1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 44 Political Futures

A few days later, both Scrooge and Rockefeller suddenly received an invitation relayed by Mr. Gardner. A new political party, the leader of the Republican Party, Lincoln, is going to Cleveland to conduct a propaganda activity. Some local Republican supporters served as a welcome reception for him. The old Whig Gardner was naturally invited, and under his activities, Scrooge and Rockefeller were also invited.

Scrooge certainly knows that the so-called welcome reception is nothing more than providing a place for politicians and rich people to meet, and to promote the marriage of politics and wealth. In a sense, it is also an election, and it is more important than the so-called one-person, one-vote elections.

In Scrooge’s previous life, many immature-thinking Tucson guys liked to equate democracy with votes, thinking that there would be democracy if one person, one vote. In fact, they do not understand that in the so-called democratic elections, pre-screening is much more important than the final referendum. As long as you carefully design a pre-election plan that will work before the election begins, you can ensure that no matter how the folks vote, the ones on stage are those who represent your interests.

In modern times, pre-screening is indispensable. If the so-called countries are of virtue like the Greek city-states, and there are no more than three to five hundred voters of the right age in the country, it would be fine if there is no pre-election. But, for example, a country with a population of tens of millions (we don’t take a country like China with a population of more than one billion, or a country like India with a population of only 100 million but with more than one billion voting animals). There are hundreds of thousands of people who are willing to be president. Then they come together to participate in the election. Everyone introduces own political ideas to the people of the country in turn. Eight hours a day, no repairs on holidays and holidays. Wow, after the introduction, it will be a lot. Years later, and then debate, and then wait until the time to vote, the great-grandchildren of the people across the country said one after another, after waiting for several generations, finally waited until the vote-what? The candidates are too old? No way, start over!

Since pre-selection is indispensable, the criteria for pre-selection are very important. For example, to hold a democratic election on the Qingqing Grassland, we determine such a pre-selection condition: “The length of the canine tooth must exceed 30 mm.” Well, the final candidates must be: Big Big Wolf, Big Red Wolf, Cousin Wolf, Cousin Wolf…Anyway, it is definitely a den of white-eyed wolves. Don’t laugh, this is not a joke. In human history, there have been democratic elections that have adopted similar standards. For example, in ancient Rome, it was stipulated in the Republic period that only people with a family property exceeding a certain number have the right to vote and be elected. And the more money, the more quotas will be allocated. If you are as rich as Alexander, who just robbed Darius, you alone have the legal right to cast 10,000 votes.

The beacon of freedom was just after the founding of the country, and the smoke of the independence war had just dissipated. The heroes who wrote the most magnificent and beautiful words in the “Declaration of Independence” began to discuss how to prevent future democracy from losing control (who loses control) I won’t talk about it), and began to discuss how to determine a reasonable pre-selection rule. Someone directly proposed and simply stipulated that only people with fixed assets of more than a few dollars can have the right to be elected and become members of Congress. Those selected in this way must be our people!

It’s just that this simple and unconscionable approach is too deceptive. Just as the standard of “hound teeth must exceed 35 mm” will inevitably be opposed by the sheep family, such a condition will definitely be met by those who held guns and the British desperately during the War of Independence, and now there are guns in their homes. There is no objection from so much money. So, Benjamin? Franklin resolutely opposed this motion and even ironically stated that if my property happened to allow me to be a member of Parliament, and on the night after my election, one of our donkeys died and my property was not enough to serve as a member of Parliament. , Should I resign for this? Who is the congressman? Is it a joke about me or the donkey?

So, is there a pre-selection method that looks fair but can also achieve good results?

Of course there is, that is the cost of participation. As long as the cost of participation in this game is high enough, those unstable factors that are not under control can naturally be eliminated in the preliminary selection.For example, a friend of ours named Shaotouqiang is going to participate in the election. He wrote a big sign himself, carried it on his shoulders, and advertised himself everywhere, and then suddenly his mobile phone rang:

“Ah, Boss Li, what’s the matter?”

“Strong bald! Where did you go?”

“I’m going to participate in the election, and I’m promoting myself on the street…” The bald-headed Qiang was interrupted before he finished speaking.

“Election shit! Have you cut your wood? If you don’t come back to chop the tree immediately, I will fire you and let you go to the street to eat the northwest wind!” Boss Li’s roar came over the phone, and the saliva in his mouth Xingzi seemed to follow the radio waves and sprayed out of the microphone, so that the bald head Qiang had to hold the phone away from his face.

“Don’t, don’t, Boss Li! I don’t choose anymore, I’ll be right back to chop the tree…”

As a result, most of the working class were successfully screened out.

What if there are still people who don’t give up, save a few years of money, and can support themselves without working for the time being? It doesn’t matter, we still have publicity barriers.

Advertising is very expensive. Advertising in newspapers, magazines, television, and the Internet requires a lot of money, which is not something that individuals can afford. So you must get the support of rich people, and they certainly won’t support you for no reason.

For example, you are an animal who intends to participate in the Qingqing Grassland election, but you do not have enough publicity fees, so you can only go to the rich “Prairie Wolf” club or the “Tiger Tiger” club to seek funding.

“Talk about your political opinions.”

“I think all animals are equal, no one has the right to eat anyone…”

“Get out! Bang!” So you fly out of the club’s gate with a flat sand and a wild goose backward, and you can see a big shoe print on your butt. So what kind of political views can be funded? That is of course such a political opinion:

“I think all animals are equal, and everyone has the right to eat each other arbitrarily.”

This is the best screening method. Anyone who promotes the heresy that bans wolves from eating sheep will be eliminated first under this screening mode. The rest, no matter how you choose, the ones chosen are all of us wolves, tigers and leopards!

Therefore, in the election, things like these welcome receptions are actually candidates who are clarifying their political views to the sponsors of the “Prairie Wolves” or “Forest Tigers” clubs, and are screened.

“Scrooge, are you planning to participate?” Rockefeller asked.

“Of course, are you going then?” Scrooge asked rhetorically.

“Of course I have to. Any changes in politics will affect the economy and our business. So I have to look at the wind.” Rockefeller said.

“John, your view is not entirely correct.” Scrooge said slowly, “We are not just looking at the wind when we get there, we are doing business.”

“Business? What business?” Rockefeller asked.

“Political futures.” Scrooge replied. Seeing that Rockefeller didn’t seem to understand it yet, Scrooge had to explain to him further:

“John, you also know that political changes will affect the economy and our business. In that case, why don’t we want to control such changes and let them change in a direction that is beneficial to us? For things that are completely uncontrollable such as changes in the weather, political changes are much more controllable. Think about it, if the future President of the United States should first consider our interests when specifying his policies, then our Will the business go down?”

“You mean to bribe those politicians? This is illegal! God teaches us…” Rockefeller opened his eyes wide.

Seeing the look Rockefeller deliberately made, Scrooge felt amused. Bribing political figures, bribing judges, bribing police. Isn’t these things one of the Magic Treasures that Rockefeller made his fortune in history? He actually pretended to be pure in front of himself?

“Believe you, I am so stupid and naive!” Scrooge said in his heart.

“Of course it didn’t mean that. I wouldn’t do such a thing that violates the law and may not be God’s law.” Scrooge immediately put on an obedient look. But he also understands that just as Rockefeller pretended to be pure but couldn’t lie to him, he knew that his words would definitely not lie to Rockefeller, because they are the kind of people who can trample all the norms of the world for 300% profit. people.

“Election is a very costly thing. Propaganda and organization need money. Without the funding of our bosses, no one can go on playing. Therefore, the candidate must please us or some of us. He must let us I believe that after he came to power, the policies implemented will benefit us. In a sense, our choice to support a certain political figure is like buying futures. Well, this is also a kind of futures, political futures.”

“Then what if he goes back on stage after coming to power?” Rockefeller asked. After asking, he immediately realized that he was talking stupid.

“Look, I’m talking stupid. This is not something he can repent. His party group will not allow him to repent. Because doing so will break the party group’s financial path. Without us, he belongs to The Caucus will first abandon him, and even kill him! This kind of futures is indeed risky, but the risk is not that those politicians will go back after they come to power.”

“Yes! Politicians always make people think that they like to talk is not counted. But the formation of this impression is actually mainly because they often betray their promises to ordinary voters. And the reason why they do this is because the cost of betraying this is very high. Low-ordinary people are always easy to deceive. And the cost of abandoning property owners is definitely not low.” Shi Gaozhi added