“There are many policies in the pipeline. The government started operating on March 1st. It is now nearly Labor Day. Already, the government has passed a series of bad economic policies. There are discussions of many more bad economic policies that will be passed in the coming months. These policies will have nothing but a negative impact on an economy that has already slowed down. Unless we work together as a city and elect better leaders, we will someday be forced to flee.”
Patton wrapped up his blog post and closed his computer. He wouldn’t be going into work today. In fact, he was thinking about taking some time off. He undressed and climbed quietly into bed. He must have woken Jennifer because she turned and wrapped her arms around him. As thoughts of the gate, and the fears they conjured within him, poured through his mind, Patton began to shudder.
Bao gazed around the conference table and chuckled to himself. These meetings were usually very formal. Even the agents like himself had to wear button down dress shirts and slacks. Now, however, everyone was dressed down. Even Mike Varner, the CEO, was wearing jeans and a hoodie. The crush, caused by the massive amount of legislation, was taking its toll.
“So Mr. Hahn, what differences have you noticed at the street level?”
Bao was shaken out of his mental stupor and forced himself to engage in the conversation that had been going on for over two hours now. He sat up straight in his chair and cleared his throat.
“First of all, I was almost late today because of the new gate.”
“What gate?” asked Varner, his interest obviously piqued.
“There’s a gate,” Bao said, then paused. “Big white metal thing that the security guard has to open and close. The guard also told me I only had four hours outside of town without prior permission.”
Many people looked at each other in shock at this development.
“And with permission?”
Bao leaned back in his seat again. “Twelve. I guess you have to contact the city office to get permission to leave.”
There were several whispered side conversations. This went on for a half minute until Varner started tapping on the glass table with his coffee mug.
“People! People! Let’s get through this.”
The CEO turned his attention back to Bao and gestured for him continue. Bao shrugged, having nothing more to add. Varner turned to someone on the opposite side of the table.
“Dr. Hunter, can you give us a rundown of the legislation that’s passed?”
Dr. Emily Hunter was a political scientist from somewhere in the Midwest. Bao thought she was attractive, even though she had to be at least ten years older than him.
“Sure Mike,” she said, pulling out a binder. She stood and leaned over the table. “First was the tax bill. It established a progressive income tax with three brackets. The rates are five, ten, and 12.5 percent. This bill also established a corporate income tax with two rates. This was based on number of employees. Um…” she said, turning the page and running her finger down the paper.
“Then we had the tariff that taxes goods coming from outside Blue Creek,” she continued. “Then there was the minimum wage and the restrictions on outsiders from working in Blue Creek.” Her finger continued down the page.
Bao thought of his conversations with Patton after the laws had passed. He shook his head and chuckled again. A massive headache was on the horizon. He was going to need another energy drink and an Excedrin.
“…then there’s been talking of a living wage, printing money to monetize experiment credits, price fixing, wage caps…”
Bao massaged his temples. Mention of the living wage policy idea was going to push him over the edge. Patton’s reaction to the minimum wage was bad, but when he heard about the living wage, his anger became volcanic. In fact, after the idea was floated by one of Asher’s aides on a news talk show, Patton took a week off of work. By the time Patton had returned to his office he had a new website with a daily political blog, which was now the most viewed webpage in Blue Creek.
Dr. Hunter finally finished rehashing the last few months worth of legislation and sat down. Bao watched under the glass table as she crossed her long, muscular legs. He exhaled loudly. She must have noticed because she glanced over at him and smiled seductively.
“Thanks Dr. Hunter,” Varner said, glancing down at his own binder. “Now Dr. Edmunds, what have been the ramifications of these policies at this point?”
Edmunds, who had nearly dozed off, jerked awake and straightened himself in his seat. He was average height and a little pudgy. He looked to Bao to be half black. He was one of the economists, and seemed to be the best at tracking economic changes in real time.
“Well,” he said, clearing his throat. “The personal income tax was well received, believe it or not. People are accustomed to paying taxes and they see the benefits they get from them. The economy hasn’t been affected by these taxes too much, but the corporate income tax is a different story,” he said, flipping to the correct page in his binder.
“The corporate income tax—or business tax, as it’s been called—has put a dent in economic activity.” He motioned towards an assistant, who turned on a large screen and a projector. A graph appeared on the screen. The assistant handed Dr. Edmunds a remote control. He stood and walked to the front of the room.
“From March, when everyone arrived, through Christmas and into this last spring, economic activity was robust as you can see here,” he said, pointing at a large bar on the left of the graph. “However, once the government took over March first, activity began to slow.”
“Could that be due to any other factors?” another researcher asked, obviously skeptical that the economic slowdown was due to the government beginning operations.
Edmunds was either a very patient person, or he was too tired to be annoyed with being questioned.
“That’s a good point, and you are correct. The government began to operate March 1st. However, you have to remember that during the election, and after Asher and the Council were elected, there was a two month period of time where they revealed their strategy and talked about policies they were going to implement. We’re still analyzing the data, but our initial findings are that post-election rhetoric helped to cause the slowdown.”
He looked around the room to see if there were any other objections to his claim. After a brief pause, Varner spoke up.
“What other factors led to the slowdown that we’ve seen?”
Edmunds clicked to the next slide. “These are the results of our analysis. As you can see, there are many variables here, but based on survey data, citizens were really affected by their perceptions based on rhetoric.”
“That also shows that previous spending was also a factor,” replied the critic.
Edmunds rubbed his face, obviously annoyed. His lack of sleep was definitely catching up with him.
“That’s true and that is the biggest factor, statistically speaking. It’s also an obvious control variable that we expect to be significant. However, the fact that political rhetoric from elected officials shows up as being significant is huge. Remember, in these kinds of analyses we can’t capture variables perfectly.”
There were nods all around the table. Sensing the contention that was beginning to build, Varner stepped in with another question.
“So why have things gotten so bad so fast?”
Edmunds returned to his seat and opened his binder. He looked around at his colleagues, hoping someone else would take the floor. After an awkward pause, Edmunds continued.