Chapter 253 Swain's Zaun Investigation
The car passed through the construction site and the road under construction and continued to move forward.
On the way, Swain thought for a long time and had many feelings.
Suddenly, he looked at the numerous shops flashing by on the street and said to the driver, "Stop the car."
The car suddenly stopped. Amystan asked in confusion: "General Swain, what are you going to do?"
"I want to get off the car and take a walk." Now that he was here, Swain decided to learn more about Zaun and the Wind Leader.
After all, you can only see a tiny part of the picture when sitting in the car. If you want to know more, you still have to get off the car and have a sincere conversation with the locals.
"Well... let's have lunch here." Swain fixed his eyes on a busy snack bar on the street. There were many customers here, and the atmosphere was lively, perfect for chatting with people.
"Okay." Amystan nodded. "Then I'll wait for you in the car and won't follow you. You know, I'm a 'celebrity' in Zaun."
As the biggest reactionary leader in the Twin Cities, her face has been on the newspapers, making her familiar and hated by countless Zaun people.
If Amystan had gone with him, Swain would not have been able to conduct his "New Zaun Investigation" in a low-key manner.
So Swain got out of the car alone, leaning on his crutches and taking shaky steps, and slowly walked into the snack bar along the street.
"Oh, old man, please sit down!"
The acting skills of this strategist leader fooled everyone.
The snack bar owner thought that Swain was really a disabled old man with a broken arm who had difficulty walking, so he quickly came forward and helped him to the seat closest to the counter in the store.
Swain sat down, and without him having to speak, the talkative snack bar owner locked his eyes on him - to be precise, at the red-eyed crow on his shoulder.
"Hey, old man, why is there a bird standing on your shoulder? It looks just like our President Levi."
"Haha." At this moment, Swain did not have the accent of an imperial noble, nor the majesty of a famous general who had fought many battles. He just looked like a retired old man walking his bird in a cage. He blended in with these ordinary people of Zaun without any sense of incongruity.
He looked at the crow on his shoulder and just smiled and replied: "It's my pet. I take it with me wherever I go."
"That's what President Levi said the last time he came." The snack bar owner said with a smile, "But who would have thought that the blue bird was the incarnation of the goddess Janna!"
"Oh?" Swain could sense the deliberate boasting in his boss's voice.
He also added at the right time: "President Li Wei also had dinner here?"
"Of course!" the snack bar owner said proudly, "When he came last time, Zaun had not yet been liberated, and the Wind Leader Association had just been established. My snack bar is not a store, but a snack stand."
"At that time, President Levi came to Zaan to conduct a social survey. He was hungry at noon and happened to pass by my snack stand. He smelled the fragrance coming from our stand..."
The boss talked incessantly about a clichéd origin story of the food, and took the opportunity to introduce his exclusive specialty to Swain, which was said to be the "President's Frog", which even Levi praised after eating.
In fact, this is just ordinary pickled devil's claw frog.
But since Levi has eaten it, this dish will probably have to be called "President's Demonic Swamp Frog" from now on.
"You dare to sell a silver wheel just by adding the name of 'President'. Boss, why don't you just rob it?" Swain joked.
He had been to the Twin Cities before and knew the prices in Piltover and Zaun. When did a mutant frog fished out of a stinking ditch dare to be sold for a silver wheel?
"Hey, old man, you are from another place, right?" The boss was unhappy: "Look, where are the magic frogs now? The stinky ditches have been cleaned up along with the garbage. Now we raise our own frogs. You think it's too expensive, and I think it's too expensive too."
"Also, based on the current salary level in Zaun, is a silver wheel still expensive?"
really.
When Swain saw that the shop was almost full of customers, he knew that the boss was telling the truth. This silver wheel frog was not a luxury item, and even the most ordinary Zaun people could afford it.
The leaders completed industrial upgrading in a short period of time, and the excess profits brought by industrial upgrading raised the average salary of manufacturing workers. The improvement of the consumption capacity of manufacturing workers also boosted the income of surrounding service industry workers, so the people of Zaun had money and could pursue a higher quality of life. Ultimately, a positive feedback loop was formed.
But this is not worthy of Swain's praise.
Because this gameplay was originally what Piltover had left. Not to mention that the so-called industrial upgrade of the Leader was snatched from the Piltover tycoon by force.
Although this made the people of Zaun rich quickly, this not-so-new style of play could not reflect the uniqueness and superiority of the Leader.
“Speaking of which…” Swain looked at the snack bar owner.
He felt a familiar feeling from this boss. Well, a shrewd businessman from Piltover.
He didn't expect that in Zaun under the rule of the Leader, the business atmosphere among the people was so strong.
“Does the Wind Leader allow you to do business privately?” Swain asked curiously.
"Of course." The snack bar owner said, "Why can't we do business as a small business?"
“But the Wind Leader doesn’t seem very friendly to merchants.” Swain probed subtly.
"That's referring to the big wealthy families. We are just small property owners who make a living on our own." To Swain's surprise, the snack bar owner turned out to be an knowledgeable person.
He explained to Swain earnestly: "The Wind Leader protects the small property owners."
Small restaurants, small shops, small handicraft shops, these small production units are the capillaries of the social economy.
If the trend-setter manages to defeat them, more effort will have to be put into building countless state-owned stores to fill the vacancies left by these numerous small production units.
However, the leaders now simply do not have that many grassroots cadres with reliable beliefs and strong abilities. With their limited administrative capabilities, they are far from being able to completely replace the role of the market.
So at present, it seems that both the market and the small property owners are still necessary to exist.
“But…” The snack bar owner knows his business, and Swain knows his business even better.
He had read "Jana Thought" thoroughly in order to understand his enemy, and he could not help but point out: "In the market environment, as time goes by, small property owners will surely give birth to big seed ben families in an endless stream."
It’s a very simple truth. Who doesn’t want to grow bigger and stronger as a businessman?
If everyone is allowed to run small businesses, then the winners in the competition among these small business owners will sooner or later expand their businesses.
Just like the Talis family, weren't they also small businessmen doing hammer business at the beginning? As a result, they met a genius heir like Jayce, and the Talis family became a first-class tycoon in Piltover in just a few years.
Jace is a man of noble character, and the money the Tallis family earned was naturally clean.
But Jace will die sooner or later. The Tallis family, which has become a tycoon, will not die. Who can guarantee that after Jace is gone, the Tallis family will not become a dragon like the Fellowes family?
There is no solution to this problem.
"That's not a problem!" The snack bar owner said confidently, "Our Zaun is the world of the Leaders - those big seed benzene companies that have grown their businesses in Zaun must be transformed by the Leaders and accept 'cooperation' before they can continue their business."
“Cooperation?” Swain was curious.
"A so-called joint venture means..." That is, the leader holds shares in the enterprise, but the corresponding production costs of the enterprise must also be borne by the leader.
30% of the company's net profit must be handed over to Zuan Municipal Government, the remaining 10% is used as employee bonuses, and 10% to 30% is used as corporate provident funds as employee retirement benefits. Entrepreneurs and original shareholders, as private individuals, only receive 25% of the dividends.
“This…” Swain understood.
This is a disguised form of redemption and a mild form of nationalization of private enterprises.
Although the proportion of dividends received by the joint venture owners is reduced, the leader will also bear the production costs and help make the pie bigger, so the pie that the business owners get in the end may not be much smaller. Therefore, entrepreneurs are also motivated to expand their business and do a good job.
This would satisfy the small property owners while preventing private companies from expanding indefinitely and taking control of Zuan.
But here’s the thing…
"But if this happens, wouldn't all the big businesses in Zaun be monopolized by the leader?"
It’s just a state-owned enterprise. Swain from the Noxian Empire is very familiar with it.
In his view, this form of enterprise is synonymous with rigidity and inefficiency.
When Noxus first started building state-owned enterprises, it had demonstrated amazing efficiency. But it wasn't long before these giant enterprises were filled with aristocratic families and corrupt bureaucrats, and became so corrupt that they completely lost their vitality and became manure-producing machines that devoured the empire's tax revenue.
"No, you are wrong." said the snack bar owner.
"Is rigidity and inefficiency really a problem only faced by state-owned enterprises? No, in fact, all large enterprises, whether private or public, have such problems."
"There's always been a saying in Piltover that there's a 'big business disease'. I'm sure you've heard of it, right?"
Having witnessed the corruption in Noxus, Swain subconsciously believed that private enterprises in Piltover were better than government-run ones.
But in fact, any enterprise, especially private enterprise, is the most autocratic and feudal place in the world.
The company is owned by the boss alone, and the boss is the emperor of the company.
Managers and executives are nobles who are dependent on the emperor, and employees are soldiers who obey the orders of the nobles.
Therefore, when the company is relatively small in size, facing fierce market competition, everyone can still unite as one and make the company bigger and stronger.
Once a company grows bigger and has more people, management needs become more complex, and the internal bureaucracy matures...
“All sorts of problems immediately arose.”
"This is the same problem as the state-owned enterprises, or even the problems faced by the countries and dynasties of Runeterra. There is no essential difference between the two."
Ultimately , it is a question of selfishness and public-spiritedness.
How to solve this problem?
Faced with this problem, can private entrepreneurs really do better?
"No--"
"From ancient times to the present, over thousands of years, the only one who can truly solve this problem is our leader chosen by the God of Janna!"
