CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK…!
Frequent shuttering noises accompanied by flashes of light could be heard and seen in the stream as they watched the prime minister of the nation addressing the entire nation. The older man maintained an elegant appearance even as he directed a sweeping gaze at the crowd of journalists gathered behind a barred fence, from atop the podium at a speaker's stand.
"As all of you know," the man continued with an aged voice. "The war between the Estroycia Federation and the Surveil Kingdom had led to food scarcity and has disrupted parts of global trade, unfortunately leading to inflationary pressures in the Democratic Republic of Elendir. In response to this…"
He took a pause as he directed a pointed gaze at the various gathered journalists associated with the press. "…Previous administrations had wisely increased interest rates and reduced the supply of credit into the economy to ensure that inflationary pressures were ameliorated, ensuring that inflation remained within the Central Bank's target of two to four percent inflation rates. Things have remained that way for more than two terms as the global scarcity crisis sustained itself, leaving the Central Bank no choice but to keep interest rates high."
His smile grew more jubilant. "Ladies and gentlemen, citizens of Elendir, I'm pleased to announce that our targets have been firmly and definitively met with headline inflation rates estimated to be around two-point-six percent and core inflation rate estimated to be at about two-point-seven percent. We have observed that the supply of grains from the surge of food grains coming from suppliers from the north of the Ellantra Continent, facilitated by the Trans-Vesuvian Grain Trade Agreement. A trade agreement pursued by none other than my administration and myself at the very forefront."
Cæ huffed with a hint of disdain on his otherwise stoic expression. "He's trying to rub in his achievements on national television for the next election that will be coming soon."
Feidin nodded. "Well, at least he's earned it this time. I'm glad that interest rates are being cut for the first time in a decade; it should revitalize the economy really well. However, what I don't understand…"
He frowned. "…is why the Prime Minister came out and personally made the announcement. Shouldn't this normally be the purview of the finance minister or the chair of the Central Bank?"
Their attention returned to the feed as the prime minister continued in an elderly tone. "…In addition to the announcement regarding the interest rates, I'm here to proudly present the newest financial scheme meant to aid the impoverished citizens of our nation. For far too long, the residents of the districts of the outer city have been financially isolated from the web of modern civilization."
His tone grew warm with empathy as he pursed his lips with a hint of melancholy in his eyes, directing another sweeping gaze at the gathered press.
"And so, to do justice to this disenfranchised group of people of our nation who have suffered for too long under the shackles of poverty, I have decided to launch the Outer District Credit Lending Scheme," he announced with a generous voice and smile. "Under the arrangements of this program, the people of the slums will be able to apply for loans, unshackled by their background, from the central government with affordable interest rates, with their background in consideration."
Feidin's eyes lit up with surprise. "What…?!"
Even Seliphaz and Mrs. Meriam were stunned by the shocking announcement.
Cæ feigned ignorance as he gazed at the screen with fake shock. "This…!"
He had gained a decent mastery over his acting skills ever since he had started hiding the effects of the Acquired Savant Syndrome and his true ultimate ambition to destroy the world order and build, in its place, a better one.
"The financial structure of this scheme is a simplified streamlined application process with no administrative and bureaucratic delays of any sort," the Prime Minister continued as he patiently explained the features of the newly erected government credit program for the people of the slums. "We will have stationed offices for this process in the Outer City to ensure that ease of access is reasonable. According to projections from the Central Bank and the task force, the estimated boost to the economy is around…"
He continued as he began diving into the details of the newly passed credit scheme while the four of them listened to him.
"This…" Feidin leaned backwards, still taken aback by the sheer revelation that came from the prime minister of the country. "This changes everything for us! And the best part is that for once, the governmental policies are in our favor!"
His tone was extra jubilant as he voiced out the excitement he felt at being able to directly benefit from the government's schemes instead of being ruined by it. His first mini-housing unit manufacturing company had failed tremendously due to the previous administration's changes to the administrative system of clearances, licenses, and permits for housing that allowed for conventional housing construction to gain a massive boom.
He was probably still traumatized by the events that had led his original venture to collapse. The sheer relief he must have felt when he realized that they would benefit from it was beyond what Cæ and Seliphaz could imagine.
"This will help the people of the slums purchase more haven units!" Seliphaz beamed with delight. "We should be able to help many more people in the slums who are suffering from poor housing arrangements!"
Cæ nodded with a genuine enthusiasm sparkling in his otherwise intense, impassive eyes. "With this, the slums have become a much more viable and sustainable market. We should be able to get an influx of our customers and should be able to tap deeper and deeper into the slums than before. We should also be able to get more breathing space in our profit margins and raise them a little without reducing the number of people who can purchase haven units."
Seliphaz turned towards him with furrowed eyebrows. "But that will mean that the people of the slums will have to pay more money for each individual haven unit."
Cæ shrugged. "Yes, they will. And I'm fine with that. Although I understand that you aren't."
"Just because they gained access to a beneficial credit lending scheme doesn't mean that they are comfortably swimming in money," Seliphaz complained lightly. "We shouldn't stress them financially for something as essential as housing."
"I said we will raise them a little," Cæ huffed lightly. "I don't intend to multiply it. And before you insist that even this is too much. Let me remind you what I told you when I made the offer to you to join our business venture."
He directed a pointed gaze with his dichromatic gray eyes. "We aren't running a charity here. I'm not doing this business out of benevolence. I'm not a saint. I'm a businessman, and profit is my motive. This is not new to you. I will not compromise profits out of kindness."
Seliphaz couldn't deny that Cæ had been crystal clear and absolutely transparent with his motives when they discussed his business offer. Still, that didn't mean that she was entirely happy with them, even if she had decided to join Trinity Housings.
"He's right, Sel," Feidin remarked with a nod. "We can't bleed ourselves to make the people of the slums more financially comfortable. That's just not a reasonable thing to ask of everybody. The best way that we can help the people of the slums is not by starving ourselves to death, but to make use of the surplus funds we get from them and ensure that we address their problems and criticisms of the product, and have you mitigate them when you design the next model."
She stirred at his words.
She had to admit that she could see the rationale, but she still couldn't help but feel that it was a bit contrived or post-hoc rationalized to justify mongering for profits.
"Not to mention," Cæ added. "We will need the surplus from the profits to fund our expansion into the other cities and their slums in the nation. Without a hike in our profit margins on the advent of the credit lending scheme, it will take us a long time to gather all the funds that we need to purchase another base and hire another set of laborers and employees to manage the branch offices. These all take immense capital, and we will have to take on substantial debt since the Elendir Institute of Magic will not sponsor our company a second time."
If not for the venture magicapita that Cæ received from the Elendir Institute of Magic in exchange for serving as a political prop and political capital for the Headmistress' political goals, he would not have been able to develop Trinity Housings as quickly as he did. Even though the actual process of business development only took about a year, that was still on the quicker side for a young novice with no backers or investors.
He was not arrogant enough to discount just how helpful the sponsorship had been. It had allowed him to purchase a factory base, even if one that was cheaper due to bordering the slums. It allowed him to hire employees even before they generated a profit, which was a privilege very few entrepreneurs could offer.
But it was precisely because he understood just how important the funds were for expansion that he knew that even Seliphaz's saintly ambitions were best facilitated by gathering enough funds to spread the haven units even farther and spread them across the country to house as many people as possible.
"Even your goals will be maximized by gathering the capital needed to expand across the country," Cæ reminded her.
Seliphaz heaved a relenting sigh as she shifted a tuft of her blue hair behind her ear.
"Fine. I'm reluctantly willing to bump our profit percentage by just a bit," she shook her head with a hint of disapproval. "But only a small amount. Nothing substantial, ok?"
Cæ nodded. "It would be foolish to increase it by a significant degree. The credit-lending program that the prime minister is talking about…"
Cæ directed a knowing glance at the muted stream of the prime minister. "…will not make the people of the slums rich. It wouldn't even make them less poor. Frankly, it would just make them able to spend more on things. I don't know how much this would help them."
This was the one thing that had rubbed him the wrong way, even when the Headmistress had informed him of the interest rate cut and the subprime lending. If someone wanted to help the people of the slums, there were many better ways to go about things.
They could create schools, they could tackle the problems that Trinity Housings was solving, such as the housing crisis in the slums, they could tackle food scarcity, they could tackle safety and security, or make medical aid more available.
There were numerous things that one could do to help the people of the slums in a more concrete and measurably beneficial way than just throwing money at them lazily. Cæ couldn't help but feel this was an attempt to tap into the massive vote bank that the slums represented.
Despite having an extremely low turnout rate, they were an important voting power bloc, it was the one and only one element of power that the people of the slums had, and yet they were simply too distrustful and, most unfortunately, simply too uneducated to understand just how powerful they could be if they successfully unified and leverage their voting power in exchange for better fortunes.
Each election season, politicians tried tapping into this voter bloc, relying on different tactics, and to him it became increasingly clear that his was most likely a heavy-handed attempt at winning their approval.