Chapter 5. Mortal fish

Kaas woke up himself, however, this time he slept like a dead man and did not remember at all what he was dreaming of.

Opening his eyes, he saw golden reflections of bright light penetrating from outside on the ceiling. Kaas turned his head and made sure that Aska was already here with her "looking glass", and the real morning was shining outside the window of her room.

- Good morning, - he said mechanically, and asked - I overslept?

- No, everything is fine, I have set up in advance the expectation of your awakening after my recharge. Healthy sleep is essential for learning. So, I've only been here for five minutes.

Kaas grabbed a quick snack and tried another fancy juice. Doing this new gymnastics in front of Aska's eyes seemed uncomfortable to him, and instead, gathering his courage, he took an icy shower.

Having finished with his morning chores, without further ado, he immediately requested:

- Let's start.

Aska chuckled, and the same teaching scene appeared in front of Kaas as yesterday.

- Repeat first what you have already learned.

The training started from the very beginning. Strange, but he immediately managed to overcome the milestone of 20%. He recognized all the letters and did not forget a single word, he could also voice them more or less bearably, although it sounded clumsy, especially when they formed into words.

So, step by step, although the results of his efforts were not impressive, the topic of the report itself began to unfold. If it were at home, on Earth, in the USSR, it would sound like "The role of the Great Socialist Revolution in building ...", simply because it described the events of almost three hundred years ago that led to the way of life that they have now ... For children, it wouldn't be a more boring topic, but Aska explained that the more difficult the topic, the more points you can get for such a report as a result. Therefore, they were not afraid of such topics, but rather the opposite, especially since the students made them up for themselves, the main condition was that this topic would intersect with the material covered over the past year and be useful for the listeners.

As for Kaas, he began to understand why, out of all 10 years of the recorded life of the former Kaas, Aska chose this talk to teach speech skills. Besides the fact that this was one of the last events of his life, he was indeed filled with useful knowledge.

So, studying the report and periodically checking with Aska, Kaas learned that this world really went 300 years ahead, about this time ago, Kiva looked like Earth countries, a typical corrupt government, a regime more like a totalitarian one, citizens more like slaves, ruled by not very smart, but very greedy and ambitious rulers. At one fine moment, these very rulers, having finally brought the country to a complete failure in the economy, cowardly disappeared in an unknown direction, leaving it with what it is, that is, with nothing. There were not many who wanted to profit from the remains of the country, the majority of wealthy and influential people preferred to pack their things faster and run far away.

They started to count the beginning of a new Kiva, from the arrival of a new ruler. Poyt Meer, that was his name, did not come to power in the country by pure chance, he was finally appointed by the elite who had previously fled, which at that time looked like a farewell mockery. And thus, an ordinary clerk, who used to be the leader of a weak but staunch opposition, was able to take this place, first temporarily, and then, taking into account what were the laws of the country, which allowed the ruler to do anything and rule unlimitedly, he remained for almost 30 years.

Kaas's report included an assessment of the major changes Poyt Meer made over the 30 years. Although it was short enough, Aska helped fill it in with some details.

First, Poyt Meer introduced a rule that prohibited the direct appointment of people to work in government services or companies. For each workplace, requirements for them have already been developed, although it was necessary to throw out the biased limiting ones from them and add specialized ones. All these jobs began to be filled only after passing an independent competition excluding forgery, thus, it was supposed to hire the best specialists. And he began to implement this system from top to bottom, appointing temporary specialists responsible for its implementation.

Secondly, it was a decision-making system, which also, in fact, became the beginning of a rating system for the entire country and led to the fact that all people really became the power. And this was done very gracefully, because it was impossible to take and simply give all the decisions at once to everyone.

This didn't seem unique to Kaas, since there had already been similar solutions on Earth, but they never really got to that point.

For this, a portal was created in the public information network, the local version of the Earth's Internet, in which all citizens of the country were registered.

Also, groups were registered on it, the upper level of which was the whole of Kiva, and inside, with the most diverse divisions, there were cities, districts, houses, enterprises, educational and medical institutions, and so on. If desired, anyone could create their own group, where there could be families, private enterprises, and in general anything. Each citizen was associated with one or more groups. Accordingly, in the "Kiva" group, there were generally all citizens of the country, and, for example, in the 'school' group, there were students and employees of a particular school.

Based on this simple database, a system of proposals, discussion, voting, and ratings was implemented. Thus, those who were part of these groups could submit bills at the country level, proposals for solutions in their own home or family, solutions for enterprises.

The implementation of this system was bi-directional.

Top-down, the top-level executives had priority for any top-level projects. The main bills for the state were introduced by Poyt Meer himself. Thus, they were brought up for general discussion. However, no one could vote for them yet.

From the bottom up, everyone could make proposals, discuss and vote, starting from the bottom level. Thus, all citizens who wanted to participate in this received their initial experience.

The secret of voting, which was invented by crooks to manipulate the results, was completely eliminated, and any coercion in this matter was equated by law with such a crime as robbery.

All results were stored and accumulated in the database. Bad or good decisions, their assessments, discussions.

Every three years from the beginning of work, there was a "step", 30% of the citizens who received the best rating, climbed a step higher, and received the opportunity to make proposals and vote at a higher level. So, if it was the level of their house, then it rose to the level of the district. If it was the district level, then to the city level, and so on.

This system concerned not only making proposals and voting, but also for evaluating the work of services and employees, both state and any enterprises that wanted to participate in this mechanism, and even families who did it for their own convenience and for the education of children.

For false reviews and evaluations of the work, one could lose part of the rating or even go to jail, since libel here was equated to a significant crime. Such harsh measures were absolutely necessary, because when a certain rating threshold was reached, a person was automatically fired and another was hired for this job.

- Aska, won't that turn everything into a farce? Will millions of people constantly make proposals, and all of them will have to be considered? - Kaas asked in bewilderment.

- Your question is pertinent, - she replied, - that's why this whole system grew from the bottom up, people got their experience, which took 15 years just to be considered a successful project, this is not a short time. As it turned out, not everyone wanted to actively participate, often not understanding why all this was needed. Many criticized this mechanism from the very beginning, and only a few saw new, almost unprecedented possibilities.

- At the very beginning, in order to attract citizens, it was even necessary to organize lotteries with significant rewards. And the higher the level, the greater the prize pool. This was done to get people to become actively involved, because if they did not vote for or against, they might suddenly find that a significant part of their hometown's money was spent, and its streets were painted in a cute purple color completely without their knowledge.

Saying that Kaas was shocked was like saying nothing.

- But wouldn't there be a real chaos with all these proposals? The same constant restructuring of cities, and no one knows what else? - he asked.

- Not at all, because the system was not invented by idiots, and proposals could be made only by selecting a specific section to which it belongs, and if it was not there, then it was added. And for each section, if a proposal had already been adopted in it, such as a section of urban design, when the city was repainted in shades of purple, then a period was set for it during which no changes could be made. And when suddenly people discovered that their sweet city, in full accordance with the law and their desires, suddenly changed its colors, they had to wait three more years before they could change it. During these three years, they had enough opportunities to pour out their indignation, discuss everything, make new proposals about how they want their city to be. And then already, discussions and voting were not so empty and weak. Can you imagine how many comments there were during these three years of waiting, and what rating was given as a result of that decision?

- Of course, everything is not so primitive, but! - she continued - now, it is more important for you to know that your rating is enough only for your home and school, however, you can participate in the discussion at any level, like all other citizens. Very soon, you will have to get to know all this better than you think. Literally everything in Kiva is built on this.

It is not clear what exactly was the reason, shock or interest in this material, but Kaas continued his studies with bright eyes and double zeal. If there were indicators of indignation and confusion on the monitor, then their levels could only be assumed.

The third change in Kiva was the introduction of a guaranteed welfare system. And it really was somewhat reminiscent of communist ideas. Proceeding from the fact that every person needs to live somewhere and have something, every citizen received his own housing from birth, yes, minimal, and no, it was not owned. If you want more, please earn and buy, no restrictions. In the same way, free food and pension were provided, the same for all citizens of all ages.

It was not some kind of freebie, allowing you to do nothing with a huge burden on the country's budget. On the contrary, it made it possible to exclude from the government system huge and bloated services like pension funds or social security that had to count, allocate, take away, authorize or deny, which freed up huge resources.

Everyone should have a minimum allowance and it is the same. You don't need any calculations and checks, according to any conditions, no work with documents. In addition, there were other important reasons for this decision. Namely, the already high unemployment, with which it was necessary to do something, because with the accumulated problems and the big changes in the country that were required to solve them, invariably led to its temporary increase.

Free food at that time was not luxurious, anyone would prefer to eat something tastier and more often 2 times a day. The allowance was enough to set your own priorities, spend more on food, clothing, education or, for example, a hobby.

Housing, which, as it turned out, was simply not enough, could not appear out of nowhere. Therefore, while such development was only being planned and implemented, the state bought apartments from people on the fact of necessity, of course, at adequate prices. It was impossible to take and move to where there were no free places yet. The only conditions were that in those cities for moving to which there was a high demand, it was necessary first to find a job, and after moving, it was required to live in a new place for at least three years or pay a fee.

There were cases when people overcrowded cities and at the same time, many preferred not to work, which looked like a disaster, because if there is an enterprise and it is impossible to find workers, then what could be worse? To these rules, they added one more simple one, those who did not want to work for any reason, were simply relocated to cities where there were enough places for those who could not decide. Which served as a significant motivator for many.

As a result, this approach made it possible not to be afraid to move to another region for work, and not to be afraid that the next moment, you could stay on the street. Aska separately noted that now there are no such problems at all, except in cases where there are really no places in the city, because now, there is a certain upper limit of the city population.

The allowance, yes, it made it possible to live, about the same as a small pension for the elderly. But it was clearly not enough for a life that could be called good, which left enough incentives for employment.

The fourth change concerned medicine, it was already subsidized, for the most part state owned, and was even called "free", but it was actually "at the bottom" of its development, and people did not receive any real help, even spending significant personal funds. The state saved a lot on citizens, therefore, with a clear conscience, what was called "free medicine" could not be called neither medicine nor free.

Now, it really was made only public and completely free. All restrictions have been removed. If you are ill, you are treated. New laws began to apply to medical institutions, including participation in the development of this industry, competition for obtaining work, and the evaluation of this work by patients.

Medicine has ceased to be a joke, because if a goal is set, to provide treatment for all diseases in the best possible way, the amount of funding for this industry could not be less than its importance. And this funding, like the requirements for medicine, as a result of all the changes, was determined by the citizens themselves.

Fifth, there was a complete rejection of such phenomena as insurance and lending. As a result, there were no insurance organizations in the form in which they existed at all, and there was only one bank, the state one.

As for banks, there were many reasons for abandoning them, but the main one was inflation. Or rather, the credit system, which was breaking the entire economy. On one hand, it was supposed to accelerate development, and on the other, it also led to destructive consequences, one of which was "delayed poverty". This local term, an analogue of our "credit slavery", meant that if a citizen takes out a loan for certain needs now, then he gives back more, and not being able to buy something else, he is forced to take new loans again.

In fact, there was no benefit from the credit system, except for the fact that bankers constantly took a decent percentage of all citizens' money for their own benefit, and if you subtract it, the bank's services become insignificant.

Housing loans were dropped because they were guaranteed and free for everyone. Any consumer lending has become unnecessary, because everything you need is usually already there, and it does not cost significant money, for the rest - earn and buy, this was the main rule. Arguments such as that loans revive the economy were dismissed as invalid, because if a person's income goes to the bank in the form of interest, this means that this money will not be spent on anything useful that could really revitalize the economy.

As for business, the decision became even simpler, there were many urgent needs in the country, in the production of food, housing, education and such, for this, the state allocated money, however, it also became a partial owner of these institutions. For any government projects with funding, there were the same competitions as for any government position. For everything else, there was only voluntary private funding, please buy or sell shares, ideas, whatever, no loans or credits. All of this was launched in the same system as the voting.

Then Kaas took a break for a drink. The information was rather succinct and in a simple form, but this is only if you do not take into account the age of Kaas, who was only ten years old, and he studied all this at his nine years old, so no matter how many answers there were, there were only more questions.

- Aska, - he said, picking up another can, noting that the last set remained, - but how did all these contests and projects manage without corruption? Didn't it end up just giving money to "who ever needs"?

- Of course not! - she was almost indignant - all competitions and exams were of the same type, and completely anonymous, no one could know the examiners, and even if he knew all the specialists who registered for such a job, no one could know who exactly would have his answers on the test. And even more than that, which of the answers. All answers were randomly distributed among the evaluators, and there were no names. And the codes by which the link was made were only within the system. In addition, the same answer was assessed by several different examiners, and as a result, the GPA was taken into account.

- How do you outwit such a system? - She asked defiantly.

Aska made a pass with her hand, and statistics appeared before Kaas's eyes, to which the translation was already attached.

- This is statistics for the very first exam, it was for the position of the head of a large enterprise, - she explained, - across the country, 4,728 applicants and 201 examiners participated, all completely anonymous. In this exam, there were over 5,000 questions divided into 8 sections, of which, for each participant, only 10% of them were randomly selected. For each section, a separate exam was conducted, from easy to difficult, and in each, the worst 50% were eliminated. Each exam took place in a specially prepared room.

The picture with statistics was replaced by the view of a large hall, divided by simple partitions into about 100 booths. In each, in front of the screen, there was a man. Some were wearing headphones, some were not.

- This is how it looked at the very beginning, the room is isolated for communication, above each, there are individual cameras, - she explained, - in the future, the recording from these cameras, along with the results of the exam for each subject, was published on the same portal. And one could be convinced of the honesty of the results, or, on the contrary, challenge them.

- And how long did it all take? - Seeing the scale of this seemingly simple task, asked Kaas, putting the empty can on the shelf.

- For this exam, 50 days, of which the first 20 are only for the first stage.

- And what was the plant doing all this time without a manager? - Kaas attacked.

Aska looked at him like at an idiot.

- The same as before, according to the old system, an interim manager was appointed, who, by the way, also participated in the exam, and dropped out already at the second stage, which confirmed the importance of this method.

- All in equal conditions, at the same time, went through the same exam. The best of the applicants, got a really important and good job by any standard.

- But isn't it just 1 person? Wasn't this system supposed to work for almost everyone?

- Exactly so, but it all started, in a top-down system, thus, from the most important places.

Aska waved her hand and the view changed to a big headline, "10,000 in three years". It is explained below that 10,000 positions in the civil service were selected through this system.

"And why not five-year plans?" Kaas suddenly thought, remembering the times of the USSR, continuing to listen to Aska.

- Of course, this was not done in one day, it was necessary to involve many specialists in this work as examiners, to organize places for passing competitive exams throughout the country. But what other choice? Either appoint and appoint random people to positions, wait for what will turn out, or give everyone an opportunity and choose the best of the best?

- There were difficulties, - she continued, - at first few people dared to participate in this, then, on the contrary, there were too many, they had to add two general, additional qualifying stages in order to weed out completely illiterate and uneducated people. These two stages were carried out independently of other exams and gave the right to participate in them. Almost all of the school teachers worked for them as examiners, quite happy with the significant additional income.

- Then, it became easier, those who did not pass these first two stages received a recommendation for training with an indication of weaknesses, a list of references and educational institutions. All those who failed at the second stage could re-participate in any such exams no earlier than a year later, and at the first, only three years later. In the future, all this was improved many times, and became part of the overall rating system.

- But could it really fix the unemployment situation? If you believe all this, then most of the social services, bank employees and the like were left without work, where could they find a job? Even with all these contests?

- They thought about it, but oddly enough, the decision came by itself. On one hand, unemployment, on the other, a system of proposals and voting, which, as a result, began to take up free time and brought additional jobs. And a large number of people created the basis for these competitions, the competition for the best work was very active. If you need to do something, then you definitely need people who will do it.

- And before that, no one did anything? Where exactly to look for activities for everyone?

- Of course they did, but in fact, it was not enough. Especially when it comes to social support of life, urban improvement, service and such. What the government was supposed to do, it did not do, and saved on the citizens of the Kiva, wherever possible. Accordingly, no useful jobs were created, and the standard of living was rather low.

- Okay, - Kaas agreed reluctantly. - Consider me convinced.

- What do you mean convinced? - Aska was indignant - this is already a fait accompli, it does not require anyone's conviction. But you will have to live in this country, and you better understand it well, otherwise you will not be able to achieve any success and will be just another mortal fish.

- Whaat?