The Mechanical Era - 173 Problems & Solutions (2)

Kant was leaning towards Alan on his chair, maintaining a serious pose and keeping eye contact with Alan. He was holding a bunch of gray files in his hands, wanting to present them to Alan one by one, after giving some context.

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Therefore, I have decided to take the initiative and set up systems and introduce solutions to mitigate the problems that we will be facing. Do you understand what I am saying?” Alan nodded at Kant’s question.

“Yes sir. I do.”

“Good. Now, I already have prepared the files for these solutions. I had been working on them for some time, and I want you to implement them.”

“Alright, sir. Can I have the first one?” Alan asked.

Kant opens his first gray file, takes the beige papers out of it, and hands it over to Alan. He takes a look at the paper and reads the first page. The title itself, which was written in bold calligraphic letters, tells Alan that this was a charter for a new department of government.

“That is the charter for the new ‘Department of Housing’. Their main job is to evaluate urban areas, determine whether the area, or any nearby area, needs development, and build new homes in those areas that do. Though, they do have other jobs as well, which you can read up on the charter.

They are out to keep track of the housing prices, rent, and mortgages of the city, along with immigration to the city, and where these immigrants primarily settle. Once they have gathered this data, they are to work with firms to new homes.

With the building of these new homes, comes an increase in supply. It will cause a decrease in price, making it affordable enough to allow any immigrants, the vast majority of which are relatively poor, to be able to settle and integrate into the city.

Your task is to set up this new department and find a bunch of people to staff and operate the department with efficiency. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir. I fully understand.”

“Good. Now, that is just one part of the solution to the housing shortage. The other is here.” Kant opens up the second file. He places it on his desk, signs it, and hands it over to Alan.

“That is the new taxation bill I want you to get to the IRS. Get them to enforce it, starting from the next quarter onwards.”

Alan looked at the bill that Kant had signed. It appeared to be the Land value tax that Kant had previously imposed on Industrial District 1. The idea is to tax land, to make the most use of said land.

This taxation method hopes to decrease the price of land, to decrease speculators buying and holding up properties hoping that they will go up in value, and do nothing with it. Kant wants to make sure that every bit of land goes to use.

This will allow more affordable housing, allowing more people and businesses to move in. This will lead to more economic activity, with more firms producing, and more people working and buying up their goods.

“Hm… Alright, sir. I will get to it. What about the… water shortage?” Alan asks.

“The water shortage is a problem as, well, we need water to live. We need it to drink, wash, cook, and grow food.

However, as the population increases, the demand also increases. To make sure we keep up with this demand, we need to find a new source of water that we can use to give back to the people.”

“I see sir. So what should we do?”ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

“Simple. We use the purifiers.”

“The purifiers?” Alan asked.

“Yes. They are dumping a lot of fresh water into the river, aren’t they?

Instead of wasting that water, I think it would be best for the city if we spend more money refitting those places to carry out water to the water pubs. That will solve a majority of our problems.”

“I see sir. I assume you want to use those steam pumps?”

“Exactly. Get a few firms to work on this project. Make one of them focused on redirecting the purifier pipes to a different room, where another firm would be working on building a steam pump.

While those two firms are building and setting up the purifiers, get another firm to build up a pipe network throughout the city and connect the purifiers to the pipes. Once that is finished, we can have someone in charge of taking care of that,” Kant replied.

“Got it, sir. You want me to set up the new department, get the IRS to implement the new taxation method, and invest funds into setting up the purifiers and water pubs. Is there anything else for me to do?” Alan queries.

“Yes. There is one more thing, and that is in regards to the hospitals of the city.”

“The hospitals?” Alan asks.

“Yes. From the reports that you have handed me, I have found them to be in an unacceptable state. Unsanitary space for patients, a lack of good healers and doctors, a lack of proper equipment and medicines, and so on.

I would like to make some drastic changes to increase the effectiveness of the hospitals and make more use of them. It is in this file right here.”

Kant hands him the last gray file. After Alan places the other documents inside the briefcase, he reads through the papers to see what was up. The file comprised a few documents laying out the specifics of what a public hospital is out to do.

It is to increase the salaries of healers and doctors, buy more medical equipment to treat patients, such as beds, potions, herbs, and surgical tools, and they are to hire janitors to clean up the place.

It also specifies new rules for doctors and healers to follow. They are to make sure to wash their hands with soap before entering and leaving the building, and treating a patient. They are to also wash their tools before they use them to treat other patients, and so on and so forth.  They are also to expand their current facilities, to accommodate more people than before.

“As more people enter the city, there will be a rise in visits to the hospital. This could lead to overcrowding, and could possibly kill a lot of people. With the expansions, I hope to mitigate some of that. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir. When do I need to get all of these implemented?”

“Hm… I would like to have them all operational by the start of next year. Is that a good enough time frame?” Kant asks. Alan thinks for a minute, before replying.

“Yes sir. More than enough.”