Chapter 407: Chapter 131: What to Do with Excessive Production Capacity? Of course, dump it internationally.
Diaz, sitting on the stool, finished reading his script, swallowed hard, and looked back at Lin Miao, who was seated at the same table as Michelle.
"I... I’ve finished reading."
Lin Miao smiled, stood up, and patted the Haitian’s shoulder warmly, saying,
"You read well."
He then gestured for the person to step down so someone else could come up and read the script.
From the gang’s insiders to friends and relatives, even their mothers, brothers, and sisters all took turns to say a few words.
Lin Miao did not force them: he just didn’t want too many Haitians to die, making everyone’s faces look bad.
He also promised the Haitian residents that if Brigitte and those who committed crimes were handed over and the Voodoo Gang disbanded, the assets within the bases would be taken away by him as compensation, and the matter would be concluded.
Diaz cautiously glanced at Michelle behind Lin Miao. Only after the old man nodded did he put down the manuscript, bow his head, and walk out of the tent, letting a woman come in to continue reading the next script; she was someone’s mother from the community.
This psychological warfare has good effects on the disadvantaged side, especially groups with both moral and power disadvantages, not to mention the close ties among the Haitians, making their surrender not difficult.
After all, a dreadful life is better than a good death, many just need some way out and not genuinely want to resist you to the end.
"So, Mr. Lin." Michelle said,
"Let’s continue discussing the previous matter."
He had dealt with Internet Supervisors, AI, and companies numerous times, understanding that companies are the least trustworthy among these three groups.
For profits, they can tear up newly signed contracts any time or play games with you using hundreds of verbal tricks to tamper with contracts, then let the legal team pin you down directly.
Now, under the dual pressure of Internet Supervisors and Lin Miao, it is a foregone conclusion that the Haitians will discard the Voodoo Gang as a weapon, losing their biggest bargaining chip.
However, Michelle doesn’t consider this a loss.
The Voodoo Gang should be the Haitians’ Voodoo Gang, not Brigitte’s or some roving AI’s Voodoo Gang; if it’s corrupted, it should be destroyed, not dragging the whole community to hell with it.
The current problem is how to extract maximum remaining value from it to give back to the Haitians before it’s destroyed.
This is also why he is willing to let people come here and read Lin Miao’s persuasion scripts.
"You and the Internet Supervisor promised to resettle my fellow countrymen. I hope you don’t mind telling me some specific details."
Lin Miao sat back in the chair, glancing at Placid outside the door who was eavesdropping, since Brigitte fled, he had been slumped with a depressed demeanor, and still no intention of distancing himself now.
As long as he is around, the Haitians can always assemble a new Voodoo Gang, perhaps even linking up with the drifters in Dogtown through Michelle.
However, Lin Miao still doesn’t know that there’s a Voodoo Gang sub-base in Dogtown.
"It’s like this, sir." Lin Miao placed his hands on the table, slowly saying,
"I, with Night City Government and military technology, have two new projects, both major constructions with a large demand for workers, and the projects will last a long time. If you don’t mind, the Haitians living here can completely apply to become workers."
Although he really doesn’t want to get involved with Blue Eyes, but since it’s already like this, he can only endure for now; after all, whose money isn’t money?
Michelle was somewhat surprised; this could count as insider information.
"Can you tell me more about it?"
Before the Haitian earthquake, Michelle, Phillips, and others were among the few Haitian college graduates and hackers, considered the highest educational achievers among the current thousand Haitians over the past decades.
Cultured people~~
"Two projects, one in Stone Ridge Mountain near the Evil Land, I and the city government plan to build a large garbage recycling plant there, responsible for recycling Night City and outside’s residential and industrial waste."
"The other one is relatively far away, 144 kilometers from Night City in Big Sur, where we plan to construct a water plant."
"You want us to pick garbage in a garbage mountain?"
Michelle frowned, when negotiating with companies, one must lower expectations, and finding people to pick garbage is not only Lin Miao’s task, Zeta Technology likes to call on vagrants to pick pollutants in biochemical zones to exchange for money.
No safety measures, very easy to become ill and die, diseases like cancer, leukemia, or even radiation sickness are possible.
Yet generally vagrants don’t survive more than 4 years, they might die before falling sick, and simply give up.
"Of course not, what could efficiency be with just two human hands?"
Lin Miao interrupted Michelle’s wild thoughts,
"It’s purely mechanical automation work."
"In the city, we’ll reach agreements with various companies and the city council to arrange vehicles for collection every morning and evening, while using industrial vehicles for excavation at the garbage mountain."
"After transporting back to the factory, it goes through mechanical sorting, washing, and recycling. Workers are to operate the control panels, maintain equipment, and drive."
The use of automation equipment generally comes down to two considerations.
One, it’s because humans are cheaper than machines, plus the emergence of prosthetics reduces efficiency gaps between them, and the cost of prosthetics is transferred to workers through loans and other means.
Besides, when a person dies there’s no compensation needed, unlike broken equipment which requires repair costs; it’s a dispute similar to ones between Southern slave owners and Northern capitalists.
Just that automated machines have replaced slaves as personal property, while workers for various reasons have returned to pre-WWI conditions, even worse, and overdeveloped capital has conversely suppressed automation trends.