Chapter 56 Preparations Before the Plan

"Goodman, what's the property tax rate like around here? And about Highway 23, do we have any records of the traffic flow at the bank?"

Carter rushed back to the bank and immediately sought out Goodman, who was taken aback by the sudden inquiry.

"Property tax. Are you talking about real estate tax? It's generally around 0.8% here. As for the traffic flow, we're not the Department of Transportation, so why would we keep records of that? Are you brewing up some dubious idea again?"

"Is it that low?!"

Carter blurted out, thinking he'd have to pay a hefty sum for the land he acquired. But upon hearing the tax rate, it amounted to only 80 cents per year for land worth $100. It would take over a hundred years just to break even!

"Isn't it low enough for you? Louisiana's even lower; their tax rate is less than 0.2%. But why the sudden interest in this?"

"I just met with Exxon, had a talk with them, and I'm planning to have them repay their loan with land. Not just them, anyone near Highway 23 who can't pay up can use land to repay. I'm planning to use these lands for some business ventures."

Carter then shared his thoughts and conversation with the Exxon couple with Goodman. Unlike Exxon, Goodman didn't immediately oppose the idea. Having been to Florida himself, he knew Carter's idea had merit.

He felt a bit intrigued:

"You'll need to investigate the potential number of customers first. You can hire a few part-timers to gather traffic flow information for you. If you want firsthand information like this, don't rely on our city's archives; they're not very reliable."

"And about the fried chicken restaurant you mentioned, whether its taste matches the preferences of passing drivers also needs to be considered. If it works out, it could indeed be a good business. And this model could be replicated on other highways in the future."

"Yeah, I'll get someone to work on this. You start gathering information on construction companies. If we're opening shops on the roadside, we'll need to connect water and electricity lines. This is a big deal; we need to carefully compare prices."

Comparing to setting up a shop in the city, the major cost of setting up a shop on the highway definitely comes from infrastructure. After all, without water and electricity, you can't run a shop. Carter's budget for this was $140,000, and if that's not enough, the shop might not open.

"Alright, I'll do that. You go ahead!"

After a brief chat, Carter left the bank in a hurry. But as soon as he stepped out of the bank's doors, he suddenly froze.

In theory, finding people for part-time jobs in the U.S. is very easy. Especially for jobs like this where you just sit by the roadside, recording passing traffic to earn money. And now, during the holidays, there's an abundance of bored kids at home. But unfortunately, Carter hadn't really interacted much with his classmates, so now, figuring out who to ask and where to find them became a problem.

But it wasn't a big problem. After a brief moment of confusion, Carter figured out a solution.

"Anna, are you free now? I need to talk to you about something."

Heading to the supermarket in the city center, Carter went straight to his sister who was working. He didn't know any suitable young people himself, but Anna should know some, and it was also a good opportunity to discuss the KFC matter.

Since his family's restaurant was opening up, it seemed like there wasn't enough manpower to run it. If his sister and that Joey guy were willing to work there, Carter would gladly do them a favor. If they managed it well, he'd even give them the restaurant, contributing to the Blake family.

Carter thought it was a good idea, but Anna didn't seem to appreciate it much, frowning directly and refusing:

"What's up? Just say it here, can't you see I'm working? Leaving the post right after starting work, it's very disruptive!"

"Alright, it's just that I wanted to ask if you have any friends or classmates who aren't currently working. I have an urgent part-time job that needs to be done."

"Is that all? Then I'll write down the address for you, you can go find them. There's nothing else, so please don't bother me for now."

After being unceremoniously chased out of the supermarket by Anna, Carter quickly gathered five young men and women according to the addresses on the paper. The girls were responsible for recording during the day, while the boys had to work harder, monitoring traffic flow at night. Accordingly, the boys' pay was 1.5 times higher than the girls'.

With higher pay naturally came higher energy, and even their families were quite supportive. Since the kids didn't have cars, the adults immediately lent them their cars, especially for the boys who stayed up at night. What else could they do in the middle of nowhere without a car?

Seeing the boys borrowing cars from their families, Carter had another idea for convenient repayment. As mentioned earlier, in the U.S., kids can get a driver's license at 16, and even at 14 or younger, they can do part-time jobs to earn pocket money. Plus, cars in America are usually not expensive; in the future, a normal used car would typically cost only a few thousand dollars, and you could even get it on installment.

So cars are almost a must-have for every American boy, and the difficulty of buying a car isn't much more than it is for young people in China to buy a motorcycle. But unfortunately, at Mrs. Mary's Elmwood School, almost no one had time for part-time jobs. This resulted in many students at the school graduating without ever owning a car of their own!

They didn't have cars, but he did! There were some repossessed cars in the bank's backyard; the collateral for small loans was mostly vehicles, agricultural machinery, and large loans would be properties. It seemed these repossessed cars had found a market!

But as the saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day. Besides, Carter wasn't too concerned about this small business; he was just doing it for convenience. After arranging the work for the boys and girls, for the next few days, Carter waited for various news to come back while continuing to visit debtors.

With such a large number of people to visit, there were all kinds of people he encountered. He met a few who were intentionally dodging repayment, and with no other option, he had to repossess their collateral from several households.

Four days passed in the blink of an eye, and on this day, Carter was standing in the bank's backyard, taking inventory of the collateral:

There were a total of nine cars, mostly Dodges or Fords, considered cheap cars in the U.S. If they were all sold, they wouldn't even amount to $10,000. There were also various pieces of machinery, such as cutting beds from a logging mill and sealing machines from a beverage packaging plant, and so on, a mess that Carter couldn't figure out how much they were worth. He'd have Goodman sell these things later, as long as he left the cars behind. There were also two properties.

As Carter contemplated how to handle these miscellaneous items for repayment, the five part-time youths came together to report back.

"Mr. Blake! We've finished our work. Could you please check if everything is satisfactory?"

"Okay, let me see. You've worked hard."

Taking the form handed to him by the leading boy, Carter glanced over it briefly. The form was simple, divided into two-hour intervals, with large and small vehicles listed separately. Each passing vehicle was recorded, and a total count was tallied at the end.

The first few forms were all normal, and the traffic flow also matched Carter's expectations. But when he looked at the third form, his expression seemed slightly surprised.

This form recorded the traffic during the night hours, and in addition to the large and small vehicle categories Carter had set, this person had also meticulously added categories for the types of vehicle transportation. For example, it noted how many trucks were transporting building materials, how many were carrying mail, and so on.

"Who made this form?"