20demayo Page 389
Page 389
He definitely needs a team of exceptional security guards, cleaners, and support staff—Ian of the New Justice League has always been attentive to this, so he needs exceptional support personnel for stability. After all, if the New Justice League headquarters were to be blown up by the jealous bats, the severance pay for ordinary employees would certainly not be a small sum.
"Ambitious individuals?"
Sam's voice suddenly turned dangerous.
"Do you know how many secret meetings those old guys in Congress held overnight after seeing this procurement list? The Pentagon has already marked your file as a 'potential national threat'!" Grandfather Sam Lane warned Ian in an unusually stern tone, inadvertently revealing a wave of top-secret information.
"Isn't there you here?"
Ian walked to the window.
He gazed at the demon maids in the manor who were grooming the hellhounds.
He lowered his voice.
They started praising their grandfather excessively.
There was silence on the other end of the phone for three seconds.
"I am just a general, not a marshal."
Sam's voice suddenly became subtle.
"I can't protect you now."
His voice was still unusually stern.
However, Ian keenly caught the sour smell of vinegar.
"Grandpa, why do you seem to have a problem with me?"
Ian tentatively asked the question.
"Of course I have an opinion!"
At this moment, the old general finally erupted, "You want to use religion as a stepping stone to do something big, and you didn't even consult your grandfather? Do you not trust me, or do you think I can't help you?"
Hear the words.
Ian was becoming increasingly guilty.
He believed that his plan to implant the "Ian God" faith had been exposed.
"Um, Grandpa, is there anything you can do to help me?"
he asked cautiously.
The sound of papers turning over came from the other end of the phone, followed by Sam's extremely low voice.
“Listen, kid. As long as you’re willing to pay—increase the basic military allowances, compensation for casualties, and improve the food standards—I can bring you a hundred thousand troops to help you in no time.”
The old general's voice was very soft, as if he were whispering something to Ian.
"Huh? What's going on?" Just as Ian was wondering what he was doing with an army of 100,000, since he wasn't a war god and didn't have a daughter who had been sold into a brothel.
"Stop pretending! Ian, your grandfather has been a soldier all his life, and I've seen through all your tricks. I'm fully capable of providing you with some assistance."
"To be honest, although it's not the right time yet, your company's strategy of using seemingly outrageous but inexpensive daily necessities to attract the poor is quite good."
"Moreover, you can subtly influence users' thoughts—it has to be said that with the increasingly intense conflict between the rich and poor, you have found a real breakthrough."
"Believe me, our current system won't last more than a few years before it collapses. When that happens, the economic debt will bring a real winter, and that will be your opportunity to rise. I will have my intelligence agencies go around stirring up conflicts on every continent, and then you can take advantage of the situation to rise up—yes, a new America will be just around the corner."
Sam Lane spoke clearly and forcefully, and his line of thinking was undeniably insightful. It was not that America lacked officials who could clearly see the situation.
only.
"Paji~"
Ian's phone fell to the ground with a thud.
His super brain has always been very useful, but it hasn't been this useful yet. God knows why Sam Lane could associate the role of Ian's Greatest Technology with this!
Swallowed.
Ian noticed it too.
His maternal grandfather is only a general now, but he definitely wants to be a marshal!
Chapter 170 Genesis and Fatherlanders!
silence.
Still silent.
Ian never expected to hear such unjust words from his grandfather, who had always believed in "patriotism." Was this the same General America who said "America First" hundreds of times a day? Clearly, his grandfather Sam Lane's political ambitions were growing, and he wanted to put the crown on young Ian's head.
Just as Ian was reeling from the so-called New America, Sam Lane continued his tirade, his radical ideas making the bewildered Ian's expression grow increasingly strange.
Sam Lane is an elderly man who has experienced multiple economic cycles.
He has profound insights into the American economic system. At this moment, he is speaking to Ian in a calm and firm voice, explaining the current social problems and possible solutions.
“Ian, look at America now. Although the economic data looks good on the surface, if you look deeper, you will find that people are increasingly tired of life. The unemployment rate is not high, but the quality of employment is declining. Many people can only find low-paying and unstable jobs.”
"Working three jobs a day to support yourself is not the way of life that a developed country should have—our country is already on the verge of collapse."
"Let's start with the most critical issue—the debt. $36 trillion, that's $10.6 in debt for every American. The interest is higher than the military spending, and the government is currently robbing Peter to pay Paul. Yellen's 'critical point' is not an exaggeration. But what about those politicians in Washington? While they're calling for deficit reduction, they're frantically transferring benefits to specific companies."
"The money saved all went into the pockets of tycoons and politicians. Ian, we all know very well that our country's current economic system is like a magnificent building on the outside, but riddled with holes on the inside. The officials are always boasting about those impressive figures, but the people's feelings are what truly don't lie."
"Take daily necessities as an example. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that grocery prices have risen by 24.6% compared to four years ago. Milk and eggs, which are essential items for every household every day, have more than doubled in price. People's income growth is far behind the rate of price increases!"
"About half of the adults in New York City don't even have enough income to cover basic living expenses."
Sam Lane was even able to produce actual data; his ideas were definitely not something he came up with on the spur of the moment. Even a super brain couldn't calculate these things in a short time!
"Um... this shouldn't concern you much, right?" Ian sensed his grandfather's passion, which seemed somewhat different from the casual chatter of ordinary people in front of a keyboard.
Sam Lane, Ian's grandfather, seemed genuinely eager to do something.
“Listen, kid. In America today, a gallon of milk in the supermarket can make a veteran curse, college tuition is so expensive that students would rather become mercenaries in Afghanistan to pay off their loans, and health insurance? Ha! A middle-class person can go bankrupt just by getting sick. A truly hopeful country shouldn't be like this!”
"Do you know what the average American is most afraid of right now? It's not alien invasion, it's superpowered people fighting—it's getting a hospital bill!" Sam's voice suddenly rose. "Last week, one of my privates had his leg blown off by terrorists, but he didn't cry. He just fainted when he saw the quote for a skin graft!"
"Because he couldn't prove that his leg was injured by a terrorist bomb, he had to pay for all subsequent medical care himself, except for emergency medical care!"
Sam Lane's tone was full of resentment at the situation his soldiers were in, but he really couldn't do anything about it, since the finances in this area were controlled by disgusting politicians.
“My family’s medical insurance has a reimbursement rate of 65%, which is pretty good.” Upon hearing this, Ian subconsciously touched his own medical insurance card.
Although Ian's treatment method usually involves cutting away the parts that are not right, he still cares a lot about his health insurance, as it is a rare symbol of prestige even among the natives of America. Despite the high rejection rate of insurance in America, the good news is that very few people in the country can afford proper health insurance.
"There's also the housing problem."
On the other end of the phone, the old general continued firing.
"Manhattan apartments are so expensive that even university professors are sleeping under bridges. What do West Coast tech elites think about this? They're now calling tents 'mobile micro-homes'!"
"How ironic!"
"This is not the fairness and freedom we fought for back then, so to eradicate these things, we have to overthrow everything and then build a new order from the ruins."
The sound of a glass slamming onto the table came through the phone. Ian guessed his grandfather must be drinking bourbon—because some powerful officials he had seen before loved it.
“The most amazing thing is the education system.” Sam’s sneer continued, “Our public schools produce children where half think ‘evolution’ is some kind of stock market term, and the other half think the earth is flat. Do you know where the 3,680 genders came from? You can see how many idiots we’ve raised by looking at our education system!”
"I bet that even if we just captured a Yuanmou Man, his knowledge would be far superior to that of all the teachers in our schools. With those teachers, how could we worry about not having enough idiots in our country?"
Sam Lane's commentary was incredibly insightful; he truly grasped every problem America faces today, but most of those who understand this certainly won't be able to change it.
no way.
This is reality; there will always be those with greater power who can drown out the voices of those with insight.
"Actually, there are 3,699 genders."
Ian quietly corrected his grandfather's outdated data.
"????"
Sam Lane was noticeably silent for a few seconds.
"Damn it! Nineteen more genders in one night! Even God couldn't have created the world this fast!" he said angrily, his voice filled with disgust for the military's five-star "mutant" general.
“Look at that country across the ocean. We should learn from them. There’s a right path to follow, so why don’t we take it?” Sam Lane’s voice was very red.
This allowed Ian to discern some of Sam Lane's political stance.
A New America?
The United States of America should become the Republic of America!
That scene was truly beautiful.
Ian dared not imagine it.
He was afraid he would fall for her.
“Well, Grandpa, you’ve misunderstood. My tech company actually has another purpose… for my Kryptonian magic.” Ian knew when and what name to give his magic.
however.
His explanation was not heeded by the hot-headed General Sam Lane—he may genuinely love his country, which is why he now hates it more and more.
"I thought your dad would be that hope, but what happened? He was a huge disappointment. Your dad is just a guy who plays superhero house in Metropolis!"
The old general's cold laugh was like a bullet being chambered. Ian's phone suddenly became hot to the touch, and he instinctively tried to turn down the volume, but this didn't seem to hinder Clark's super hearing, who was far away in Africa.
"I didn't hear anything!"
Ian figured Clark wouldn't dare hit his grandfather, but hitting him would definitely feel good. He wanted to hang up, but he was afraid Sam Lane would come knocking that night and try to persuade him to build a new America in front of his father. He could fully sense his grandfather's emotions and knew he wasn't joking.
"Combating criminal groups? Deterring thugs? Clark simply doesn't understand that the reason these scum are like cockroaches that can't be eradicated is because we are living on the eve of the fall of the Roman Empire!"
The sound of heavy books slamming onto the table came from the other end of the phone. Ian seemed to see his grandfather standing in front of a sand table of world history, poking at rotten dynastic specimens with the fingers of generals.
"With land being consolidated into Wall Street, the gap between rich and poor is steeper than the Mayan pyramids, the bureaucracy is more bloated than the Byzantine Empire, and the currency is depreciating faster than the Weimar Republic's Mark—we already have all the ills of the late stages of ancient dynasties on Earth, and this is the crux of why criminal groups and villains are emerging one after another!"
“This is the true end of the American dynasty. Your father is an alien who doesn’t know what it means to learn from history, so he can’t understand our current situation.”
“What we Americans need is a true chosen one, a savior, but what about your father? All he knows is hanging bank robbers on the Metropolitan Clock Tower!”
The old general's breathing became heavy, his voice sharp as a scalpel. Ian was terrified that he would hear his grandfather say things like Aquaman and Wonder Woman were slightly inferior in strategy, Superman and Green Lantern were somewhat short-sighted, and Batman, a genius of his generation, only knew how to shoot the Joker in Gotham.
Fortunately, Grandpa Sam Lane doesn't have Ian's talent for writing on Pinduoduo.