mtl008 Chapter 3294 Bloody New City (43)
Chapter 3294 Bloody New City (43)
Chapter 3294 Bloodshed in New City (Forty-three)
Of course, the rich wouldn't be so kind as to give money directly to the Pale Knight. Municipal funds were all deposited into the city government's account in the name of donations. And those employees who had previously gone on strike have also returned. This means that the money is still managed by agents sent by the elite.
However, don’t worry about who is in charge of the money. At least there is money in the account.
Moreover, will the agents who manage this money really be selfless and dedicated, burning themselves out, not taking a penny from it, and not spending a penny on improving the quality of their working environment?
Of course this is impossible. No one is a saint. People who do this have no faith and are not here to serve the public. Since I am in charge of the money, why can't I use the city government's money to buy myself the best quality toilet paper? Why can't I install two more air conditioners in the office? Why can't I hire two more cleaners to help me clean my workstation?
Most of these small leaders who were placed in the municipal government by the elites thought so and did so.
People in different departments also benefit each other. You are responsible for selecting the coffee brand, and you choose the most expensive one, and then you send each office a most professional coffee machine. Then I will book a hotel for you on your business trip, and naturally I will book the best one, and I will provide a special car to pick you up. Everyone gets things done comfortably.
As for how much money is spent, who cares? If I don't spend it, it won't go into my pocket. If I spend more, I can get more from it.
But this involves a problem, that is, if everyone takes it, the atmosphere will be harmonious and pleasant. If one person does not take it, it will be a bit awkward.
If this person is the mayor, the situation will be even more ugly. When the Pale Knight questioned the necessity of the coffee equipment in her office, which was more professional than that in a cafe, for the sixth time, Ms. Weiss couldn't help herself.
Ms. Weiss folded her hands in front of her, stood at the door and looked at the Pale Knight and said, "I have worked in the city government for 36 years and will retire soon. You are the best mayor I have ever seen."
"So I hope you understand that the common people in this world, although not as smart as you, are not stupid either. Although not as kind, they are not all bad enough to lose their humanity either."
"You are very strict with yourself, but if you impose this requirement on us, we can't do it. Not everyone can sacrifice as much as you do for justice and fairness."
"Within our capacity, we are willing to provide convenience to others and help those who are worse off than us, so as to satisfy our self-worth. But we can't do more, and you can't always expect us to do so."
“If you want to continue to be the best mayor, you can’t always ask us to be selfless, but you must learn to accept and utilize our very limited kindness that belongs to ordinary citizens. This will make the city government run well, which is good for you and the city.”
After Ms. Weiss left, the Pale Knight thought a lot. He was a person who was very good at self-reflection, and gradually realized the problems he had been having.
He is a man who takes it for granted that he will stand up for justice and sacrifice himself to help the poor.
This may be because he used to be the Joker. Although he has no memories of the Joker, he is using the Joker's body after all. He feels that he should be responsible for the evil things that the Joker did before, so he has this Jesus-like idea of sacrifice.
He is undoubtedly arrogant. He feels that through his steadfast sacrifice, he can save others and has a very strong savior complex.
From another perspective, he actually believes that the people in this city have no way to save themselves.
This kind of thinking is actually common in people's lives. When people see the weak, they will think that they are so weak and pitiful, and if they don't help them, they will definitely die.
But this is actually a subjective conjecture, lacking strong evidence and logical thinking.
This is a typical misconception - people can save someone regardless of whether he will die if no one saves him. Therefore, few people take the effort to carefully investigate the real difficulties faced by the rescued person and his ability to save himself. But this is actually very important.
If you don't do the above investigation, there is a very good chance that you won't be able to help people in the right way. In serious cases, you may even end up doing something bad with good intentions, leading to the tragedy of the farmer and the snake.
The Pale Knight had a similar idea before. No matter what the plight of Gotham people is, whether they have tried to save themselves, and how they have saved themselves, he can save them. He has also partially succeeded.
Because of this success, he neglected the above problems even more, so that when his rescue operation came to a standstill, he didn't know which direction to work towards.
There are many subjects in this world that do not have ultimate answers, just like mathematics has no formula that unifies everything, physics has no universal truth, and chemistry has no ether factor.
They don't even have ultimate problems, no problems that, once completely solved, would declare that the discipline has reached its end.
But sociology does. The ultimate question of sociology is how to eliminate the poor in the world. In short, it is poverty alleviation.
This is an extremely complex problem that encompasses all the knowledge of sociology and all its related disciplines. The threshold for studying this problem is very high, because there are too many prerequisites before this problem, such as how to keep people alive, how to stabilize society, how to give birth to a group of people capable of poverty alleviation in this society, etc.
The theme of the Pale Knight is "salvation", but this word is a bit too broad. After all, the elites in this city do not need to be saved by him, so the target group is basically the poor. So what he is doing now can also be called "poverty alleviation."
There is an essential difference between the two. If we regard his actions as the "rescue" of Jesus in the myth, then he has done it perfectly. He stood up, gained people's support, and achieved certain results. From motivation to results, he is impeccable and fits the definition of a savior.
But if you look at what he did from the perspective of "poverty alleviation," then it can be said that he did a terrible job.
Because he did not do any social research, nor did he even understand the details of that extremely complex issue. He just did some "poverty alleviation" in the traditional sense.
At first glance, it seems to be right: increase taxes on the rich, reduce taxes on the poor, strengthen social security, build welfare facilities, provide more benefits to vulnerable groups, strengthen control over various types of enterprises, and avoid rapid capital expansion.
But if you look closely, you will find that these policies are somewhat feudal and relatively backward. It is not that this is a bad thing, but it does not take advantage of any advantages of modern society and is still a tax-free and relief system.
Every dynasty of a certain Eastern country has done this, but it did not prevent their fate of extinction. Even in modern times, some people have done this. Although Roosevelt succeeded in extending the life of the United States, it eventually collapsed completely because it was not advanced enough.
The main reason why these policies are good but not long-lasting is that those who implement them are in high positions and they only do things that they think are good for the poor.
These things may indeed be good for the poor, but they may not be good for the poor in every region and in every situation. They may be good in the beginning but bad in the end. While being good for one poor person, they may harm another poor person. Even if it seems to be good for the poor, it may end up being good for the rich.
The inequality caused by this execution gap is actually another form of exploitation, which allows one group of poor people to stand up by stepping on the heads of another group of poor people and become the new exploiters. In essence, it is not poverty alleviation, but a battle royale game, and in the end it is still a zero-sum game rather than a win-win situation.
Sometimes, this inequality is not because there are too few supplies and we can help some but not others, but because of a lack of investigation and the strategy is based only on the subjective assumptions of those in high positions.
It is very simple to avoid this situation, that is, to conduct a full investigation, go deep into the grassroots, and adapt to local conditions. In this way, the resources required may be less than the average large-scale money-spending, and the least money can be used to do the most things.
The Pale Knight has been thinking recently whether he really lacks understanding of the poor.
In the past, he thought that he himself was not born into a rich family, and he also climbed up from the bottom, so how could he not understand the poor?
But now he found that this was not the case. Rich people are all the same, but poor people are all poor in their own way.
I am poor because I was born in a small town, have no roots, am weak, and get bullied. Why are there so many local poor strong men in Gotham?
I am poor because I didn't go to college, didn't receive higher education, and couldn't find a good job. Then why are there so many homeless people who have gone to college in Gotham?
I am poor because of my mental illness. I can't control myself a lot of the time, so I can't live a normal life. But there are more poor people with normal mental health in Gotham. Why are they poor?
Not only the poor, but also all the middle-class employees working in the city government, why haven't they become the elite class? Why are they still poor compared to the top rich?
When the Pale Knight really began to think about these issues, he realized that what people often say, seeing is believing, or practice makes perfect, actually has certain limitations.
What you can see may not be understood, what you understand may not be experienced personally, and what you experience personally may not be universally applicable.
If there is one thing that makes sense, it is “without investigation, there is no right to speak.”
Now that the city government had just resumed operations, the Pale Knight could not leave too far, so he decided to start his investigation from his own area.
Ms. Weiss had a very good temper. When the Pale Knight first took over the city government, she helped him a lot. No matter who she belonged to, at least she was willing to remind the Pale Knight.
The culprit who made her speak up... The Pale Knight turned his head and looked at the coffee machine. This thing filled the kitchen of the lounge and looked more like an industrial assembly line.
The Pale Knight racked his brains but couldn't figure out why this thing was necessary. But since Ms. Weiss reminded him of his dissatisfaction, it meant that she thought this thing was necessary.
Why is it necessary?
The Pale Knight really couldn't figure it out, so he called his assistant and asked him to investigate in detail how this overly professional coffee machine got here and what its current condition was.
The assistant came back after a while.
His expression was calm as he handed over the report, but when the Pale Knight saw it, he spat out a mouthful of coffee.
He looked at his assistant in shock and said, "For just one coffee machine, there are twelve mechanical maintenance workers and four cleaners???"
"Yes. This is a commercial multi-head espresso machine made by Synesso, one of their latest Victorian Vintage X series, which offers the highest temperature stability and product quality. To make this machine produce the most perfect coffee, it needs professional maintenance. There are not many people who can do this."
The Pale Knight accepted this statement very, very, very reluctantly. He turned a page and then said, "Maintenance and cleaning staff are fine, but what about the historical consultant?"
"Oh, this is so that when you use this machine to entertain guests and tell them about the history of espresso and the history of coffee machine brands, someone can give you professional advice."
The Pale Knight opened his mouth, but this time he couldn't even force himself. He pointed to the line below and said, "Okay, forget about this. Then what are the supporting equipment for this professional disinfection room?"
"Mr. Mayor, such a large machine cannot be cleaned in its entirety here. It must be disassembled for professional cleaning and disinfection. The disinfection room is prepared for this."
"That's fine. But this machine was only delivered yesterday, and it has already consumed 100,000 liters of disinfectant..."
The assistant coughed twice and said, "Maybe there was a coffee machine like this in the previous municipal building, but you just haven't used it."
"That's not right," the Pale Knight said. "I auctioned off everything in the old municipal building. If there was a coffee machine like this, how could I not know about it?"
“Are you sure it’s everything?”
The Pale Knight was really stumped by the question. All the things were transported by Schiller, how could he know if they were all the things?
So he had no choice but to call Schiller and said, "Hello, Schiller? When you were demolishing the municipal building, did you see a coffee machine with a brand that started with S?"
"What?...Oh, that one. I've seen it before. It was accidentally broken while being loaded onto a truck, so I sold it as scrap metal."
The assistant immediately breathed a sigh of relief, but then rolled his eyes again.