Chương 154: Chapter 105: A Match in Gotham (Part 2)_1

Develop tourism in Gotham?

If someone suggested this to Bruce earlier, he would have advised them to check their mind at Arkham Mental Hospital.

Who would be lunatic enough to come to Gotham for a vacation?

If someone really dared to, they might as well only purchase a one-way ticket since there's no need to plan for a return.

But surprisingly for Bruce, his friends did not seem shocked by this idea, with many even expressing their support.

"In fact, Gotham's natural conditions are not bad, right? We're located at a low latitude and are not cold, classified as a subtropical monsoon humid climate without any natural disasters like tornadoes. We even have a Golden Beach, which ranks high in quality along the entire East Coast..."

"Of course, of course, I know gambling isn't all good business either. Gamblers are no nobler than junkies, but it sure beats smuggling drugs, arms, and hazardous goods, doesn't it?"

Harvey took a sip of his wine, patted Bruce's shoulder, and said, "You're not yet graduated, and thus you might think everything is either black or white, and Gotham should flourish in one fell swoop…"

"But practically speaking, this doesn't seem feasible. From what it looks like now, it's impossible for Gotham to become completely better. It can either sink further, or go even deeper."

"However, the numerous job opportunities that casinos can provide will reduce the number of unemployed. When more formal jobs appear, the possibility of mob violence will be weakened, and the situation will stabilize."

"This would be good news for any city. Although I doubt that Gotham could ever be as normal as Emperor City, but certainly it would be much better than the current situation..."

"But..."

Bruce's current state of mind was, he understood all this logic. As a genius, of course, he could see the benefits that this kind of industrial transformation and upgrade would bring, even the Wayne Family would benefit from it.

But in his view now, it all seemed ridiculous.

Bruce had a somewhat pessimistic view of Gotham. He knew better than anyone how corrupted the city was, and he had never held out hope that this city would develop in any promising direction.

But it seemed now, Gotham wasn't developing in a good direction, instead it was switching to a different negative path, like changing one dead-end to another. After a series of maneuverings, it was like changing from black to a dazzling array of colors. The City of Sin was transforming to a flashy City of Sin.

Just the collaboration between Gotham and Chicago had already brought some changes to the city.

As we all know, the transshipment of smuggled goods requires warehouses for storage. With the cooperation with Chicago, the smuggled goods routes have significantly broadened, the amount of smuggled goods has increased, leading to a need for more warehouses.

To construct warehouses, you need land. Everyone wanted a piece of the growing "pie", which led the Twelve Families to go crazy over acquiring land. The price of land in the suburbs of Gotham skyrocketed.

Moreover, just snapping up the land wasn't enough. Warehouses don't just appear out of thin air.

Building warehouses requires architects to design, construction teams to build, and inspectors to oversee. To store items in warehouses, you still need people to transport and haul. One way or another, at least a few thousand job vacancies have suddenly popped up.

Furthermore, some relatively dangerous chemical smuggling products require special warehouses for storage, like cold storage warehouses.

Victor had never thought that in just one week, he would receive 89 job offers with all offering eye-popping high salaries, combined salaries would be enough to freeze his wife until the next century.

When he had spent several days and nights working on extra jobs to the point of exhaustion, and was so tired that he had to call his classmates to come to Gotham and make big money, he wondered if he was going crazy.

The sudden expansion of smuggling channels seemed like a huge cake. The method to divide this cake is: the quick gets, the slow loses. If you want to grab the largest piece, you must build all the necessary facilities earlier than others. Seeing this, mob bosses, even before other industries began to collaborate, had started to rush to build supporting facilities in advance.

At the piers of Gotham which had not been renovated for decades, construction was bustling again. To allow larger ships to dock, they had to consider funding a deep-water pier. To accelerate the turnover at the piers, land reclamation projects were also on the agenda.

Moreover, when trading with suppliers worldwide, you need airplanes. Right when the Mayor's office had just indicated a slight hint of this, almost all big mafias moved quickly, expressing that the construction of Gotham was everyone's responsibility, and why not let them take the charge of the airport construction project.

They soon found out that compared to sea transport, air transport also had huge potential. Bulk commodities were of course better transported by freighters, but for more precision equipment and instruments, air transport was faster and safer.

To achieve air transportation, there was a need for larger airports, more warehouses, a faster system of internal logistics. This required more land, and more constructors for warehouses, as well as more specialized managers and workers.

The local labor force in Gotham was limited and most of them were already members of various mobs. Gotham was gradually evolving in a direction where jobs awaited people.

It was then that people realized, the shortage of workers was not due to the lack of people in Gotham, but due to their lack of specializations.

Even a porter had to learn techniques like how to exert effort. Without it, they'd be worn out by noon, leaving no one available for the afternoon shift.

Due to inadequate basic education infrastructure in Gotham, most people were layabouts until they reached adulthood. You could say that they were incapable and unteachable in almost anything.

Mob bosses realized that the current workforce was beyond help. So, they needed to start from the next generation. If they needed truck drivers then they'd start a driving school. If they needed air traffic guides, they could start an Aerial Technology Training School. Even the docks needed porters who could work directly after attending a couple of lessons.

All minors over 14 and under 18, should stop loitering around in the streets and start going to classes. Aren't they aware of the current labor shortage?

Surprisingly enough, in a place like Gotham, using mob methods to popularize education was very effective. This was because, in a family of three, at least one would be a mob member, and most of the time, both adults were.

When your boss tells you that there are plenty of job opportunities and money to be earned, but your child is still messing about on the streets creating trouble, most mob parents would choose to reprimand their child and then send them to learn some skills. After all, even if they don't learn, it's still better than creating trouble outside.

Of course, this type of school is just a makeshift one set up on vacant land. Someone with relevant knowledge would explain and demonstrate, and how much the students understand depends on their comprehension. Practical application mainly depends on experience. This can't even be considered a basic form of a school and can only be described as an early departure from a medieval oral education mode. But having it is better than having nothing.

The more farsighted members of the Twelve Families were starting to think. If they could set up schools belonging solely to their families, educating a group of professionals serving only their families, wouldn't they leap ahead of other families by an entire era?

As long as they pay higher salaries to better teachers to educate stronger managers then their industries would be stronger than others. As a result, they would get a larger share when dividing the cake.

However, this idea was not implemented immediately. The habit of living hand to mouth in Gotham had been going on for decades, and Gothamites had no practices or habits related to education or being educated. As their investment in education was nearly zero, they didn't dare to take any risks for the time being.

But with the gradual development of this industrial model, they would find that education lies at the root of everything. They would realize that the huge sums of money they were using to hire technical personnel from outside could be better spent on educating Gotham's residents and their descendants. The benefits they would reap would not just be technical professionals, but also significant reputational benefits.

The previous generation of strongmen including Falcone, were starting to see the future in this model. The 21st century would be a century of talent training. Every competition would eventually boil down to who could cultivate more and stronger talents.

Given the innovative nature of this model, it was no surprise when old Godfather Falcone became the first to lead the initiative in opening a family school.

Of course, this school was not intended for the civilians, but for the descendants of the Falcone Family. They would study a wide array of elite courses here, which would better prepare them for managing the resources of the Falcone Family in the future.

Members of the Falcone Family definitely wanted their children to attend this school. Admission meant entering the Godfather's line of sight. If they obtained excellent results, they were likely to be assigned better positions, and a chance to climb to greater heights.

The Godfather's move could not be kept secret from the other families. Even though this school only had seven students and classes were only held in a reception room at the Falcone Manor, the other twelve families who, after these many years hadn't learned anything, just started copying everything that was being done.

The proposal made by Shiller, improved upon by Falcone, and carried forward by all the mobsters in Gotham was the Gotham Middle School Initiative, which, given its noticeable initial results, took everyone by surprise.

People resist changes, not because they are averse to the benefits brought forth by reform, but because they loathe drastic changes in the distribution of benefits and lifestyle.

When a reform doesn't really change people's lifestyle, the mob is still the mob, nobody is trying to eradicate them; the Twelve families are still the Twelve families, nobody wants to annihilate them. Instead, everyone came together to make a small investment and gained substantial benefits in return. They all felt that reform was just a means to seize more benefits.

Those who profited from this situation continued to invest more into the reform using profits they had already earned, hoping to receive a larger slice of the cake.

More importantly, the first step taken by the Gotham Middle School Initiative proved to Gothamites that talent could emerge from the most unlikely places. In the end, it didn't matter where the gold came from, as long as it was real gold.

They may be worthless, but earning money never brought shame.

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