lie down, pretending to shout a few times, and they could get a month's income for others in one day.

Lanse once talked to a friend about this. That friend was in this line of work. He asked, is there anyone forcing ordinary people to do this?

His friend told him, almost none, because there is no need at all.

Everyone has a change in mentality. He will recruit many young girls to work in his company.

It's all normal work, and the income is okay, but the work is not easy.

At first, almost all the girls didn't think about going further, but when they found that they worked hard for a month and only had three or four thousand, while those girls who were willing to take another step forward had thousands of dollars in tips in one night, they fell into the trap.

Can't compare, if you compare, you're finished.

They will consider taking another step forward. After all, it's just entering the room, not really doing anything, and the income can be increased a lot.

Some people tried to do so, and then they succeeded, as if they had entered another class from one class.

In a high-income environment, they began to consume without a plan and began to experience a beautiful life they had never experienced before. They are no longer as simple as they used to be.

When they realized that as long as they were willing to take another step forward, one or two million a year was easy, they couldn't stop the car.

From the moment they stared into the abyss, they actually already entered the abyss.

So there is no need to force anything at all. They will even walk faster than others think!

Just like at this moment, Lanse can already imagine that it won't be long before sexual transactions will become the most mainstream trade here.

Compared to letting ordinary girls do this, he actually prefers to let refugees do this, at least they really need money to maintain their family's livelihood, not money to squander.

The news of the Federation's garrison in Jincheng quickly spread, and some reporters took pictures of their daily training. After a period of silence, the Dantela Republic made its final request again.

Requesting the federal government to immediately revoke the garrison plan and close the Jincheng naval base.

But obviously, this is impossible.

This relates to the federal government and Congress's next-stage plan. The Dantela Republic subsequently officially announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the Federation, while warning the federal government that if the federal navy appears in the waters near the Dantela Republic, they will regard this behavior as "declaring war".

This intense reaction just happened to satisfy Congress and the Presidential Palace.

Actually, the federal government is very "arrogant" now. They all hope that the Dantela Republic will announce that it has entered a state of war, so that "passive response" can allow them to obtain relatively better perception among the people.

No one likes war profiteers who start wars, so starting a war must let the enemy move first, so they don't need to bear the accusation of "actively provoking war".

Next, many people have already thought that they only need to create a "misunderstanding", and then they can enter a state of war.

That kind of storm didn't come, but the oppression of the dark clouds pressing to the place where they could touch them with their hands had already arrived.

In November, every city had recruitment points for the Ministry of Defense. The local federal people's sentiment for joining the army was not particularly high, but illegal immigrants and refugees were different.

They were all signing up enthusiastically, especially the army, and the number of applicants was very large.

Some people analyzed the idea that the Federation would not send troops to Tanfite, so the army was safer, making the number of new recruits in the army explode.

Even near the refugee concentration point in the Xingang District of Jincheng, there were quite a few recruitment points.

However, following this, there were also some social activists active near the recruitment points. They advocated the concept that "refugees are not consumables" and hoped that refugee compatriots could treat this matter rationally.

Overall, it was useless, and it could be considered a landscape near the recruitment point.

With the arrival of December, the weather was close to zero, and sometimes there would be scattered snowflakes.

After more than a month of fermentation and preparation, the bidding for some government projects in the new urban area had ended, and they were also facing new problems.

The old industrial zone, how to demolish it, and when to demolish it.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 647 =====