0151 Donations and food tokens

  This matter of Mark representing the mayor to take a stake in the Star Trading Corporation might be hard to understand in the eyes of some ordinary people, but in reality it was quite normal because there were other things that ordinary people might not have even heard of that were happening.

  Some people jokingly say that the last second of every general election in Baylor Federation is the moment when a new consortium is born, Baylor Federation has a history of more than 300 years since the founding of the country, and a total of 52 presidents have been welcomed.

  Why 52, because some some presidents accidentally downstairs when the foot seriously injured and passed away, or in the seaside fishing by a gust of wind into the sea disappeared without a trace, or ...

  Anyway, there are always some people who are not so lucky, but that's normal, that's life, isn't it?

  In addition to these unlucky presidents, behind every other president there is basically the shadow of the consortium, for example, the Federation is more familiar with the "Jerry & Dace", a typical president and the birth of the consortium.

  This consortium before and after a total of three politicians to support them on the stage in the Federation's history of the glorious moment, but also because they support out of the three presidents, so "Jerry & Dice" more than a hundred years have never encountered trouble.

  No one knows when they will elect a new president for the Federation, the fourth president of their group.

  Oh yes, by the way, these three presidents are the son of the founder of "Jerry & Des", his son's grandson, and his son's grandson's son, they are family!

  Sometimes political power and capital power are like fire and water, but sometimes there is no distinction between them. This is the Baylor Federation, a land of sweet-smelling freedom!

  In that case, the mayor's shareholding in Star Trading Corporation became less alarming, and it was still his nephew, Mark, who accomplished this, and Lynch believed that once there was a problem, Mark would immediately stand up and apologize to the community.

  Because he had done these horrible things without his uncle's knowledge, his uncle, Mr. Mayor, would never easily forgive anyone who broke the laws and rules, even if that person was his nephew.

  If these horrible things had not happened, if Star Trading Corporation had been able to keep making profits in a relatively appropriate way, perhaps in the future Lynch and this company of his would have also become part of a certain consortium composed of a certain person, of course the mayor couldn't have been the president, and the centerpiece of the centerpiece would have been his superiors or superiors.

  At this point Lynch was long past that cynical age, he didn't feel offended, instead he felt it was a good thing that Mark could be allowed to do some of the things he wasn't good enough to do after Mark had taken a stake in the company.

  There was no one better suited for the role, and many people would feel that Mark represented the Mayor, and that even if there was trouble, he had to take care of it himself, and couldn't bother Mark, because bothering Mark was the same as bothering the Mayor, but Lynch wouldn't see it that way.

  Everyone knows that when Mark represents the mayor, when Mark comes out, it also means the mayor's attitude, and he should not even say anything, just stand by his side!

  Skimming over this too small to mention, the next day Lynch met with the mayor, it was a charity gala, technically it was indeed, the local socialites of Sabine were basically there.

  The number of people wasn't too big, a few hundred people, the upper circle of a city of 800,000 people could only accommodate these few hundred people, of which there were still almost half to 1/3 of them, just because their male or female companions had the opportunity to get into this hall, they themselves didn't have that kind of power anymore, which would make the actual number of people in the upper circle even smaller.

  Lynch sat in a slightly back seat, his age, his career, his wealth was not enough for him to make it to that eye-catching position in the very center of the first row, but there were advantages to sitting at the back, at least the small movements of those well-dressed ladies and gentlemen in front of him could be captured in his eyes.

  The theme of this charity gala tonight was to help some of the unemployed through their current difficulties by making donations; the unemployment rate in Sabine had reached the dreadful figure of sixteen percent, and there were already cases of people starving to death.

  This was not a good sign, and the city hall, or rather the mayor, used his "energy" to suppress the news, but he also realized that the situation had reached a point where he really needed to start mobilizing his political power.

  People starve to death every year, and it's not unusual for homeless people to die of heat in the summer, freezing in the winter, and occasionally starvation.

  A few years ago, there was also a report of a tragic incident in which a homeless person attacked a wild dog, and as a result, he was not able to defeat the wild dog but was instead eaten by a pack of wild dogs, and this also triggered a short-lived heated debate in the community, after which people did not pay attention to this group of people any more.

  Many people in the face of a reporter interview will hold the same point of view, homeless people have hands and feet, they can work to support themselves, even scavenging can make their own life well enough, but they chose to beg, so they do not deserve sympathy.

  This time, however, the one who died of starvation was not a vagrant, but an unemployed old man living alone.

  When I say he was old, he was actually not that old, he was only in his fifties and had not yet reached the age of retirement.

  He had a job, but he lost it four months ago. He wanted to work and couldn't find one, and starved to death in his own bed after his savings ran out.

  If his neighbors hadn't been affected by the stench, it could have been a long time before they found out about it, so the mayor also realized that things couldn't be delayed any longer, and that he had to come up with something.

  At this time the mayor stood on the hosting stage and he gave some brief words about the news, his tone was very heavy, in fact the celebrities sitting below were also shocked, some ladies even left tears of sadness.

  Some were indeed shocked, but some were not really sad.

  In fact, for these people it was hard for them to imagine that there would really be an ordinary person starving to death, it was true that the current situation was not as good as in previous years, but it should still not be as bad as this, right?

  But the fact is this, many people are facing hunger and hardship, and they need people's help.

  In the Baylor Federation, it wasn't as if they hadn't faced similar situations in the past three hundred years or so, and they already had a set of proven methods to solve these problems, at least from the current point of view, and that was to give out food tokens and supply tokens.

  In the beginning people would just give these people money, but they soon realized that people were claiming it fraudulently, and some were taking it to gamble or squander it, and then applying for it again, so the monetary relief became food and supply scrolls.

  Celebrities donate their belongings to buy large quantities of food and some necessities, and then those families in need can collect this subsidy.

  It couldn't make them rich, but at least it could keep them from starving to death, and that was the limit of what the Baylor Federation could do at the moment, trying not to let as many people starve to death as possible.

  The generous donations from the rich and powerful were not really generous, but rather it was a charity gala, and all the money donated would be "returned" to the donors in the form of a tax deduction for each and every one of them.

  At least the full amount of deduction, may also be over the deduction, so it is not something to lose, and may even make a little money, which is the reason those top tycoons are happy to do charity, they need to pay too much tax, can pay a little less is a victory.

  But because there is also a cap on the amount of tax that can be deducted from charitable donations, it's not really up to the tycoons themselves to make the arrangements. Before they attend a charity dinner, their personal accountant will tell them how much is the most appropriate amount to donate.

  Everyone looked like they cared for these people in need from the bottom of their hearts, people gave generously, Lynch also donated one hundred thousand dollars, which made a lot of people frequently look sideways at this young unlikeable young man.

  Perhaps Lynch's performance made him look like a "trust", soon some people launched a second round of donations, they raised the donations from a few thousand or tens of thousands to a minimum of 30,000 or 50,000 yuan, as much as 100,000 or 200,000 yuan, they are a bit puzzled, this is the mayor's intention or not.

  But as long as there was the slightest possibility, they couldn't take any chances.

  By the end of the charity gala, the mayor had collected close to 15 million dollars, which I must say was a great solution to a large part of the current problem, and to use the mayor's final speech, more than 200,000 people in Sabine who were suffering from hunger would have their bellies filled because of everyone's kindness as well as goodness.

  After the meeting was adjourned the mayor was ready to leave, he had other things to do next, the city's problems had left him burnt out in the meantime, and even the fact that Mark had made an absolutely lucrative business deal hadn't put much of a smile on his face.

  Money could only satisfy material needs; it was power he aspired to.

  Still, he took half a minute out for Lynch, who he placed at the end, "I heard Mark say he likes you a lot?"

  The two shook hands and spoke, and no one else could lean in, it was etiquette in a social setting.

  Lynch nodded, "I like Mark a lot too, he's a great lad ...", he didn't seem to finish his words, which made the Mayor a little suspicious and urged him to say anything quickly, as he had a small closed door meeting coming up soon.

  Only then did Lynch say those unspoken words that followed, "Is it too late for me to set up a food factory?"

  The mayor froze for a moment, then he couldn't help but laugh out loud, he thought Lynch would tell Mark or something about last night's deal, but he didn't expect him to think about the fifteen million dollars of "charity money" in his hand.

  A vision and ideas are very unique and special young man, the mayor reaffirmed this idea, but he shook his head, "Mark certainly did not tell you, he already has a food factory ... ", he said with a sense of reference, "I am very optimistic about you guys," he said. "I think highly of you guys, you're going to be great friends!"

  Lynch bristled, "That's a sad thing. As for me and Mark ...", he smiled, "I'm sure we'll be good friends too."

  The mayor patted his hand and without further ado simply let go and left, much to the dismay of some of the people who hadn't had a chance to speak to the mayor during the evening and wanted to get up here, but they soon began to scrutinize Lynch, what was his relationship with the mayor and why had the mayor left the last of his time to him?

  Some people began to try to make contact with Lynch, while Lynch turned around and blended into the reception after the charity gala.