Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

"I..." the pale knight struggled to speak for a while. Then he put his hands on his hips, turned around with his phone and said, "Even the people in the finance and administration departments are willing to increase their workload? How troublesome is that?"

"This is not about increasing their workload. They are more than happy to serve the mayor, and to meet your demands, they have been working overtime, tirelessly, and spilling their hearts out these past few days..."

The pale knight, skeptical, took his phone and went downstairs to take a look. Guess what? The hands of the finance department employees were moving so fast on the keyboards that they left afterimages. The administrative department's transport and installation coordinators had simply moved into the city hall. Even the installation workers had found a room to settle in.

At this point, the pale knight began to understand.

The people in the city government, they are true parasites. As long as there is money in the city's funds, they will find ways to embezzle it.

But the money they embezzled, how much is given to their masters and how much remains in their own pockets, was also something to be noted.

For instance, if their master sets up a project specifically to drain the city funds, then they follow and get their share.

But they wouldn't report a small scam like replacing a toilet and overcharging for it—not all of it anyway. Even the most loyal dogs won't pick up feces outside to feed their master.

If the city's funds could originally be used to improve the lives of the citizens, they would be huge pests. But if the city's funds couldn't reach the ordinary people at all, it's better that the money is embezzled by them than by the elites.

If the city's money was originally provided by the elite class, their embezzlement would count as redistributing wealth among the people.

Following this line of investigation, the pale knight found that, despite there being only over 8000 employees on paper at the city government, positions like coffee machine repairmen amounted to over thirty thousand when added up.

The pale knight initially thought these positions were fictitious for embezzling salaries, but later discovered this was not the case. Many of these jobs, which were neither necessary nor unnecessary, were occupied by minor officials' relatives or their children.

You wouldn't say these people are in dire conditions at home. If a family has a stable position in the city government, they're certainly not among the lowest stratum.

But these individuals were not part of the elite, nor were they among the high ranks of the lower class. Even the minor officials in the city department were not the highest echelons among the minions, at most they were mid to low-tier.

This group of people were not the poorest of the poor, nor were they wealthy. Their lives were relatively stable but still had room for improvement.

Don't say America is not a relational society; once anyone gets a bit of power, the good deals definitely go first to their relatives, friends, and acquaintances, not to strangers on the street.

And so, one brings ten, ten bring a hundred, always reaching some of the poor. Among these thirty thousand temporary positions, a third were occupied by such poor relatives.

Even among the cleaning staff of the extravagant coffee machine in the office of the pale knight, there was a woman over sixty whose house had been auctioned off, living long-term in a shelter.

And this informed the pale knight about Ms. Weiss's discontent. Because this lady was a friend of Ms. Weiss from her youth, hadn't done anything wrong, but had faced many hardships and was indeed pitiable.

The job wasn't enough for her to have a very good life, but, at least, she could afford to rent a room. Even if it was the most remote and rundown room, it was better than living in a shelter.

Now the pale knight understood what Ms. Weiss meant by the wisdom of the commoners. They are selfish, shrewd, not too good nor too bad, but they would do their utmost to defend their interests. The strength of their unity was not to be underestimated.

This is because the pale knight discovered that even the best plans require people to execute them, and any policy's implementation invariably falls upon these commoners.

Elite class might be powerful, right? Rich people might be capable, right? But could they personally manage the finances in the city government or handle changing the toilets and pool tables? Of course not.

Rich people are just responsible for making plans and financing, then they assume these people will follow the procedures they've set up, and the benefits will continuously fill their pockets.

But in reality, that's not the case. These implementers, since they could be bribed by wealthy people's money, proved that they love money.

Taking a commission from the rich still requires doing the job, but being greedy doesn't have a cost.

This is what is meant by you aiming for their interest, and they aim for your capital.

Shiller also exploited this loophole.

Like needing a coffee machine, a pool table breaking, adding a vending machine, those are normal office wear and tear. Rich people wouldn't use such issues to recapitalize; it's slow and troublesome.

Then how to report it depends on the employees, right?

Whether it's a coffee machine costing $6,000 or $600,000, the embezzled money is different. Buying one for $600,000 adds 20 maintenance job positions. If it's $60 million, besides the money and job positions, it can also cover the last quarter's bad debts.

A $60 million coffee machine is outrageous, but if everyone involved can dip their hands in it, it turns into molten gold and calling a deer a horse; suddenly, it seems particularly reasonable.

Moreover, isn't there someone to take the blame?

Our dear Mr. Mayor, he is an authentic Gothan, only drinks pure Gothan flavor. If it's not brewed with Gothan's aged rainwater, he doesn't drink it. Organizing a group to collect rainwater for the mayor is also reasonable, right?

After all, the rich aim to corrupt the mayor with money, so they must let him experience the power of money.

Don't say he wants to drink coffee; if he wants to eat moon soil, you'd have to send a Rocket up to get it for him.

Otherwise, how would he know the benefits of having money? How would he be tempted by it?

And as for why he wants to eat moon soil, isn't it because he's a mental patient?

He says he's cured no matter what, but now the head of Arkham Asylum is Shiller. As the most professional psychiatrist in the whole Gotham, he says who's mad stays mad, and no one, including the patient themselves, can argue with him.

Bad news, Shiller has no useless operations.

The pale knight slumped in the mayor's office chair, reluctantly closing his eyes.

Just then, the office door was knocked. Before he could go over to open it, a group of uniformed people burst in. The man leading them flashed his badge: "Hello, I am Chandler Antonick, head of the New Jersey Anti-Corruption Investigation Team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We've investigated recent large-scale unexplained financial flows in Gotham, and thus are ordered to conduct an investigation."

"Mayor Neiper, do you have any clues?"