Chapter 170 The Highest Form of Capital

The most unsatisfactory item: There are too few restaurants in town and they are too monotonous (7.2 points).

Mu Xin agreed with this point; the restaurants in Oxford Town were all too terrible, or perhaps even the most delicious food couldn't be eaten every single day.

It looked like it was time to franchise some chain restaurants to satisfy the taste buds of the residents of Oxford Town.

Additionally, in the supplementary comments section, there was a paragraph written by an anonymous employee, which Jessica had circled with a red pen:

"I used to work on an oil field in Texas. The boss was Canadian, and every month, the wages were delayed by two weeks before being paid. The insurance purchased was only the lowest tier legally required."

"Since I've worked here until now, I have never met any boss willing to buy high-end Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance for a construction worker who didn't even graduate from high school."

"I'm not saying this to be polite; I'm speaking from the heart. If one day this town encounters any trouble, I will be the first person to stand up."

"It's not because I'm getting paid, it's because this boss treats us low-level workers like human beings. It's not because he's a good person, but because he believes that we workers deserve these things."

Mu Xin finished reading and put the document back on the table.

"He isn't talking about me," he paused, "He is talking about an expectation. He expects someone to treat him like a human being."

"This expectation itself is already quite pathetic. A person doing manual labor has been treated as a consumable in society for over a decade, until one day someone provides him with full insurance, pays his wages on time, and helps him lower his taxes, and he is moved to tears."

"It's not because I've done so well; it's because his previous bosses were too terrible."

"The lower-class workers in America have been exploited for too long, so long that any treatment that is even slightly better for them makes them feel like they've met a savior."

Mu Xin smiled, "If I hadn't intentionally reduced my sense of presence, these people would really put me on a pedestal."

"That's not a metaphor, I mean literally putting me on a pedestal."

"You know on our employee forum, last time someone posted 'Long live Mr. Mu', and it ended up being deleted by the administrator. The administrator was arranged by me through John."

"Why not allow it?" Jessica asked, knowing the answer, but she wanted to hear Mu Xin say it himself.

"Because people who are put on a pedestal never end up with a good outcome."

"You think you are their savior now, but the day you accidentally do one thing wrong, you will turn from a savior into a bully."

"And they don't really love you; they are just loving the benefits they receive."

"There's nothing wrong with that; human nature is just like that. When you are beneficial to others, you are the sun; when you are of no benefit to them, you are just air."

"A smart person wouldn't use other people's interests as their own protective umbrella, because that umbrella can flip inside out at any moment."

"What truly protects you isn't how grateful they are to you, but how much they need you. Gratitude will fade, but need will not."

Jessica said nothing; she knew Mu Xin was right.

Mu Xin leaned back in his chair, his mind thinking about another matter.

Throwing money, increasing wages, providing insurance, reimbursing taxes—these things can make workers grateful to you, but they can't keep them from leaving forever.

Gratitude is a consumable; over time it fades, gets worn away by the trivialities of life, and is lured away by higher offers from the outside.

If you pay him triple wages today, he is moved to tears, but if someone in the neighboring county offers four times the wages tomorrow, the probability of him leaving is very high.

What Mu Xin needed was something deeper—not just making the workers feel that this place was good, but making their entire lives rooted in this land.

He saw the ultimate version of this model in Weyerhaeuser, the largest timber company in the United States.

Weyerhaeuser has a history of over a hundred years and now owns about 11 million acres of forest land in the United States, an area equivalent to half the size of Ohio.

Weyerhaeuser employees live, work, and consume on company land their entire lives; they live in houses rented to them by Weyerhaeuser, their children attend schools donated by Weyerhaeuser, when sick they go to clinics opened by Weyerhaeuser, buy things at stores opened by Weyerhaeuser, and after death, they are buried in cemeteries designated by Weyerhaeuser.

These people's entire lives, apart from paying federal and state taxes, have almost nothing to do with the outside world.

Living on Weyerhaeuser's territory, they are not American citizens; they are Weyerhaeuser citizens.

This is the highest form of capital: not running a company, but running an entire human society.

And the country of America, from its very roots, was designed for this kind of game.

The government is a service provider, not the center of power.

You build the water, electricity, gas, and heating infrastructure, and the government approves your permits; you create jobs, and politicians endorse you; you take good care of the workers, and the law protects you, while the media promotes you.

In America, as long as you stack your capital high enough, high enough that everyone can get a bite to eat from it, then you are the actual ruler of this land.

No need for votes, no need for appointments, no need for anyone's authorization. Because in America, capital is power itself, without any prefix and without any upper limit.

"Jessica, help me check if there is any land for sale in Ohio right now, any size will do."

"Go ahead and do this first, be as detailed as possible, I'm not in a rush," Mu Xin said.

"Mr. Mu, what... are you planning to do?" Jessica paused, then asked directly.

"I want all my industries to form a large closed loop. The worse the outside world gets, the more valuable this place of mine becomes."

"And to make people put down roots, work alone is not enough. I need land, a large amount of land," Mu Xin's answer was also very direct.

"Is Oxford Town not big enough?" Jessica asked.

"Not big enough, or rather, Oxford Town is big enough for now, but very soon it won't be big enough," Mu Xin said with a light chuckle.

Jessica didn't continue asking; some things didn't need to be asked anymore. She had roughly guessed what Mu Xin wanted to do.

Although she didn't understand why Mu Xin wanted to do this, she still firmly carried out Mu Xin's orders.

"By the way, Richard has something to discuss with you recently. When do you think you can meet with him?" Jessica said suddenly before leaving.

"Doesn't he have a campaign team?" Mu Xin asked, stunned for a moment.

"You are the boss... He needs to report the campaign progress to you, he needs to know your requirements for him..."

"Although you spent the money, you cannot leave everything to the campaign team," Jessica said with some helplessness.

"There's no time like the present, so let's make it tomorrow," Mu Xin said after glancing at his memo.