"Then how else do we solve the current problem? This method might alleviate the immediate crisis. As for the future, once the houses are built, we can always adopt HT's model and organize them to go out and find work!"
Goodman shrugged, indicating that this wasn't his preferred course of action, but rather a necessity.
Goodman was still a conscientious man, after all, his name sounded like "good man".
However, the more Carter listened, the more he felt like this guy should be called "goldman".
Feeling the gap between himself and the standard American capitalist, Carter, after careful consideration, became deeply concerned.
"I understand your point, but if we do it this way... When we sell the land to them, we'll profit; then when we pay their salaries, we'll exploit them again; and when it comes to taking on their housing construction orders, we'll profit again."
"Putting aside whether they're foolish or not, the question of whether they can accept being manipulated like this is another matter. Continuously exploiting them like this, we're draining them dry. What about their future value?"
Carter's mentality was starting to fracture. Did these Americans, who were ready to exploit everything for their own gain, not know about the story of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?
The money they had originally accumulated had all ended up in their own bank accounts. And the value they had created over the years had also been siphoned off. What did they have left?
Did they still have savings? Did they still have money to spend in the market? If they didn't spend, how could it stimulate local economic development? By doing this, it was easy to make Douglas look good, with a large population and seemingly lively.
But when you looked at the consumption data, damn, it was still the same poor place, unable to make any difference. Meanwhile, it seemed like they had just harvested a lot of leeks into their own pockets.
As long as they were making plenty of money, who cared about the outside world?
But think about the inflation rate. The money they were making now would be worthless in just a couple of years. Especially with the limited extent to which they could exploit. After all, with high interest rates, people were afraid to borrow; if the land was too expensive, people couldn't afford to buy; the same logic applied to construction fees.
In other words, they were exploiting deeply, almost to the point of draining the leeks dry. But the problem was, this field of leeks was still just seedlings!
Even if you dug up the roots, how much could you really harvest? With the profits already limited, and then depreciated through inflation.
"Forget it, forget it, you're right. There's no way to stop these people now. We can only accept them. When we sell the land, as long as we can recover our costs and don't lose too much, let's just sell it that way!"
Thinking about it, Carter suddenly sighed despondently.
When the people are prosperous, the country flourishes; when the people suffer, the country perishes.
Those who had never experienced turbulent times truly couldn't understand the meaning of this sentence. These incoming little leeks, even if they weren't exploited by themselves, what could they do?
They were being squeezed dry back home, to the point where they couldn't survive anymore. That's why they thought of coming to Douglas. But this place, which seemed hopeful to them, also had their own old farmers, wielding sickles and preparing to harvest.
It seemed like fate, unable to escape that class. From leeks to farmers, the only fate was to be exploited, only perhaps this farmer might be a little more lenient, or
more patient, wanting to wait until they grew up before wielding the sickle. Relatively speaking, at least they could have a few good years first, right?
Thinking like this, Carter's mood suddenly improved.
That sense of guilt as a capitalist also dissipated somewhat. So, Carter continued to arrange:
"Those investigators are loafing around a lot now, so cancel all their work. See if they're willing to go to this construction company. If they're not, let them find their own way!"
"Okay, I understand. I'll have Jon register the company in Atlanta tomorrow. Do you have any ideas for the name?"
"As long as it's not something like Blake Construction or Blake Contractors, anything goes. Wait, you just said you want Jon to go? Is he capable of handling these things?"
Compared to other high-value investments, this construction company, Carter thought for a moment.
Setting it up didn't require much of his own investment, after all, it was just building some small houses, which in the rural China of the past, were mostly self-built with materials bought by themselves. It wasn't like building roads and bridges, which required high funds and technical requirements!
Plus, with the funds from selling the land, even if you added a bunch of former investigators who were slacking off, Carter estimated that he would only need to invest two to three hundred thousand to get this company up and running.
"Only he's free now! Didn't you see when you just came upstairs? Half of the tellers downstairs are gone, and now they're all out promoting credit cards. Don't worry, I'll explain the process to him in advance, as well as the precautions!"
Goodman sighed, expressing very directly the current shortage of talent in Carter's industries, and that there had already been a breakage:
"As for the name, since you don't have any ideas, and it's being set up for Douglas construction, why not just call it Douglas Construction? Well, Douglas might prefer the name Douglas Contractors!"
"Huh? Dog Construction?!"
Carter was taken aback by this, the name sounded a bit strange: Dog Construction?
But then again, it seemed like the original intention or motivation for setting up this company was indeed quite "dog-like".
"Okay, let's go with Douglas Construction then. How's the progress on the store locations at HT? "
After confirming the new company name, Carter suddenly felt a bit of financial pressure and couldn't help asking.
At a time when the factory and cold storage were not yet completed, and the supporting logistics company hadn't even determined its leader, asking about store construction seemed a bit urgent.
But Goodman understood very well, after all, starting this construction company didn't require much, but correspondingly, when these people finished building their houses and started taking out loans, the demand for cash would be substantial:
"Six store locations have been confirmed, and three have already started construction. This was reported by Mr. Genas yesterday. Oh, and there's one more thing, Pearson's side, those employees who are currently in training, were paid two days ago."
"There are currently 860 signed contracts, calculated at a daily wage of $10. Some of them haven't worked for a full month, so they're paid by the day. After deducting 20% covered by Pearson City's finances, just on that project alone, wage expenditures have reached $160,000. Combined with the salaries for our various industries, this month's payroll has already exceeded $200,000, nearly four times that of last month. This rate of expenditure is quite high! You need to watch your spending."
"By next month, all these 800-plus people will need to be paid in full. Plus, with new recruits coming in, the labor costs for that project alone are estimated to be around $250,000 conservatively. Adding to that our original monthly expenditure of over $50,000 in wages, the total will exceed $300,000!
Moreover, as the construction company gets underway and the factory starts hiring, this number will only rise. Until profitability is stable, we..."