Chapter 408: Chapter 131: What to Do with Excessive Production Capacity? Of course, dump it internationally._2
Another concern is employment rates and consumer demand, with fears that high automation might require only a few workers to maintain societal functions, leading to insufficient consumer power, unsold products, and triggering an economic crisis.
Low employment rates could lead to social instability and even riots.
After all, who can guarantee what a bunch of unemployed adult males might hatch up in a bar?
However, the cyber world doesn’t need to worry about the latter because corporations can suppress riots with impunity without facing social issues.
Night City is a major city with a population of 7 million.
And what about Lin Miao?
Does he need to consider these issues?
The answer is not at all.
You ask me what to do with excess workers?
Just build more factories, start more projects, and shove the workers in.
You ask me what if overproduction leads to market collapse, with product prices plummeting and companies going bankrupt, ready to fight Lin Miao?
Ha, like I care.
If you’re not happy, just come fight me. I want to see rivers of blood.
Isn’t that what you always love to do?
You can’t just believe in Hayek’s invisible hand only when the rules work in your favor.
As long as I ensure a self-sufficient industry cycle, gripping the markets, armies, and currency in my hands, using AI to calculate and regulate all material needs and logistics for the entire region, maximizing productivity, what difference does it make how many products the factories produce?
At worst, use the excess to swamp foreign markets.
You say you won’t buy?
Then I’ll simply convert the excess factories to military production and flip the world upside down.
Once Earth is done, we’ll take the Moon, and after the Moon, the Solar System. The future colonization of the Milky Way Galaxy offers plenty of places to wreak havoc.
Player: Come, come, you dog breeds, die beneath my divine thunder!
"Evil Land? Big Sur?"
Michelle was surprised to hear these two place names; he thought it would be within Night City, but hearing such a distant location suddenly filled him with worry and hesitation.
"Yes, civil engineering to build factories first, along with worker training."
Lin Miao saw what he was worried about.
"We’ll build dormitories for the workers first, not very nice but definitely better than the slums you currently live in. Evil Land will have a day and a half off weekly, with company shuttles available to take you into the city and back home."
"Big Sur will give five days off a month. I’ll write it all in the contract, and everyone must sign."
"And I have lots of rules: anyone who dares to make trouble, just get out, you know."
No matter how the salary might be, just with these rest days, there’s no fear of not being able to recruit workers in Night City, where the city folks are unemployed vagrants from companies. The fact that these semi-literate Haitians have an opportunity to get trained and employed is already a big concession.
"Salary will tentatively be settled monthly."
Michelle asked, "Monthly? Why not pay daily or weekly?"
The main worry is no safety net working for companies, with withheld wages being far too common. Haitians have suffered from this before—after the work was done, contractors ran away, and when they asked the main party for money, they were beaten up, ending up with no pay but injuries.
Daily pay carries minimal risk; without pay, workers can strike tomorrow.
"What I need isn’t those low-level manual laborers, but trained long-term skilled workers. I have to invest upfront—what if someone runs off? Who do I turn to then?"
"Giving you a monthly wage is already the biggest concession. I don’t want people who spend all their earnings at bars, brothels, and casinos. And anyone who’s overdosed on drugs shouldn’t think of coming to work until they’re cleaned up."
Lin Miao even thought about paying them every half year or annually.
Why?
It’s simply because he fears they’ll take their money to indulge in vice, gambling, drugs, or over-immersing in braindances, spending it all in seconds and ending up in debt with high interest loans.
These things can completely destroy a person’s motivation both mentally and physically, rendering them incapable of working.
If Lin Miao had the capability now, he’d cut these vices off at the source.
While Lin Miao and Michelle discussed the future of Haitians, the sound of speech reading beside them never stopped, and both sides had already accepted the collapse of Brigitte’s Voodoo Gang as a fact.
As for her personal opinions, they no longer mattered; she could only become part of the Haitians’ united front value.
...
The more words that came from outside the tunnel, the lower the morale of the Voodoo Gang members holding the fort, especially with the suffocating black smoke and rising temperatures making more and more people start to complain.
"It’s getting hotter in here..."
"It smells so bad..."
"Why don’t we surrender... if we don’t get out soon, they’ll be able to trap us here indefinitely..."
The earlier complaints were fine, but when someone mentioned the word surrender, a hacker among the crowd suddenly scolded loudly.
"You think surrendering will make them let you go? As soon as you drop your weapons and leave, you’ll be gunned down by those mercenaries."
"Those people are madmen, or have you forgotten how they slaughtered our brethren?"
Upon hearing this, the Haitians suddenly recalled the scene of players rushing out of the sea of feces, and immediately shivered.
Seeing his words were effective, the Voodoo Gang hacker snorted coldly.
"If they were so kind-hearted, would they do something like bombing the sewers to flood us with sewage?"
"Wait until Brigitte drives out the invading hackers, then she’ll lead us out to kill."
At this point, due to the rising temperature, their damp clothes began drying but brought forth more stifling air and unpleasant skin sensations. The hot and humid environment made people increasingly irritable.