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President Barber entered the conference room in a scurry. The door closed silently behind him as he scanned the conference table and the cabinet members’ faces.
“Good morning,” he greeted quickly.
“Good morning,” replied a blend of mumbled, desynchronized voices.
“As you know,” began President Barber, reaffixing his tie, “we need to get things going here. We need to move fast, indeed very fast. We need to establish these new policies as soon as we can. Yesterday we settled one reform. Today let’s go for more. There was some argumentation and disagreements yesterday, as expected. It’s simply part of the dialect process to ensure the best reforms; however, Mr. Duckworth and I will be bringing in each of you one at a time to formulate the reforms together. Again, we need these proposed reforms devised quickly, and three minds can work together more fluidly than twelve. We will not finish this process today; nor tomorrow. But by the end of the week I aim to complete these reform plans. I will call each of you—independently—into my office to dialect and devise these reforms for installment. Let’s get the job done,” said President Barber in a direct voice. “Dr. Snyder, you’re up first, right now.”
Dr. Snyder stood up from his seat and tipped the president a single nod. President Barber nodded back, then marched out of the Conference room. Troy followed suit, with Dr. Snyder following directly behind.
After a short commute down the hallway and into the elevator, the three men renewed their quick-paced walk down another marble-white hallway into a large office. The office was decorated with heavy scarlet curtains that slung over what appeared to be windows. The room was carpeted with blue and golden rugs and frills. Matching cherry oak desks, bookcases, and coffee tables were disbursed throughout the office. The president’s main desk was incredibly large, nearly twice that of Dr. Cole’s Princeton office. Behind the desk sat a large leather chair, and behind it on the wall lay an old painting portrait of George Washington.
“Dr. Snyder, Mr. Duckworth, welcome to my office,” welcomed President Barber, walking around his desk and standing behind it. “Please, seat yourselves,” he suggested, casting his outreached hand towards two leather chairs, angled inwards towards the president’s large desk.
Troy and Dr. Snyder took their seats simultaneously. President Barber watched the two men sit in their seats, then took his own.
“First thing’s first, gentlemen,” began President Barber. “The issue today is the economy. Dr. Snyder, you have done a spectacular job eliminating the unemployment rate. Every single citizen is able to say that they have a job. However, and despite what we may say publicly, a large number of citizens are employed with near-meaningless occupations. We need to make every position meaningful and have depth at it in case a problem persists. We cannot have a glitch-problem when one worker goes down and the whole system collapses. Depth and efficiency is what I want; it’s what we need.”
“What types of jobs do you consider meaningless, Mr. President?” asked Dr. Snyder.
“I consider many jobs to be meaningless,” said President Barber, wide-eyed. “Including the defunct governmental system we have already eliminated; but that was and is not the only idle system of employment still in existence today. Company CEOs and executives of huge corporations do nothing but hold their money and reap the benefits of their workers’ intellect and sweat. Moreover, many of those in positions of power and money have no experience in the matter. They simply inherit the riches from a family member and become instant billionaires. With companies now larger than ever before, it would take an entire revamped and miserable effort to ruin an entire fortune. We’ve seen companies that seemed impregnable fold in a matter of months due to changes that unqualified peoples made in sad attempts to reform something that was not broke. That’s why we don’t see it very often. The executives sit back and are disengaged from the company. They’re afraid to make moves to change anything. Thus, the result is the rich getting richer and the workers propelling the company into the disengaged executives’ pockets.”
“Is this true of every large company?” asked Dr. Snyder. “I know that what you just explained is certainly true in some companies. But I believe there are some companies that do have the luxury of an engaged and qualified executive, and it benefits the entire operation.”
“Which company do you have in mind?” asked President Barber.
“Apple Incorporated. Steven Jobs was,”
“Steve Jobs is dead. He died over fifty years ago,” interrupted President Barber. “He was the last engaged and efficient executive this continent has seen. The example you just provided us with is a perfect example of my explanation that company executives can inherit the wealth and stability from previous executives and avoid ruining the company.”
Dr. Snyder frowned and lowered his head.
“I suppose I see your point, Mr. President. But what do you have in mind to fix this problem?” he said.
“I was thinking more of a nationalization process. The Movement simply nationalizes the major companies,” answered President Barber.
“Nationalization of major corporations?” asked a bewildered Dr. Snyder. “That is simply mad!”
“Mad?” screamed Mr. Duckworth. “What is mad about it? The fact that CEOs today do not have the intellect nor skill to run a company? Or the fact that those whom know the best and work the hardest receive the smallest paychecks? Because I’ll tell you, Dr. Snyder, you and I are better than any two CEOs in any business today.”
Dr. Snyder looked down once again, pondering the horrific idea of nationalizing corporations.
“I just can’t see it happening without any negative retaliation. The reforms we have in place since over a decade ago did much to eliminate the problem of CEOs accumulating mass wealth through coercion of employees. Now the employees own at least half, if not more than half, of the of the companies’ shares. If we nationalize the companies, we are also taking away shares from the companies’ workers,” he explained.
“Do you think the retaliation could drown The Movement’s popular support? After all, only one sixteenth of one percent are CEOs or company presidents,” said Troy.
“I just don’t know for sure. I know it probably wouldn’t help it at all. I can’t see it helping in any way. I mean, you’re essentially stealing shares, over half of them, from the people who have been supporting The Movement since its inception,” said Dr. Snyder.
“If most companies are owned, or majority owned, by their own employees, then who exactly owns the other half?” asked Troy.
“The Movement’s first wave of reforms required a company’s employees to own at least half of the company’s shares. Most companies own between fifty-one and fifty-six percent of the entire company’s shares. The CEOs and higher executives own the remaining forty-nine percent of shares,” give or take a few percentage points,” explained Dr. Snyder.
“Then would it not make sense to nationalize only that portion of the company? Then the major companies are owned by The Movement and by the employees. The Movement surely would not be disengaged from a company’s design if we owned a portion of it. I’m just wondering who the CEOs are and how much support they have for The Movement,” inquired Troy.
“How many high executives are there?” asked President Barber.
“On average, larger companies have one CEO with many positions directly below on a corporate level, but many more smaller executives at each of the company’s branches and nationwide locations,” explained Dr. Snyder.
“So where do you think those people would be in supporting The Movement? More towards total support of nationalization or more towards no support?” asked Troy.
“Well it certainly depends on the individual and his or her personal beliefs,” began Dr. Snyder. “But I’d say they would rank more towards the no support than towards the support section. But that’s my hypothesis with no actual data or research.”
“Why don’t we set certain benchmarks; then after the population reformation we can review who was exiled and who supports The Movement in both loyalty and intellect?” wondered Troy out loud so the others could here him.
“What exactly do you mean, Mr. Duckworth?” asked Dr. Snyder.
“Well, until we assess the population’s loyalty and productivity, we don’t really know who will be exiled and who will remain. In the meantime, we can set up different directions for different scenarios. Whichever of the directions that best fit the actual outcome, that is the scenario we implement,” said Troy.
“I like that idea,” quipped President Barber. “But what if the result is something totally unexpected? What do we do then?”
“I think it best if we think up every possible outcome, then we are prepared for everything,” opined Troy.
“We could definitely do that. Still, the outcome could be something other than we prepared for,” warned Dr. Snyder. “Contingencies are impossible to predict and account for.”
“That is something that we would have to deal with at that time” interjected President Barber. “But nobody has ever become successful without taking risks, albeit those darn CEOs,” he joked.
“To begin, let’s say that half of the executives support The Movement and half end up protesting the nationalization. I think half would be well supported by this group to keep The Movement afloat and with plenty of power to use elsewhere,” said Dr. Snyder.
“All we can do is prepare as much as we possibly can until that moment comes. In the meantime, let’s move on to another subject,” insisted President Barber.
“Mr. President, you mentioned earlier there are many meaningless positions or occupations. What other positions do you consider meaningless?” asked Dr. Snyder.
“There are numerous meaningless jobs that we have created in order to employ citizens. But there are also numerous meaningless jobs that everyday and responsible citizens can complete themselves. For example...custodial positions are meaningless. People need to learn to clean up after themselves and take care of their own selves and workplaces. Custodians are simply the maids of society that breed future generations of the lazy and irresponsible,” explained President Barber.
“The maids of society?” questioned Dr. Snyder. “I think you are missing a critical component of custodians. They provide clean and safe working environments, and they allow professionals to not worry about taking care of the rote responsibilities of cleanliness and instead focus entirely on their job and the task at hand. I think you are under appreciating their importance. And what happens when something breaks and needs fixed?”
“There is a difference between custodians and maintenance engineers. Custodians sweep the hallways, take out the trash, and wash the bathrooms, which every living person with any dignity has the ability and intellect to do in a matter of minutes. Maintenance engineers are trained in fixing complex appliances and technologies. We need engineers. We do not need maids to clean up after us. That we should be able to perform on our own,” said President Barber.
“I understand,” said Dr. Snyder, lowering his chin to his chest.
He picked up his sorrow head, looking directly into President Barber’s eyes.
“Mr. President,” he said, scratching his chest. “I do think there are many unnecessary positions created in order to lower—in fact, to eliminate-unemployment, not to produce work. I do believe this to be bad for the economy as a whole and in the long run. But what can be done to reverse this phenomenon?”
“That is exactly what I am getting at, Dr. Snyder,” replied President Barber.
Troy raised his hand to warn President Barber of an interruption.
“Mr. President, if I may,” he began. “Dr. Snyder, remember, after we exile the disloyalists there will be much less of a population to employ. Many of these unnecessary positions will be eliminated by natural selection from The Movement’s population reforms. Let’s just hope the most meaningful aren’t also the most disloyal.”
“Thank you, Mr. Duckworth. That is a very good point that I myself have overlooked until you mentioned it again. But that is all the truth. We aim to lower the population by nearly one hundred million. If our population control system goes as planned, that should be one hundred million from the bottom third, in terms of productivity and loyalty-eliminated from the demographic and employed population. Put simply, the population reformation can help the economy tremendously by ridding the most meaningless occupations from existence. Jobs should not be charity,” he explained.
Dr. Snyder readjusted his seating position.
“But...What...I....” he stuttered while still searching for his ideal position.
He stopped his words to recollect his thoughts.
“I just don’t see how eliminating jobs can have a positive effect on the economy. What is the rationale for lowering the employment rate?”
“It’s not about lowering the employment rate or raising the unemployment rate,” retorted Troy, shaking his head. “It’s about being more efficient. And being more efficient means each citizen needs to do more. With the current employment design, citizens do one thing and one thing only-their occupations-besides the body’s natural functions in the autonomic nervous system. The Movement’s citizens need to do more than that; they need to be responsible, proactive citizens. Humble citizens with sympathy for the hard working; not sympathy for those who get paid less than us.”
“But are there even enough hours in the day to complete everything in one day?” asked Dr. Snyder, concerned.
“If there are not enough hours in the day I will extend the day’s hours myself,” quipped President Barber.
“You’re going to extend the day’s hours? What?” questioned Dr. Snyder.
“We will do whatever it takes to right the economy. It is better than it has been in the past, but not nearly as good as it can be today,” stated President Barber through his authoritative tone.
“I understand that, Mr. President. But what kind of economy are we talking about here? Is this socialism? Communism? Capitalism? What are we trying to instill here?” asked Dr. Snyder, impatiently.
“One single system established from previous generations is never the answer. Every system has its strengths and weaknesses. Well, why don’t we take the strengths from socialism and combine them with the strengths from capitalism?” asked President Barber.
“What? Those are polar opposites! That is blasphemy!” screamed Dr. Snyder, shaking his head in disbelief.
“It is blasphemy to you because somebody told you it is blasphemy! But those two systems are antique; we get so used to believing that things cannot work together so we consider them contrasting phenomena. Clear your mind; analyze it from a fresh perspective; then take another look. Tell me the best of each system,” demanded President Barber.
“You want me to tell you what is good about socialism and capitalism?” asked a dubious Dr. Snyder.
President Barber scowled at Dr. Snyder from across the big oak desk. Dr. Snyder looked at Troy, wide-eyed, then back at the president. He sighed a deep breath.
“Okay, okay. Socialism is good for the people as whole; it provides equality for the entire community; however,” he began.
“Stop! Stop!” ordered President Barber. “Did I ask you to explain each and every aspect of the systems? Or did I ask you to explain the best of each system?”
“I apologize, Mr. President,” uttered Dr. Snyder, reaffixing his seating posture.
“Now, try again; tell me the best of both systems,” said the president.
“Yes, yes. Socialism is good because it provides the people with equal pay, no matter what,” he began, then paused to think. “It is also good because the government helps regulate corporations from gaining too much control of the market, and thus control of prices.”
He paused to think again.
“Capitalism is good because it can benefit somebody who works hard and efficiently. It can also allow the economy to grow much larger and on a global market rather quickly.”
“Very good, Dr. Snyder! Mr. Duckworth, is there any possible way we could combine all the good to form the greatest viable economic system?” asked President Barber.
Troy contemplated his response.
“I...I don’t know,” he said as he looked down at his feet, then up at the ceiling. “Is it as obvious as combining the attributes Dr. Snyder mentioned?”
President Barber arose from his chair and stood up. He clapped his hands together with pride and vigor.
“Yes, Mr. Duckworth! Only to a degree, however. I believe we can combine the best aspects of each system-provide a floor pay for all loyal and productive citizens, but there will be no ceiling for those who work harder at what they do, no matter the occupation. In The Movement, everyone possesses a job that requires dedication, skill, and responsibility. At the same time, the government’s shares of the nationalized portions of companies will act as a self-regulating company involved in a globalized world. National and government debt will not exist in The Movement. The Movement will profit, then disburse those profits to its productive and loyal citizens.”
Dr. Snyder scratched his chin. He remained silent for several seconds.
“President Barber, is this a feasible possibility?” he asked.
“We are going to make it feasible. It’s going to work. The Movement will succeed,” he assured with confidence.