UISEC, as a country, has become significantly wealthier than its neighboring countries.
Fortunately, after acquiring the territory of the former five-star country, its southern border was extended to the ocean, alleviating concerns about its southern border.
However, issues persist on the northern, western, and eastern borders.
In UISEC, the rule of law is absolute.
While the 'law' may be biased, with institutions like the candidate qualification commission and the supreme court tightly controlled by Rob, at lower levels, government workers' wealth and belongings are public knowledge, easily accessible through the internet.
The news media can criticize the government.
Although media restrictions were once stringent, after Rose became the prime minister, any blame would be directed towards her rather than Rob.
Consequently, he began allowing more freedom for media criticism of the government. Of course, if they criticize him, he would shut them down.
Regardless, the noteworthy point is that corruption is minimal among government workers.
Criminal laws, however, are stringent.
Membership in any gang results in the death penalty, theft leads to decades of imprisonment, and sexual assault perpetrators face life sentences.
While some may characterize these laws as overly cruel, they effectively deter crime.
Sure, many who have been executed for 'gang membership' were innocent.
In total, it has been estimated that 10 percent of those executed have been innocent.
That is horrifying, but it did its job of deterring all gangs, even though it killed many innocents on its way.
As a result, UISEC is a very safe country.
However, the situation is entirely different in the neighboring countries.
Corruption, crimes, gangs, etc., are rampant.
People in those countries have access to the internet and can see how UISEC is a much better place to live.
Despite the lack of free healthcare and associated problems, UISEC remains the best place to live, at least in the region.
In any case, neighboring countries with 'free' healthcare lack technology, so individuals with serious diseases often have to travel to UISEC for treatment. Unfortunately, many poor people can't afford to do so and end up waiting for their death.
Even for less complicated diseases, all doctors' clinics are crowded, with each patient getting only a few minutes. In short, despite being free, healthcare quality is so abysmal that it doesn't provide much help.
In such a situation, what should they do? Of course, they choose what any rational person would do.
Legal immigration to UISEC is challenging; those who pass the medical talent test can immediately gain citizenship, a job, a home, etc. Other talented individuals, such as engineers, can also immigrate legally.
But what about those who lack those talents or skills? The answer is that the door to UISEC is completely closed to them.
Would they just accept it? As is evident, the answer is no.
From all the neighboring countries, thousands started making their way through the borders to try to build a new life for themselves in a safer and wealthier country.
For UISEC, it wasn't a problem at first, but as time passed, thousands became tens of thousands, and tens of thousands became hundreds of thousands.
If it continues like this, it might be millions each year.
UISEC couldn't absorb that many people.
Fortunately, there is no language barrier.
In the past, UISEC and its neighbors have been part of a much larger country, so their language and culture are similar.
However, UISEC lacks enough homes, schools, roads, etc, to absorb millions yearly.
Rob favored immigration, but he believes too many in a short time is not good; it can be disruptive and costly, negatively affecting medical research.
However, because of its extensive land border on the north, west, and east, it couldn't just line up troops to protect the border. The border is too vast.
On this matter, the prime minister and Rob had two different opinions.
Rob wanted to start sending financial help to those neighboring countries and asking them to stop the flow in exchange.
Rose disagreed, stating that it would not solve the issue.
The third way, improving those countries' conditions so people won't feel the need to make their way, wasn't even mentioned.
Any financial aid would end up in the pockets of their presidents, prime ministers, etc. Their system is corrupt, and a military operation is nearly a must to fix it.
However, neither Rob nor Rose wants a war; medical science is more important.
Rose suggested disincentivizing them from coming, emphasizing the power of incentives.
They make their way because they believe, rightfully, that their lives will be better in UISEC. To remove this incentive, UISEC must make their lives worse than in their home countries.
As Rob heard this, he looked at Rose with surprise; she reminded him of Alex III.
Her suggestion was to enhance the punishment for the crime of illegal entry to the death penalty!
Rob rejected this outright.
The people of UISEC are not as terrified as Alex's kingdom; they will protest if the punishment is too cruel.
Also, killing people for such a weak reason would create a lot of resentment, and even those talented legal immigrants might decide it's not worth it.
After some persuasion, Rose also agreed.
They settled on the following solution: giving money to a country far away with terrible living conditions and sending all migrants who come illegally to that faraway country.
They ensured that the news spread on the internet, ensuring everyone in the neighboring countries knew that they would not be accepted.
There was no one with compassion or kindness among the leadership of UISEC.
They were like robots with no emotion.
Therefore, the plan was implemented without change.
Rose offered money to dictators of a faraway country, and they agreed to take in as many as Rose sent them.
Then, UISEC started packing airplanes full and sent every single person who came illegally there.
To lower the costs, they 'confiscated' money and valuable objects of the poor immigrants themselves to pay for plane tickets.
As for legal challenges for these actions, with the Supreme Court under the complete control of Rob, even if one local court ruled against the government, the Supreme Court quickly overruled its decision.
In less than a year, nobody from the poorer countries dared to go to UISEC.
Leadership in those countries, all receiving money and help from UISEC, didn't say anything and even praised the plan. They didn't like their best people going to UISEC either.
Generally speaking, the people motivated enough to go through the trouble of immigrating to another country are smarter than the general population.
Therefore, losing those people would not have been good for those countries either.
With the immigration issue solved, UISEC made extensive plans for legal immigration. People with medical talent were welcome, and individuals with engineering talent, physicists, chemists, and some other practical talents were also welcome.
Skills like painting, poetry, language, law, fiction writing, etc., were not welcome.
In both Rob and Rose's view, only skills that can create physical objects are deemed useful.
Those that can contribute to building roads, bridges, buildings, medicine, etc., are considered valuable, while those only useful in theory are not deemed practical.
With this plan, they began absorbing the most talented individuals worldwide in those subjects.
...
Alex didn't like the way Rob handled the issue.
He would have let everyone in and used them as cheap labor if it were him.
More people in a country usually mean more prosperity, especially in medieval times.
However, it wasn't the first time Alex III disagreed with Rob.
To begin with, he had problems with the prime minister, democracy, and Rob's relative peacefulness. So, Alex just put the matter in the back of his mind and continued reading his book.
"Your Majesty," Jack said from outside.
Alex III replied, "What?"
He was reading a book and didn't appreciate Jack interrupting.
Jack came in and continued, "Some distant countries are interrupting our smuggling routes! We cannot sufficiently supply the drug to everyone like this!"
Alex III thought and stroked his beard. He asked, "What do you suggest?"
Alex III usually did what he wanted without asking for comments, but asking others' thoughts is also okay.
Jack said, "We could try to contact the criminal circles in those countries or bribe their ministers." He suggested two solutions.
Alex III sighed.
He would have invaded if it were a neighboring country, but as it was far away, invading was not an option.
Also, Alex's country is one of many strong ones; taking over the world by force would be time-consuming and dangerous.
Alex country would most likely fail to conquer the world, and even in the event of success, it could take more than a century.
Alex III said, "Start doing both those! Contact their criminal gangs and bribe anyone who receives one. If they refuse, strategize to see if we can change their leadership." He ordered.
Jack bowed and left.
Alex III sighed and continued reading his book.
...
After much effort, Alex's kingdom managed to bribe their way into most of the countries obstructing their smuggling routes.
The blockage of smuggling routes is a problem because it could prevent them from selling the drug in that country and reaching other unrelated ones.
Alex country set the price for those drugs very low, to the point that the operation was barely breaking even.
The low profits meant that to give all those bribes, Alex's kingdom had no choice but to spend from its pocket.
It was not sustainable.
But making it more expensive also meant poor people would lose the ability to buy it.
Alex III wanted everyone, especially the poor, to get addicted, so increasing the price was ruled out.
The next choice was to invade another country to fill the treasury.
After some consideration, he also rejected this option.
All the surrounding countries are poor, so any invasion is unlikely to bring in much money in the short term.
The second option was to earn money with diplomacy, like demanding other countries give tribute to Alex kingdom.
It has been done in the past, where weaker countries send tributes to stronger countries. Alex III ordered his minister of foreign relations to start looking into it.
The next choice was collecting even more taxes.
To put it simply, it was not possible.
Taxes are already extremely high as they are, and any more tax could demotivate people to work. Higher and lower taxes both have advantages and disadvantages, but those advantages disappear, and disadvantages amplify at extremes.
Very low taxes will mean no money for government-funded infrastructure, which, in the long run, could lower economic growth. It means more sick people, a weaker country, and a weaker economy.
On the other hand, very high taxes mean people would use everything to avoid taxes, resulting in a lack of motivation to work, everything being government-run with no private sector and no innovation.
There must be a balance between extremes.
Alex's country was very close to the extreme of a high-tax country, so even though Alex wanted to, he was persuaded with pleading and begging from his minister of economy.
Even though Alex usually won't care about others, when what they say makes sense, he would consider it.
The next way to increase revenue is by mining more mines, making more crops, and, in general, increasing productivity.
He ordered the relevant minister to do what they could.
The next way is cutting other areas and reducing waste.
Again, Alex ordered it done.
All levels of government worked to increase revenue and reduce spending to provide enough money for bribing foreign officials and criminal organizations.