Chapter 235: Fleecing the Outsiders

"I won't hide it from you, Jim. I really am considering tapping into external funds," Carter said with a wry smile. Lately, his main concern had indeed been the dwindling demand.

Small towns have their advantages and disadvantages.

The benefit is that their economic scale is small, making them relatively easy to influence and change. Just like now, after a bit of tinkering here and there, the economic environment immediately improves.

Even if a considerable portion of the millions of dollars he invested and the hundred million dollars brought in by these middle-class families eventually flowed out of town, the surplus remaining in Douglas alone would be enough to catalyze a transformation.

Even if only twenty million dollars stayed in Douglas, that would still be equivalent to over two years' worth of the city's total output. Suddenly, with such a large sum of money, the economic environment naturally becomes more prosperous.

It's like buying something on credit. Originally, with a monthly salary of two thousand dollars, if you wanted to buy something worth ten thousand dollars, you'd have to scrimp and save for at least half a year. When you think about the hard work of the past six months, you might hesitate.

But with credit, it's easy. You buy it and it's done! The bitterness only comes when you face the pressure of paying back later.

Douglas is now like someone living on credit. Now that things are going well, if income doesn't increase, the future will be bleak. The more you overdraft the future, the worse it will be!

For a city, income growth must be accompanied by a synchronous increase in market demand. Here is where the helplessness of small towns comes into play.

Using people as an analogy, it's not hard to observe that the income growth rate of high-income groups is generally much faster than that of low-income groups!

A common worker earning two thousand dollars a month might still be earning the same after five or ten years, with no change in purchasing power. But someone earning twenty thousand dollars a month, whether they are a manager or a salesperson,

might still be earning the same this year, but next year they might become a vice president and earn twenty-five or thirty thousand; in two more years, they might become a director and get another raise; a salesperson might earn twenty thousand this year, but next year, as they become more skilled and get more referrals, their income continues to grow.

Douglas is like that common worker, small in size and lacking in uniqueness. Developing it is extremely difficult. So from the beginning, Carter didn't have the idea of ​​working diligently like an ox and slowly paying off debts.

"HT Corporation specifically targets external markets, especially those big cities. Ten stores have already been opened, and I conservatively estimate that within three months, the number of stores will increase to fifty. Each store can easily sell over six thousand takos per day, with a net profit of over twenty-eight hundred dollars."

"Fifty stores would mean a monthly profit of $840,000 for HT Corporation. After deducting operating costs, if we temporarily don't consider reserving funds for expanding the supply chain, at the very least, we can bring back $700,000 to our place here. Add to that the expected profit of $30 million from property sales, and combined, I'll think about whether there are any ways to stir up some business and grab money from outside. Otherwise, relying solely on Douglas's production, we simply can't digest such a large population."

"Hehe, this is what I meant before, Jim. You're really good at playing this game! Taking others' money while nurturing your own! Oh, they're also lucky to have someone like you. But, if you keep playing like this and the stakes get higher, you're going to run into trouble!"

Looking at Carter, Jim really didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

You could say he didn't understand, as he seemed to really not grasp the essence of economic operation; but if you said he didn't understand at all, everything he did seemed extremely correct. Hmm, Jim just felt that Carter was too radical, but there wasn't much problem with his measures to stimulate local economic development.

This was also why he had just joked that Carter was acting like the central bank of Georgia. Was he overseeing things a bit too broadly?! This kid.

"The total amount of currency is constant, you must remember this. Especially now, with the Federal Reserve still shrinking the money supply, the amount of new money is almost negligible. So, when you snatch money from outside, they will inevitably have less money!"

"The more money flows into Douglas, the worse off the other places you've harmed will be! If it gets to the point where it attracts attention or even public outrage... Do you still want to stay in Douglas? I don't want to see news one day, saying you've come up with some crazy scheme!"

"Is it really that serious? New York, Los Angeles, those big cities combined, even if I snatch every month, I'll only be making $700,000 from them, it's not even worth mentioning. Not to mention stirring up local anger, they won't even notice the flow of such a small amount of money."

Carter touched his nose awkwardly. Of course, he knew that his actions were a bit unethical. But where in the world are there things that are both ethical and advantageous?

In Douglas-Pearson, where people were grateful to him, where they idolized him, Carter had no doubt that the heads of the surrounding areas he had been ravaging recently—places like Osilla, FitzGerald, and Lenox—must be wishing they could skin him alive.

Due to their closer geographical proximity, most of the new citizens came from these nearby cities. If these middle-class pillars were to leave, the demand in their cities would decrease significantly.

Just as the various industries in Douglas would expand and recruit people due to the influx of these individuals, their local demand would suddenly decrease. What would happen to the surplus production capacity?

It would decrease! What else could be done?

As this production capacity decreased, wouldn't surplus equipment have to be sold off at low prices? Would surplus workers have to be laid off?

So, after these initially unemployed but relatively well-off people ran away, the local unemployment rate wouldn't decrease, but would instead increase further!

If those who could afford to leave did, what about the poor who couldn't? They would only live even more miserably.

As a result, with the soaring unemployment rate, decreased market demand, and reduced market vitality, the mayors of these cities would have headaches. In this chain reaction, businessmen would earn less, ordinary people would earn even less, life would become more difficult, and the mayor's head would become even balder.

And all of this was thanks to him.

Now looking back, Carter suddenly felt extremely fortunate that he had asked Benjamin to submit that citizenship restriction bill before the influx of new people.

If it weren't for that, giving an explanation to the surrounding cities, saying, "Don't worry! Guys, I promise to only rob and swindle you this once. I won't do it again in the future."

There would probably already be protest demonstrations knocking on the door!

Being snatched of $700,000 a month, even if it was combined from several big metropolitan cities, it really wasn't much. Not to mention causing local anger, they wouldn't even notice the flow of such a small amount.

So, just snatching from the big cities, Carter wouldn't show that awkward expression, and with that expression appearing, Jim understood that Carter had grasped the logic behind it.

So, Jim brought up another issue:

"Let's not talk about that for now, next question! This question is similar to the previous one, it's still about the issue of these new residents. The money they bring in now is all overdraft from the future. These people, for the next few years, even ten years, will have no purchasing power. What will you do with your market then? Continue to snatch excess money from outside, expand domestic demand, easy to be targeted, maybe the Fed will see you disagreeable, a savings bank actually contradicting me; if you don't expand, after this short-lived boom in market demand, there will be a long period of depression."

"What are you going to do then?"