Torres shook his head.
— Impossible. Magna Carta prohibits employment for less than four times the social minimum.
— And if a corporation can not pay that much?
— Then its manage ment are out of their mind lunatics . They’ll to learn to manage well or will have to look for another job . No reasonable company can be organised so that the revenue does not cover the cost of labor, that is, ordinary life needs of employees and their families. Meganesia has enough businessmen who are well cap able to run business es effectively.
— And if someone can find no job?
— Then he goes to the economy agency and gets retraining. He will be receiving a scholarship during the study. The cost of scholarship will be paid by the company that later employs him . This is a fair deal, as everyone benefits.
— And if he can’t work due to a disability ?
— Then he receives insurance. It is a common practice in our country, as well as in many others.
— Really? — doubted the host — but where from comes insurance for a child who was left without parents.
— This is a question from a completely different area.
— So what? Does it never happen?
— It does. To clarify, are we speaking of a healthy kid or a disabled one?
— Both — replied the host — and let’s not forget the poor families with multiple children.
— Then let me answer one by one. There are very few children who are both orphans and disabled, these are supported through social contributions. This is a paltry sum to which no one has ever objected. Ordinary children left without parents are usually taken by relatives and families who have no children or only have one. Our customs in that respect are archaic compared with the West. It is believed that it is better for a family to have two or three children, and it is less important whether they are biological or foster. This also solves the problem of children in poor families.
— I did not understand the last sentence.
— Simple. T he children are withdrawn from families that are not able to adequately support them. After that, same deal as with orphans.
— Just like that, withdrawn ? — shouted a thin middle-aged woman sitting on the other side of the table — by what right can you remove a child from his mother?
— You know very well by what right — cut her Torres — judging by your badge, you are from the family protection league. Your organization has been deported from Meganesia for activities incompatible with the Magna Charta. The judgment contains a written resolution to your question, does it not?
— Do you not dare to repeat that resolution ?
— Try me. I can and I will. According to the Charter, any person , from the moment of birth , is protected by the government, which ensures their basic rights. If those support ing the infant do not sustain the conditions for full realization of these rights, the infant is transferred to other people who are ready to provide for his well being. Any third party preventing this will be prosecuted in the course of society’s humanitarian self defense.
— Self-defense? — the woman was red with outrage — bullshit! It was us who defended the right s of the unfortunate mother. The police broke into her home, arrested her husband, pulled a one year old child out of her hands. It was inhuman e! It was...
— Completely justified — interrupted Torres — as well as the removal of the woman’s other two children, aged two and a half and three and a half years, who were begging at the beach. May I remind you, ma’am, that we are talking about a Somali family living in an abandoned construction trailer, not in a house. The husband did not work on principle, and the wife could not work because she was either pregnant or nursing all of the time. They subsisted on petty theft, begging and digging in the trash. Leaving children in such a family, that is what would really be inhumane .
— Oh, shit! — commented Lal Singh — I know this story! Remember the disco on the northern shore, the one kept by a Tanzanian guy with his wife?
— Exactly — supported Inaori — I could not understand how they had one child, and then one day, bang, there were four. Here is how.
— These can afford a dozen if they want — voiced Vikskef — on weekends, half the port is in their bar. They get the coins by shovel, wonder how the counter doesn’t crack under the weight.
— W hiskey there is trash — said Ernst — I think it's all moonshine.
— He has since written "homebrew" — said Joy punctually.
Vikskef shrugged:
— A whiskey is a whiskey.
Ernst chuckled sarcastically:
— For you, kerosene would pass for whiskey, you Norway shaft.
Scandinavian gave him a scornful look:
— What do you understand, dandy.
10. The Cold War, pirates , and convicts
— Guys, let me listen already! — shouted Inaori — Warren Dixon is there.
— Who is that? — Vikskef asked.
— He advises the most serious governments on both sides of the Atlantic.
— Oh, that’s interesting.
"... poorly disguised international robbery — the adviser was saying — compared to which, even offshores look harmless. Offshores introduce dumping to the tax market and suck financial resources from developed countries. But finances can still only operate in the real economy, so they have to be repatriated. And you have created a de-facto tax-free zone for low capex hi-tech and sucked in the most advanced production technology and the most effective developers. Your economy appropriates the fruits of huge investments in science and education made by the developed countries. That's the source of the fantastic growth of your economy and your wealth that was “created from scratch”. This is just piracy. Do you think you can get away with it?"
— How nice — smiled Torres — at the turn of the last century, when the West brain drained the countries of the Eastern bloc, somehow it has not been not piracy. Your governments were talking about free enterprise, economic competition , and globalization. Where are these words now? Hottentot morality? If I stole a cow from you, it's good, and if you stole one from me, it’s suddenly a bad thing?
— That is, you admit that I'm right?
— Nothing like that. On the contrary, it is you admitting that you are in the position of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. You are losing the economic competition thanks to your bureaucratic management, as well as taxes and regulation that crush private initiative. Your politicians can now only, as Nikita Khrushchev did in the last century, bang a shoe on the UN podium and threaten to bury us.
Dixon laughed.
— You overestimate the influence of backyard players on the world politics.
— I might — Torres said, and rubbed his nose thoughtfully, — although, you know, at the end of the XVI century the Netherlands were a backyard of the sacred Habsburg Empire. Fast forward 50 years, and the Netherlands becomes a prosperous Republic, their possession spanning three oceans , with the Empire as their backyard. The h istory does sometimes repeat itself.