After finishing speaking, he asked casually: "Do you think there will be a day when civilians can just buy a plane ticket and fly from Linshui to Chang'an to have a look? Can you imagine? In twenty years Before, it would take half a year to go from the Western Continent to the Eastern Continent, waiting for the monsoon. But now, we can set off at any time, and we can travel back and forth in less than half a month."
"I believe that if the plane can be faster, it may be more convenient to go to Linshui." The secretary nodded. He really admired the technological progress of the Tang Empire, so he had no doubts. Profitable words.
He himself is even the epitome of the development of the Tang Empire: as a Qi native, if it were not for the Datang Empire and the schools of the Datang Empire, he would probably be nothing more than a petty official now.
"We are forcing businessmen to increase income for their employees, and at the same time we are building more consumption opportunities and a higher quality of life that workers hope to have... Workers will need more time for themselves..." Harry looked at received the application report submitted by the businessman group.
Although he does not support the requirement to apply for a legal increase in workers’ working hours mentioned in this report, he also does not support endless increases in welfare benefits for workers: “Then on the other hand...who will guarantee the interests of businessmen? In order to satisfy Workers’ demands are to allow them to rest more and make more money, and their demands will inevitably increase as time goes by. If two days’ rest a week is not enough, then three days’ rest will be required…”
"Now we have technical advantages that can meet such requirements. But when our technical advantages are compressed and overtaken... we want to find these workers to compress the conditions back and let these workers have four days off every month. Are they willing to live?" Then, Harry asked another question.
"I think they probably won't be willing." The secretary replied directly without thinking: Just kidding, who would be willing to give away the benefits?
Harry backhandedly gave an example to his secretary: "At that time, in order not to bear the risks of high welfare, businessmen will try their best to avoid these laws that are unfavorable to them. They will move away from Datang. The empire will invest in Chu State. After all, the Tang people have a transcendent status there, and local officials do not dare to offend these noble people of the Celestial Dynasty easily."
"Without risk-taking businessmen and factories, no matter how sophisticated the legal provisions we draft are, what's the use? When workers lose their jobs, they will become dissatisfied with the Tang Empire. At that point, what should we do? How to appease him?" Then Harry asked again, and the question he asked was still sharp.
"Uh..." Naturally, the secretary couldn't answer.
Harry didn't expect to get an answer from the other party. He just answered his own question and continued: "The answer is that there is no way! Businessmen are the people, workers are the people, and employers are the people." We are the people, and employees are also people... If we officials don't reconcile and grasp the balance, we will cause chaos in the world... And doing all this well is the reason why His Majesty supports us. Doing all this well is also our reason The reason these officers should exist!”
While puffing away his smoke, he explained the principles of being an official to his secretary: "If we don't serve well, don't know how to reconcile these contradictions, and don't think about how to make the entire empire run better, then we will soon... Destroy this empire together."
Because he knew that the secretary next to him would be transferred to another place to be an official in less than a year, becoming the deputy mayor or second-in-command of a certain city.
He will accumulate work experience there, and then apply what he has learned to help that city develop and grow. If he succeeds, he will be promoted to a chief official somewhere and then rise to the top; if he fails, he will be dismissed and embark on a different life path.
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Therefore, Harry felt that he should warn the other party that power is hard-won, and that controlling power is an honor, not the ultimate goal: "For a family and a class, it does not seem that uncomfortable for a country to be destroyed because of its own filth and despicability. But for an individual, after having such a huge power, he actually messed up everything. What a failure it is..."
Having said this, Harry closed his eyes: "When you die... you close your eyes and recall your life. You once had the hope of letting billions of people live and work in peace and contentment, but you failed... As a politician, As an official, are you willing?"
The secretary sitting over there knew that his boss was teaching him the principles of being an official. He lowered his head and said, "I understand..."
Seeing that the other party was very sensible, Harry stopped talking and brought the topic back to this matter: "Back to the matter itself, the reason why I don't care or ask about it is not me, you, or The labor supervision department does not know how serious the matter below is, but everyone is waiting for a suitable opportunity to intervene."
It wasn't that Harry was talkative, or that he was willing to talk so much. This is actually an "occupational disease" suffered by almost all officials in the Tang Empire. They must work hard to train officials after work, so as to ensure that the Tang Empire has enough officials to use...
Even so, the official system of the Tang Empire was still irreversibly getting younger. There is really no way, because there are too few qualified officials and it is too difficult to train.
"We are pretending to be deaf and mute, is it really because we are deaf or blind? No, not at all, we are manipulating!" Harry said as a cigarette was almost finished.
He glanced at the cigarettes with less than one-fifth left: "The businessmen below will go further and further with our connivance. They will secretly increase the working hours of the workers, squeeze their labor, and force the workers to follow their instructions. requirements to increase profits for merchants!”
After taking a greedy puff, he pressed the remaining cigarette butt into the ashtray: "The whole process is certain, because they are also human beings and have human nature. Greed is their essence, so things will definitely go according to our design. direction of development.”
"The workers' dissatisfaction will gradually increase, and they will awaken themselves! This will take a long process." When he said these words, Harry was like a god, playing with those merchants in the palm of his hand: " When public dissatisfaction boils throughout the empire and everyone’s focus is on the issue of unreasonable working hours, the labor supervision department will stand up, scare the monkeys, standardize management, and strictly enforce the four-day rest rule every month.”
"Look, we have punished lawbreakers, cracked down on violations, soothed public grievances, and standardized the original system... Are there any losses during this period?" He continued to ask, with a smile on his face.
The secretary shook his head: "No, no."
Harry then asked: "So, what have we gained compared to before?"
"..." The secretary couldn't think of what the officials could get for a moment.
Harry pressed his palms: "Okay, don't guess, I'll tell you! Everything has returned to the original point. The rest time has not been increased, and the interests of the merchants have been preserved. The regulations have been strictly enforced for a period of time, and the interests of the workers have been preserved... …”
He turned his palms so that his palms were facing up, and then turned them back: "To put it bluntly, it means letting go and taking a step back first, and then taking a step forward, so that you can stay where you are, so that when you face the cliff, When the time comes, you can ensure that you don’t go on.”
"Increasing workers' remuneration is like chopping off the fingers of businessmen. If the businessmen get hurt and run away, the workers will also be finished. So the way to check and balance is to go back and forth, up and down, and maintain the same." He said, Harry also moved his palms twice, making an ups and downs movement.
Having said this, he asked again: "According to the workers' opinions, merchants and investors have no way to survive. According to the merchants and consortium, workers are worse than slaves. If we collect agricultural products at the price that merchants are willing to pay, , are the farmers still alive? If we purchase grain according to the standards expected by farmers, do you believe that the price of rice can skyrocket?"
"But the country's image and credibility..." The only problem the secretary could think of in this matter was this.
Hearing what his secretary said, Harry had a look of approval on his face. The other party is a savvy person. Being able to think of this already explains a lot of problems.
This made Harry feel that what he had just said was meaningful, so more smiles appeared on his face.
After laughing, he continued: "Some people suffered a little loss during the overtime work, and some people took advantage of the strict management process... Generally speaking, public opinion is maintained in a delicate balance. Is this right? Isn’t it a relatively stable state?”
After finishing speaking, he leaned back in his chair: "Now, do you still think that letting workers work one more hour a day is a trivial matter? No, it can almost affect the life or death of a country!"
"Think carefully, make choices carefully, and don't make decisions easily when you are unsure. As an official of the Tang Empire, every action you take must be perfect!" After Harry finished speaking, he felt a little bit Tired: "Let someone remind this business group and make them restrain themselves."
"Yes! I will do it immediately." The secretary understood and stood up to say goodbye.
"Go! If you remember everything today, go and tell your junior brothers!" Harry did not intend to repeat what he said to his secretary today to others, so he waved his hand and ordered.
