Courtyard light

Chapter 874 Mentality

"The current international situation is really hard to judge. Do you think there will be a dispute between Europe and the bald eagle?" The old leader also had a hard time judging the current international situation.

Liu Hai knew that the old leader was talking about something like a war, so he shook his head and said, "In the future, it will mainly be an economic struggle. The fat bear is a good example. If Europe has no money, they will not be able to unite internally."

What Liu Hai said was reflected in his previous life. In his previous life, the European Union was supported by three major forces, and some small countries had always taken advantage of it. Later, the EU did not want to subsidize these small countries, but unexpectedly, these small countries threatened to withdraw from the EU.

Of course, by 2020, the EU will only have two carriages, and Niu Niu, the troublemaker, will withdraw from the EU.

The same is true within the Bald Eagle. When its economy declines to a certain extent, the various states within it will surely have other thoughts.

In 2020, California complained that other states were lagging behind.

Because California on the west coast has a developed economy and relatively advanced industrial production.

Originally, each state within the Bald Eagle basically does its own thing from law to management, and even the laws of each state are different. If the economy at the national level deteriorates to a certain extent, there will definitely be states that want to take charge.

Every politician has his or her own ambitions. Being a governor and being the head of state are two completely different experiences.

Moreover, each state of Bald Eagle has its own National Guard, which is equipped no worse than Bald Eagle’s army and has better welfare benefits than the army. On the contrary, most of Bald Eagle’s troops outside are military contractors.

"There are also many Bald Eagle consortiums in Europe. The Bald Eagle economy has declined in recent years. Now the two sides are mainly fighting in South America."

"If Europe can snatch South America, the bald eagle will have no chance of turning things around."

"If the bald eagle has South America in its hands, then there is a chance to turn things around."

"The abundant resources and low labor costs in South America will provide sufficient support for the bald eagle!"

"In fact, it is not necessary for Europe to control South America. It is enough for Europe to prevent the bald eagle from controlling South America."

"On the one hand, Europe is cooperating with us, and on the other hand, they also have a large territory in Africa, so on the surface, Europe seems to have a better chance of winning. The only thing we are more worried about is the internal unrest in Europe."

After hearing Liu Hai's explanation, the old leader nodded and said, "The European part is all controlled by Gallic Chicken and Bull, otherwise it would have been divided long ago."

"Fat Goose is still catching up with the West, but the domestic economy is already in that state." The old leader certainly knows how bad Fat Goose's domestic economy is now.

The people of Fat Goose originally thought that by abandoning their other younger brothers, they could get rid of the burden and go into battle with a light load, but they didn't expect that it would deal a fatal blow to their own finances.

In the past, when Fat Bear was in power, on the surface, Fat Goose did subsidize other smaller brothers, but Fat Goose also gained a lot from these smaller brothers, first of all, a vast market, and then some cheap resources.

In addition, under Fei Xiong’s previous planned economy, the production of an auto part might require the participation of several of my younger brothers’ machinery factories.

Not to mention anything else, Fat Bear used to have a launch site in Kazakhstan. After the separation, Kazakhstan asked Fat Goose to pay money as soon as possible, otherwise it could not use it anymore.

Until 2020, Fat Goose was still using the launch site in Kazakhstan and had been renewing its lease.

There was no such rent before.

In the past, there was no extra charge for the pipeline that Fat Bear used to transport crude oil to Europe, but now, you have to pay to pass through other maps.

But Liu Hai had another explanation: "Old leader, you are wrong. They are trying to take advantage of troubled waters. They never intended to do a good job. The more chaotic the economy is, the more opportunities they have to take action. Old leader, look at how much money was taken away by Baldy when he ran away. There is no way to count it."

"Only when the economy is bad can they sell state-owned assets at a low price and put the state-owned assets into their own pockets. The Fat Goose gang will sell everything they can, and the price will be very low for the buyers."

"If the economy is good, these people will probably have to pay ten or a hundred times the price." Liu Hai was talking about what happened later. The oligarchs in the Fat Goose family controlled everything in the entire country and even looked down on the second person who came to power. Of course, the final result was that the second person who came to power was very resourceful.

"Fat Goose will have a hard time in the future. After this chaos, I don't know if they can recover in 20 years." The old leader laughed.

"The population of their country is too small. The development of light and heavy industries cannot be separated from workers first."

"Bald Eagle will face the same problem in the future. Their domestic population is not enough to support the development of all their industries." Mr. Zipper, the newly appointed chairman of Bald Eagle, is now adopting a policy of bringing manufacturing back to the country.

But there is a very important reality: where to find workers?
Not to mention labor costs and the like.

As a worker you will never get rich, but as a financier you may become rich overnight.

In fact, Bald Eagle also realized this problem early on, so it vigorously promoted quality education.

The elite class uses this to fool those below them, believing that quality is more important than knowledge.

It means that the son of a worker should be a worker, the son of a plumber should be a plumber, and the son of a construction worker should be a construction worker.

But this also has a huge consequence, which is the low overall cultural level.

Originally, the bald eagle was transmitting freedom to the whole world, and it was originally intended to attack other countries, but unexpectedly, people in their own country believed it.

While fooling others, you are also fooling yourself.

This led to the two extreme divisions of the bald eagle in 2020.

When Liu Hai was talking with his old leader, they were in a bar in Lao Er's house.

"Ivan, why are there more and more wines from Eastern countries here?" A young man in work clothes came into the bar, looked at the wines on the wine cabinet behind the bar owner, and asked helplessly.

"Because they're cheap!" the bar owner replied with a shrug. Of course, the bar owner couldn't say that these drinks were exchanged for something and didn't cost any money at all.

"Give me a glass of that Bull's Head wine!" Petrov also shrugged. The country was flooded with goods from certain Eastern countries.

"That's called Niulanshan, a very famous mountain." The bar owner corrected, and then poured Petrov a glass of Erguotou.

"Let's put it on hold for now. We haven't received any salary for two months." Petrov spoke again.

The bar owner looked around and whispered, "It's easy to drink as long as you want. Look at them, they are drinking high-end wine."

Petrov looked at the people in the distance. They were airport ground staff. They could enjoy a comfortable life for a month by just taking a handful of gold-plated parts or gold-plated connectors.

"If I had known this earlier, I would not have become a pilot and would have gone to work there." Petrov is a pilot at a nearby military base, but pilots do not have the opportunity to come into contact with these parts.

"Clothes. These clothes of your pilots, including your old clothes, are wanted by people." The bar owner spoke again.

"what?"

"If it's a leather jacket, it will be more popular." The bar owner said again.

"I do have this."

"Let's make an appointment. I'll have someone come to take a look. I promise I won't treat you unfairly."

"Let's do it tomorrow. I'm really short of money right now, and the exchange rate changes every day. I should have used all my money to buy supplies."

"Ours is still relatively good. Fat Goose's exchange rate is even worse."

"Those damn guys thought they could live a good life by getting rid of us, and those damn thieves stole the fleet that originally belonged to us." Petrov complained while drinking.

"They are just a bunch of big liars. They cheated us before and they are still cheating us now. They don't even give us the price we want. That's a fleet of aircraft carriers." The bar owner also nodded.

Most people on Lao Er's side don't identify with Fat Goose.

"Those damn guys are now trying to take our white swans away at a low price."

"Actually, I think the White Swan should be sold to certain Eastern countries at a high price," Petrov complained again.

"This should be impossible. Fat Goose will definitely not agree, and neither will those Western countries." Of course the bar owner knew that Petrov was the pilot of the White Swan.

"Our White Swan is a bit behind the times. Some countries in the East use fly-by-wire control systems for their civil airliners, while we are still using hydraulic control."

"And after-sales service is also a big problem. Now the companies that manufacture White Swans are scattered in many countries, and it is too difficult to reproduce them." Petrov said again.

"The Fat Goose should be made to pay us. They used to take advantage of us." The bar owner poured Petrov another drink.

"I didn't ask for a second glass. To be honest, I'm embarrassed!" Petrov looked at the wine in the glass.

"I wish our business success, and I'll treat you as such." The bar owner shrugged.

"No problem. I have some colleagues, pilot's clothes and hats. I also have a saber in a small notebook at home. It was captured by my grandfather."

When the bar owner heard this, his eyes lit up: "Maybe this is more valuable."

"That's great." Petrov was very happy to hear this.

I have to say that there are still some good things in Lao Er’s house. The pilot jackets and boots that Fei Xiong used to make are very popular.

Of course there are also telescopes and various spoils of war that were previously seized. The Fat Bear won the Second World War, and the soldiers also seized a lot of things. Now these people are taking out the things and cashing them in.

People like Petrov don’t even get paid on time, let alone others.

After the separation, the second brother and the fat goose had to store a lot of equipment because they did not have enough money to maintain them.

For an aircraft like the White Swan, taking off and cruising once requires huge costs, not to mention maintenance.

Maintenance requires not only various tools and spare parts, but the key is people.

Petrov drank two glasses of wine in succession and sighed: "Certain countries in the East are now recruiting pilots, and the prices they offer are very generous."

"You can actually give it a try. At least your family is very stable there. Alexander's whole family is there. He is currently flying a commercial airliner there. It's just that pilots there are not allowed to drink alcohol while working. If they drink, they will be punished or even fired. Apart from this, Alexander feels very happy there. He works alone, and his wife, two children, and parents are also there."

"It seems that Alexander's father has friends in some countries in the East?"

"It seems so. In fact, going to the East is a good choice. The economic output of some countries in the East was comparable to that of the bald eagle last year."

"I can't make the decision alone." When Petrov heard this, he was moved and decided to contact Alexander.

"Thank you for your hospitality!" Petrov finished the wine in the glass in one breath. Still feeling a little unsatisfied, he said hello to the bar owner and left.

The bar owner watched Petrov leave and shook his head.

"Boss, the price of bread has gone up again." The waiter said loudly after just coming back from buying bread.

"These damn black-hearted bakeries!"

“It is said that the international wheat price has increased!”

"These damn, insidious and despicable guys would rather sell the grain than supply it to our country." The bar owner cursed.

The guy shrugged when he heard this: "We can earn foreign exchange by selling to foreign countries, but the exchange rate we earn from selling to us keeps depreciating."

"These damn greedy capitalists!"

"Boss, you are a capitalist now too!"

"Get to work, boy. You should be grateful that you get your salary every month. Look, although Petrov is a senior pilot, he hasn't received a salary for nearly two months. The exchange rate two months ago is completely different from now." The bar owner shouted angrily.

"Actually, I would rather drive a tractor on the farms run by people in some Eastern countries." "Then you will be a farmer driving a tractor all your life. You can learn the art of mixing cocktails from me, and it will be easy for you to hook up with girls." When the bar owner heard this, he said something different.

“They offer good salaries!”

"Get to work, kid!" The bar owner was still thinking about other business.

Bar owners are now importing large quantities of these liquors from certain Eastern countries, and then exchanging them for various materials instead of paying directly.

After changing the wine, the bar owner can also earn foreign exchange.

You should know that there are a lot of supplies in the military base next to it.

"It's a pity that merchants from some Eastern countries are too timid." Sometimes bar owners can't help complaining because they want to do big business, but the merchants they trade with just want some ordinary second-hand goods.

The bar owner was very envious of another colleague who somehow hooked up with European and American arms dealers. All the bullets in the base next door were almost bought out by them. It was said that they had made millions of dollars and were now reselling more light weapons.

The base next door is an air force base, and the guarding troops have a lot of light weapons and some heavy weapons.

The bar owner took out his phone and called his wine supplier to arrange a time to go to Petrov's house to see Petrov's pilot jacket and the small book's saber.

There are many Oriental businessmen active in Eastern Europe. Some of them are bold, while others are timid.

Those who are brave enough will take some bulk goods, such as some retired tanks and retired Katyusha launchers.

For the timid, there are some binoculars, some pilot jackets, pilot glasses, etc.

Of course, for those who deal in bulk cargo business, there are definitely some officials involved, otherwise it would be difficult to go through the scrapping procedures.

Factory managers in various places can sell even brand new machining equipment as scrapped.

There are also some cars and other goods, and these goods have complete procedures.

On the third day, the bar owner came to Petrov's house with an Oriental young man with a flat head.

Standing behind the window in Petrov's house, you can see the airport in the distance and see that some of the airport's hangar doors are open.

The young man looked at the runway of the airport. It seemed that there had been no signs of planes taking off or landing for a long time.

There were even some pigeons walking around on the runway.

The young man just glanced at it casually.

This is the situation in this country now. Because the economy is constantly declining, the planes in these military bases are afraid to fly only once in a long time.

Coupled with the easing of relations with the West, there is no longer a need to deploy large aircraft to defend against the West.

"Hello!" Petrov looked at the young man who was younger than himself and asked him to sit down.

The young man put the gift in his hand on the table and said, "This is a small gift."

"Thank you so much. I've already sorted them out. Two of the flight jackets are still brand new, and the rest have been worn. I wonder if you want them?" The young man pointed to a pile of clothes on the worn sofa. Two brand new leather flight jackets were particularly eye-catching.

"I've seen it, it's really beautiful. We want one that has been worn, but of course the price will be much lower." The young man has been doing business with the second brother for more than a year, so he naturally understands the plight of these people.

First of all, the second son’s family’s economy collapsed and many people lost their jobs. Because it was a planned economy before, no one had to worry about work or medical treatment.

But now everyone is in charge of their own affairs. They find their own jobs and pay for their own medical treatment.

Because of the economic collapse, the second son’s money is becoming less and less valuable.

You can get a lot of good stuff here now, and these pilot jackets are really good stuff.

There are also dog fur hats and even mink fur hats.

"I can buy this at a high price. It's a deputy officer's sword from Xiao Benzi!" This year I saw another military sword from Xiao Benzi.

"This is my grandfather's trophy," Petrov said, looking at a photo.

This year, I also looked at the photo. It was a black and white photo. It showed a mighty soldier, and his rank was colonel.

The young man appraised the value of all the second-hand goods that Petrov had brought out.

"Petrov, do you want your country's currency or foreign exchange?" The young man asked after the two sides reached an agreement.

"The currency of your Eastern countries, pounds or francs will do." Upon hearing this, Petrov rubbed his hands and spoke.

Of course, we need foreign exchange now. If we hold our own currency, it may depreciate the next day.

"Then use half our country's currency and half pounds. This is safer."

"But you have to come with me to the hotel to get the money. We brought too much cash when we traded before, and we got into danger several times."

"Of course, if you like, I can invite your family to dinner." The young man spoke again.

When Petrov heard this, he was moved, so he said, "I want to ask my loved ones and see what they think!"

Of course the family agreed, so the Petrov family took the second-hand items to be traded and went to the hotel together.

In the hotel restaurant, Petrov looked at the things on the table. In the past, he would bring his family here to eat every week.

But in recent years, I have spent too little time eating out because the money in my hands is becoming less and less valuable.

When passing by the door of a private room, Petrov saw his boss drinking with several Europeans. The red wine on the table was all high-end Gallic red wine.

Petrov was in a complicated mood. Everyone knew what was going on in the base. Within their reach, everyone sold everything that could be sold, and the ground crew sold all new and old parts.

The base's management even sold off the weapons and equipment on the grounds that they were scrapped.

No one wanted to stop this because the management would only pay everyone after the weapons and equipment were sold.

It’s not that no one has reported it, but those who reported it were fired.

"Honey, would you like to consider flying a commercial airliner in some Eastern country? Marilyn called me and said they are living very well there. The supermarket has all kinds of supplies from all over the world, and the children are studying in a bilingual school." Petrov's wife said in the evening.

"Wait a little longer!" Petrov actually didn't want to fly a civilian airliner. For a strategic bomber pilot to fly a civilian airliner is like a sports car driver driving a tractor.

"The price of bread has increased by 50% in the last three months. It's already July and winter is two months away," Petrov's wife said again.

Petrov naturally knew that in winter, the prices of all daily necessities would increase.

Petrov felt even more uncomfortable thinking of this. In the past, he could also eat some vegetables distributed by the vegetable factory. Although the amount was relatively small, it was still something at least.

But all this was gone two years ago. Everyone took care of themselves, but Petrov knew that the top management still had more vegetables than they could eat every winter.

Fresh lettuce, fresh tomatoes, fresh beans, even fresh broccoli.

Ordinary people lined up in the cold wind to buy bread, while these senior executives enjoyed fine wine and delicious food in the warm rooms.

Changed! Everything has become so strange!
Petrov never thought about changing anything, he just wanted to live his life well, but now it seems that life is getting harder and harder.

"I promised Yang today that I would contact my colleague and sell him a flight jacket. I don't think I will have to worry about it this winter. Besides, we have foreign exchange now." Petrov still didn't want to leave the base. Petrov felt that all this was temporary. Just like what was said in the news, this was the growing pains of reform. When the reform is completed, everything will be fine.

And the young man inside the hotel was thinking about Petrov.

"Petrov has two children and a beautiful wife. He seems to have a happy family now. Moreover, he has a bottom line, unlike other people in the base who are always trying to get their hands on money."

"But as the country's economy continues to decline and its quality of life continues to drop, it may be easier to approach people like this."

Young people naturally know that people who have no bottom line can never accomplish anything great, and that those who can accomplish great things need such steady people.

Those people who have no bottom line, if you tell them something today, they will let many people know it tomorrow.

"What a pity!" The young man in the hotel thought of the huge things he saw in the hangar today. Such good things were placed in the hangar.

Of course, the young man also knew that these planes were not allowed to take off now, mainly because they were afraid that the fat geese would be stolen.

Now the second brother is negotiating with Fat Goose about the price of these planes. Fat Goose stole the aircraft carrier fleet, so the second brother is very wary of these equipments.

And all the fat goose people in the base are not allowed to touch these equipments.

The second brother’s people are a little hostile to the fat goose people, and are also a little wary.

Because it was uncertain whether the planes would return after routine training, the second brother grounded all flights of these huge aircraft.

Of course, the young man did not say what he would do, but acted according to circumstances, and he continued to keep in touch with Petrov.

"This is probably the dog-skin hat we used to exchange for things back then." The young man looked at an older dog-skin hat. Judging from the color of the fur, it looked like the fur color of the pastoral dogs in some Eastern countries.

Young people naturally know that decades ago, we were in a very difficult situation and had to exchange everything we could for various supplies.

Among them, cats and dogs made great contributions, dog skin and cat skin.

This hat belonged to Petrov’s grandfather and is very well made.

In the following days, Petrov introduced several business deals to his colleagues and made some money. Moreover, prices began to soar again. Every day he could hear his wife complaining that the prices of potatoes, bread, honey, and sausages had all gone up.

The current pricing system is completely determined by the seller. It is unlike the planned economy in the past when the selling price was always the same and everyone had the same price.

The price of eggs has increased the most. The quality of life in Petrov's family is still declining. Before, each person had one egg a day, but now only children have eggs.

In the past, flour was the staple food, but now the small amount of flour is mostly potatoes and corn.

I used to eat meat twice a week, but now I only eat meat once a week.

In mid-July, when Petrov saw his former colleague Alexander coming back with his wife and children, his mentality changed completely, because Alexander's wife was wearing beautiful new clothes, a silk scarf, and a gold necklace around her neck. Even Alexander was wearing a suit and tie, and Alexander's two children were holding electronic pets that made their own children envious.

"Petrov, I think you should get out of this damn place as soon as possible." Alexander and Petrov came to the bar, and Alexander said bluntly.

"Is there anything else I want to do for this country?" Petrov looked at his colleagues in suits and ties, feeling a little depressed, but he still spoke.

"No, this country will be the same no matter who leaves. You have to think about your lover, your daughter, and your son. You may not know that some of our top leaders are now billionaires. I saw relevant reports on the Internet in some Eastern countries. They bought private yachts, villas, and private jets in Europe."

"Their children are attending elite schools that cost £100,000 a year."

"The country is out of money, but they are rich!" Alexander shrugged.

When Petrov heard this, he was silent.

(End of this chapter)