Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4589 - 3670 New Christmas Atmosphere (7)

Pamela was wearing a jacket. This was unlike her. Even when conducting experiments in the laboratory, she preferred wearing hoodies or long sleeves made of soft cotton with a knitted cardigan. She didn't like clothes with hard materials.

Shiller glanced at her and noticed she looked quite fatigued: her hair was unkempt, her eyes were bloodshot, and her lips were a bit chapped.

"Brainiac, get this lady a drink." Shiller tapped the table with her fingers and said, "She really needs a good sleep."

Brainiac did not object and instructed a waiter to bring over a glass of ice wine. This was a bit unusual—ever since Brainiac took over Earth, things harmful to human health and addictive like tobacco, alcohol, and drugs had been strictly controlled. Cigarettes, which pose relatively little harm to others, were to be banned where possible, and alcohol, which could damage one's brain and possibly lead to drunken insanity, was almost completely unavailable. Drugs, needless to say, were totally forbidden.

During the war, most tobacco and alcohol factories had stopped operating. However, the fact that there was stock in the restaurant today proved that Brainiac might have been preparing to resume supply for some time.

Pamela's eyes lit up at the sight of the wine. She wasn't exactly an alcoholic, but it had been far too long since she'd had a drink, and judging from the texture of the ice wine in the glass, it was definitely good wine. She licked her lips, sat down, and started sipping slowly.

"How have you been lately, ma'am?"

"Don't get me started! Brainiac says my plant research lab violated over 600 lab safety regulations and has given me a month to rectify them all. I've been cleaning and tidying up so much, I'm dead tired."

Shiller thought for a moment and said, "Isn't it because those fighting plants of yours are too dangerous?"

"That's separate! There are over 300 species of illegal plants that must be destroyed within a time limit too. Honestly, he didn't make such a big deal about it during the war. Now that he doesn't need me, it's time to settle scores."

"I must remind you, Miss Pamela. Your plant laboratory had three riots during the war! Considering you were on the front lines, I helped clean up the mess. Your attacking cabbages destroyed sixteen of my combat robots! I'm considering deducting your points to compensate for this loss..."

Shiller started to feel a little sympathy for Brainiac.

The mages on Earth, to be honest, could be quite powerful, but they also had plenty of inexplicable flaws. Brainiac had to manage the front-line battles while also handling the mess left behind by these people after they left, which wasn't easy.

"How's your house?" Shiller was quite concerned about this issue. Pamela had only recently bought the house, and from what Pamela had just said, it seemed like her house was going to be seized.

"Sigh," Pamela was a bit agitated, she said, "My house exceeded my living space limit by just 15 square meters. All I need to do is shrink the garden a bit, but Brainiac said I couldn't return until the construction team finished their work. It's so frustrating!"

Shiller recalled that she had actually been to Pamela's new house but hadn't gone inside; she only saw it from outside the garden. It was just a very ordinary two-story building, not a mansion, but it still exceeded the limit by a bit.

"Oh right, Harley..." Shiller suddenly thought, "Harley's property should have been confiscated too, right? How is she?"

Pamela waved her hand and said, "Harley actually didn't have much personal property. She only had two personal residences, one of which was a flat in the city center, just a flat with no garden. The calculated area isn't even as large as my house, so it didn't exceed the limit. The other house is an old one left by her parents; she wouldn't be upset even if it were confiscated."

"What about her soda shops and factories?"

"Those are real industries, still running. While she no longer owns them, she remains the professional manager because they still rely on her for soda flavor research."

Shiller nodded. The best soda shops Harley ran actually fell under the food industry, and also real industry. Her factory, besides producing sparkling water, could also produce syrup and juice, which were part of the essential nutritional needs for humans.

Moreover, as always, Brainiac's wisdom enabled him to understand why humans wanted to drink soda. During wartime, alcohol was completely banned, so there was a need for substitutes to alleviate human mental stress, and soda was a good choice.

Alcohol could cause brain sluggishness, excessive intake could lead to poisoning, and getting drunk could endanger social safety; carbonated drinks weren't much better, but discussing toxicity without considering dosage is just playing with semantics. In a controlled supply situation, they could still be kept within safe limits.

During the war, Shiller hadn't drunk soda herself, but she heard from Jason and others that the factory had a controlled supply. Some heavy laborers in transportation or lifting were also given quotas. Without alcohol, ice-cold soda with lots of ice became an invaluable treat.

And now, with Brainiac gradually lifting restrictions, even alcohol was beginning to be stocked, not to mention soda.

During wartime, having carbonated drinks is already a blessing; but after the war ends and living standards rise, people naturally start demanding variety in flavors. You can't expect Brainiac to have taste buds for developing different soda flavors, so there must be someone to help. Harley is a good choice; the soda she developed was so popular that she can easily transition to a product manager role.

In Shiller's eyes, Harley isn't someone obsessed with material desires. She has money purely because she's both smart and lucky, but she's not the type to worry intensely about business. Shiller has heard her complain more than once about the endless tasks in the factory, leaving her no private time. Shiller thinks she'll eventually tire of the year-round business grind, so perhaps it's good this way.

Speaking of capitalists like Harley, we must mention Wayne Enterprises, the biggest capitalist entity in whole Gotham. Globally, upheaval strikes capitalists like Wayne hard—it's not easy for anyone to accept turning from capitalist to proletarian overnight. Many wealthy big shots have jumped off, while Bruce, the instigator of all this, seems quite amused.

The reason being, Wayne Enterprises was already somewhat failing. Brainiac didn't come to fight landlords; he came to clean up the mess.

The Gotham transformation project siphoned off too much of Wayne Enterprises' funds, causing dramatic contractions in each department, with dwindling cash flow leading to lagging production, otherwise it wouldn't have been pinned down by the Luther Group.

The gradual decline of such a massive group brings frightening livelihood issues. The positions Wayne Enterprises can offer are declining year by year, causing Gotham's unemployment rate to rise steadily.

It's been mentioned before that the main cause of gangs is economic downturn and excessive unemployment, forming groups naturally and menacing social order.

The Great Depression had already worsened the global economic conditions, and Wayne Enterprises was further impacted, combined with Luther Group constantly squeezing Wayne's industries on the East Coast, almost driving Wayne Enterprises to the cliff's edge.

Many people always say Batman doesn't use Wayne Enterprises to save Gotham, but actually, at the level of Wayne Enterprises, salvation is a paradox.

From Wayne Enterprises' perspective, its greatest societal contribution isn't developing new technology, but offering countless job opportunities, ensuring the continual downward flow of social capital that supports thousands of ordinary lives.

So what it should really do is maintain good management—so long as the group stands firm, these jobs will always exist, continuously providing sustenance for countless workers.

If it wants to withdraw funds to do something else, once it affects group operations, leading to a downsizing and mass factory layoffs, it might cause many workers to lose their jobs, which would be a true nightmare for ordinary families.

Launching a project of Gotham transformation's scale is akin to slicing open a major artery, with death just a matter of time. Once recovery is impossible and full collapse ensues, Gotham might revert to the gangster era overnight.

The rescue operations Bruce and Thomas performed were merely delaying tactics. Bruce didn't purposely summon Brainiac at this time; he had no choice—without Brainiac, there would be someone else; he must use this method to seek survival.

If this explanation seems complex, another way is to explain: what is American deindustrialization exactly? Essentially, Wayne Enterprises and similar large groups slice open the major artery, withdrawing excessive funds into the financial stock market, hoping financial investments will let money generate money.

All groups are doing this. The group's blood has been drained, but the heart's capacity hasn't increased. To keep the group alive, it can only scale down, reduce funds for production, naturally resulting in factory closures and worker layoffs.

This could be deemed a curse of capitalism. Every group, every nation, will eventually experience this curse: peak and decline, complete collapse, then establishing a new country on the ruins.

Because of this, Bruce feels indifferent about Brainiac taking over Wayne Enterprises, even glad to hand him the mess—after all, the money's already spent, but such a large group can't collapse; how to deal with it depends on Brainiac's Level 12 Wisdom.

The trap of capitalism can't constrain planned economy. A major war has plunged Earth directly into super AI wartime control; the economy no longer exists, and Wayne Enterprises' plight is insignificant.

After all, the funds Bruce initially withdrew were also invested into industry. In some sense, it's just moving from one hand to the other—those completed buildings stand firm, won't disappear with stock market crash, always usable.

Although factories have been largely reduced, mostly it's just the change of ownership, the plants and production equipment remain, and workers can be employed anytime. Without worrying about efficiency, only demanding production, the situation quickly stabilized.

Wayne Enterprises' sworn enemy Luther Group is a bit different. Lex similarly avoids finance, but his issue is excessive expansion, progressively heading towards monopoly, also showing signs of getting out of control.

Gaining more funds means expanding production scale; the larger the production scale, the more funds can be obtained, then continuing expansion from one industry to another, until achieving complete monopoly.

Before Brainiac arrived, Lex had already controlled all aspects of Metropolis. Almost all survival necessities were produced by the Luther Group, even reaching out to other East Coast cities.

Because of this, Congress dares not easily provoke it, even tacitly accepted Metropolis' independent status—because Luther Group's expansion has become unstoppable.