"But.... you're wealthier than I am!"
"Yes, so?"
"But they're making you pay those insanely high taxes!"
"Your point?"
"Why aren't you mad? Why don't you take it out of your people's wages??"
"Do you know why my empire is continuing to grow and so many of your people's empires collapse?"
"No."
"Come, let me show you a new path forward." -- Anon Guest
The heretic lead the oligarch around a heretical polity. The air was so clean all over the world. Yet there was no sign of any atmospheric scrubbers nor processors for the resulting pollution bricks. There were weird buildings everywhere. And hardly any cars.
"So..." guessed the Oligarch, "This is... your estate? Why so many buidings and roads?"
The Heretic smiled. "This is just one of the residential areas for the greater populace. Public housing."
Public.
Housing?
"You just give people handouts?"
"Better. I pay my taxes so the administration can give people what you call handouts. You should see the free hospital. It's amazing."
"FREE?" yawped the Oligarch. "They can just get any operation they want? At any time?"
"I mean... technically. The policy regarding preventative treatment usually stops the necessity for operations, but even when they are, they're small and easy procedures."
"And you force people to get the examinations so the doctors know what to do?"
"Force? There's a day off work so they can. It's part of the essential functioning of my polity. If an executive refuses to give an employee a health day per month off work, then they have their operation and assets confiscated."
"Ah," the Oligarch had a sudden understanding. "Tyrrany. When is the revolution going to break out."
"Why would it?" said the Heretic. "Everyone's fed, everyone's healthy. Everyone has a home. Anyone can work whatever job they want, and every child knows how to learn. There's nothing to revolt against. The taxes pay for the things everyone needs."
"And nobody's lazily suckling off of the government teat?"
"Not even me," said the Heretic. "I'll try to boil it down for you. Healthy workers are very productive. Sick workers are less productive. Dead ones don't make anything at all. So you want them healthy, which means you want systems in place to keep them that way."
The Oligarch repeatedly tried and failed to comprehend the maths involved.
[Photo by ASIA CULTURECENTER on Unsplash]
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