Chapter 88: Administrative concerns
Officials from the Earth Federation were brought to Attilan after Doom began the initial diplomatic relations process. The finer details regarding the treatment of the Inhumans and how they would be settled were discussed with the officials of the Federation.
After just a week, the diplomatic relationship between Attilan and the Federation was announced worldwide. It was decided that the Inhumans would be settled on Mars by transporting the entire city of Attilan along with its inhabitants.
"There might be some conflict with the people and existing nations if we bring a city-state of superpowered beings into Earth so it would be much better to settle them on Mars. Since people will have to adapt to the new environment on Mars anyway, the rejection would be much less severe if the Inhumans were assimilated on Mars." One of the officials reported.
"That is a great idea. If the Inhumans begin living on Mars and start developing their city, it might help in making people immigrate to Mars a little faster too. It is a little less scary when you know that people are already living there." Savant nodded in agreement from the side.
In fact, it had been a concern for the Federation that although the land on Mars was selling quite well, people were hesitating to go live on the newly terraformed planet. There were many reasons for this phenomenon but the biggest of them all was due to the fear of the unknown.
Until this point, people on Earth have only ever learned about the dangers of space and how Mars is an inhospitable planet. Pop culture and mass media have always portrayed Mars as a place of hope but also a place of fear. It was unlikely that the fear would go away immediately.
The Federation had promoted the sceneries of Mars, the abundance of land and resources, and the new opportunities to be found there extensively. But despite the heavy advertisements, the rate of people immigrating to Mars had not been as much as the Federation expected.
The introduction of the Inhuman City on Mars was expected to relieve some of the fears of the public and let them know that it is a safe place for people to settle down.
There were also problems like a lack of a complete public infrastructure system, the economics of moving to a new place, and such but the Federation was actively working on that.
"Why not use the policies from the past that have worked fairly well? If we were to let the people keep the land that they reclaim, wouldn't people flock to Mars? Similar policies have been used in the past of many countries." Someone had suggested at a Federation meeting.
"What if too many people apply at once? What if the rich and powerful monopolize the planet by exploiting the people? What if this promotes more inequality? Many things could go wrong with this policy." Doom countered with things that had actually happened in the past.
A rich person or a corporation could hire hundreds or thousands of people to reclaim the land on Mars. They could use scientific tools to strategically target the best lands with the most resources and occupy them. This had always been the case on Earth.
Since this project was even at a planetary level, it could even lead to conflicts between nations. Each nation would want to occupy the largest land and the most resources on the new planet. In this race, the larger nations with the most wealth and power would be able to occupy more.
It was evident on Mars that something like that was already happening. Although immigration was sluggish, the governments, corporations, and individuals from powerful and wealthy nations like the USA, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, UK, and China were fiercely buying up the land that the Federation had put up for sale.
It was only a matter of time before borders will begin to be drawn on the map of the Earth Federation. Although the Federation was aware of this, they were allowing this trend as long as it didn't lead to direct conflict.
It wasn't in the Federation's interest to stop the expansion of any nation or organization on Earth. They welcomed it with open arms as long as it didn't violate the Federation's laws. It was also a source of tax for the Federation which it could then pour into poorer nations to level the playing field even if by a very tiny fraction.
But the Federation couldn't let Mars be a playground for some so-called elites. They weren't trying to create a dystopia where only the weak and poor remain on Earth. So, a policy was urgently needed to stimulate immigration and make it even.
"There are many things that we can't micromanage at the Federation level. So how about a lottery system? Interested individuals can sign up and we will redistribute the number of entries for each person based on their current situation. It can solve a lot of problems at once."
Cypher suggested a lottery system with some adjustments. Although the application was open to the entire world, it would be unfair to most countries since the Indians and Chinese with their overwhelming population would have a higher probability of accepted individuals.
To make this a little more even, Cypher suggested providing multiple entries to individuals based on their situations. For example, a person from a small country might get two lottery entries, a person who is living in poverty might get another extra entry, and so on.
Although it would not be completely fair even after all that, it wasn't expected to be completely fair. The idea of a lottery itself wasn't fair from the beginning since it left everything up to the luck of the individual. The Federation was just doing what it could.
Doom liked the idea proposed by Cypher but added, "Even with that, it would be necessary to allot a maximum area that an individual or a family can reclaim. That should solve the problem of indiscriminate reclamation."
"Also, we can make a law that prohibits the sale of the reclaimed land for a few years. We can add details of how long it can't be sold based on the past use of the reclaimed land. It could be five years or longer for real estate development, three years for agriculture, and such."
Cypher excitedly clapped his hand at one of the Minister's suggestions. "Great. We can prevent land speculation to a large degree if we have a law like that. Even if we can't actively intervene or stop it in the long run, just this law could keep the land on mars from becoming idle investment opportunity for the wealthy upper class."
Although the meeting was getting heated with new ideas being thrown back and forth, a lazy voice poured cold water over the heated atmosphere. "You guys do realize that the land mass on Earth is almost the same as Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia combined, right? No matter how you promote immigration, the fundamental problem is that we need more population."
Earth Federation was trying to become an interstellar civilization but they were getting stuck at a fundamental problem of a lack of population. The overall population growth rate was decreasing with people having less and less babies every year. On top of that, recent wars and incidents have added to the already declining population growth rate.
The Federation was in the process of colonizing Mars and looking beyond the solar system but in the process, it was also having the problem of finding ways to make people have kids.
"We are promoting all kinds of policies like federation-sponsored child care, free education, tax cuts, subsidies, and more. However, the experts believe that we might have to wait at least half a decade before a significant rise in the population growth rate is seen. Some nations with a severe decline like Korea and Japan are even individually investing in dating apps to encourage young people to date and have kids." A Minister said with a helpless smile.
It was truly an absurd situation. After years of singing about the need for population control and the harms of overpopulation, the leaders of many nations were now having to ask people to date more and have more kids.
"Actively use pop culture and media to promote the ideas and values of having a family and kids. If we pair it with the incentives provided by the Federation, we might see an improvement."
Doom's idea was to use overt messaging through the incentives and subsidies for having kids that the federation provides along with subtle messaging through movies, TV, literature, the internet, and the overall media to break the individualistic culture and promote a more collective culture based around having a large and happy family.
"That is being considered as well. But we don't want to make it too obvious and push the people too much. Having the authorities tell you to do something almost always results in the opposite effect. So we are trying to be as subtle as possible. With the improvement in the economy and a lot of leisure time on the people's hands, we expect some results in the coming couple of years."
Doom nodded in agreement with the official's answer. If young people have a minimum social security guaranteed by the federation and some economic leeway, it is expected that marriage and birth rates will increase in the near future.
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