Chapter 98

(A/N)

Things get a bit political here, but I guess the last chapter was also political, but it's just the nature of the topics, and also, don't take all this at face value or really try to wonder how it will all work. Remember, this is a fan-fic and not some kind of study or source of information, so it's not one of those things you need to think so hard about. Also, there is no way I could explain in full detail what all this means without the word count getting higher than Snoop Dogg, and also the chapter becoming boring. That's not to say that everything in this chapter is completely inaccurate, but there's also more nuance and detail to it. I'm sure some of you will find some problems and correct me on things or provide some facts, details, or opinions. Anyway, I think this is one of my longer chapters and you'll understand this whole section after reading. I hope you enjoy.

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"Welfare?"

"Yup. A social safety net in case someone has some kind of extreme or big emergency or situation, but not too many programs to the point that it will cause an over-reliance on the government. I don't want that."

"Huh, I see. So, what are you going to do?"

"Like I said, it'll be a net that will catch anyone who falls into it. No one will need to sign up or anything. It'll apply to everyone, but with a time limit, of course. If you can't get yourself back together after falling and then getting help, then that's on you. I don't want anyone to think they can just abuse the system by constantly staying in that range for help."

"Wow, you seem a bit serious with that."

"Yeah, well, I've seen things be too lenient sometimes."

"Huh. It seems you got it down."

"Yeah, pretty much. Again, the fine parts and details will be handled by the advisors and others."

"Isn't that giving them a bit too much trust?"

"Normally, it would be a bad idea, but they're probably the only ones that are actually trustworthy and won't be sneaky or whatnot."

"Yeah, I guess."

"On to the next one. Economics. To be more specific, taxes. As much as I hate them, we need them. We need to use them for infrastructure projects, public services, and whatnot. Do you expect us to take on massive amounts of loans that become the main way we pay for stuff?" That sounds dumb. What country on Earth would take on hundreds of billions or maybe even trillions of dollars in loans to pay for things they should already have the money to pay for? That would be silly.

"What are you going to do?"

I smiled at that question. I was about to drop some bombshells. Some ideas and proposals that would sound idealsitic, but if it's this world, it can work. It's already working with Milim's nation. "Well, first of all, no income taxes."

I could see Rimuru almost jump at what I said. "Huh? Really? I don't know much, but isn't income taxes like how governments make most of the tax money?"

"Yeah, but there are other taxes besides income taxes."

"Why do you seem so against income taxes?" Time for a small U.S. history lesson. And one I really, really don't like. Like, I hate the guy that I'm going to be talking about, but for the sake of history, I say the name of he who shall be named.

Ooh, I could feel my emotions simmering a little. "Well, there's some history behind it. First of all, the United States used to have no income taxes. It was only used for emergencies, such as what happened during our civil war, but then came along the devil himself, evil incarnate, in the early 1900's"

I paused to see Rimuru's reaction. He said nothing, but I could see was interested. I would be too, if I were in his position. Talking about one of your country's leaders like this would make anyone wonder the reason behind it. Especially if you're not familiar with the history of another country.

Time to continue. "Let's talk about a certain president of the United States. Now, before I talk about this guy, Rimuru, I need to set a little picture. You see, a lot of people keep talking about who the worst president was and how politics is super ugly, and they only talk about things that happen recently. Well, if they bothered to pick up a history book or do a quick internet search, they'd realize that things were a lot worse in the past. Like, people were killing each other in the hundreds just to stop them from voting."

"What?"

"Yeah, stuff was very ugly and crazy in those times. Anyway, that's just to set the picture. Now, let me get to the point. So, there's this guy called Thomas Woodrow Wilson, and let me tell you this, Rimuru, I don't know what is happening in the United States, or how much time has passed, but I can guarantee you that whoever the president is, they will never be worse than Woodrow Wilson. If you ask the opinion of someone from Europe, they might have a different view on Wilson, but that's because of World War 1 and I couldn't care less what he did during World War 1, because even in that, he messed up the post-war by not getting the United States into the League of Nations, or failing to further advocate his 14 points by not trying to reel in the British or French during the negotiations when they were handing out their stupid punishments to Germany, and look what happened 20 years after the Treaty of Versailles."

I stopped myself as I took in a deep breath. Oh man, I could go on and on, but I have to control myself. I could hear Rimuru trying to make me calm down as well.

"Alright, alright, calm down. Calm. Down. This doesn't seem to be about taxes anymore." Rimuru said in a loud voice as he moved his arms to tell me to calm down. He's right. I need to calm down a little. I'm going on a big ramble, but I really hate that son of…control myself, control myself. 

I took a small breath. "You're right. I was going off on a long tangent and ramble. Sorry. Back to taxes. So, this guy was the reason the United States has an income tax and a central bank." Wow, I could've just said that and avoided that entire thing I said. Man, I hate that guy more than I thought I did. Good.

"A central bank? Should we have that?" That's what got out of that?

"First of all, ignoring my opinions about a central bank, whose currency do we use?"

"We use money from…oh." There it was. That realization. If you're of the mind that the one who controls the money controls everything else, then Dwargon is the strongest nation in this world. 

"Yeah. It's pretty hard to set up a central bank when we don't even have our own currency and use another country's currency. But if you really wanted to, like really, really, wanted to, we could just do what some countries do. Make our own currency and then tie it to the currency of another country. I think it was called currency pegging or something like that. But at that point, why even bother? It's not worth the time or effort to set something like that up in our case."

"Uh, Ok."

"Anyway, now we can go back to taxes. So, we're not going to have an income tax, or sales tax, except for excise taxes on certain goods. Well, we'll have a value-added tax. This will raise prices for consumers since businesses will most likely pass it on to the consumer, but the main point of this will be to stop vertical integration, and I'm fine with that. I don't want to impose too much taxes on businesses, but I'm also not going to let them run wild and free."

"Why?" Can't he just ask Raphael? Well, I did just tell him about an over-reliance on things.

"It's one of those things that depends on how you see taxes. You could see taxes as a deterrent or an encouragement of sorts. For example, if you set special or higher taxes on certain goods like alcohol or cigarettes, a 'sin tax', a type of excise tax, it can be seen as a good thing since the higher taxes mean people will be more discouraged from buying them, since they are unhealthy and bad for you, but they can still buy them if they want to. I see it like this: an income tax is a tax on the worker, and a sales tax is a tax on consumption. And what is one thing that spurs an economy, Rimuru?"

"Uh…money?" Not the worst answer out there. 

"Spending. Spending money is one way to spur an economy. And if there's no sales tax on general goods, people will spend more money, and it's one way to make sure prices on goods don't get too expensive on normal goods. Well, except for the excise tax and VAT, but the excise will be on things that are bad for you and the VAT is more focused on businesses."

I paused as I tried to think of something that could try to explain what I was talking about. Ah, I know. Let me take another page from U.S. history.

"Let me t=give you an example, Rimuru. You see, during the Great Depression in the U.S. during the 1930s, a whole bunch of government spending programs were made to spur the economy. Jobs, infrastructure projects, and whatnot. And it kind of, sort of worked. There's debate around it, and some questioned if government spending would get the United States out of the depression or even grow or spur the economy, but then this massive government spending program called World War 2 was basically the reason the United States got out of the depression."

"World War 2?" Why does he seem confused on that part of what I said? I thought he would question literally anything else.

"Yeah. Anyway, that was a little history lesson for you."

"So if you don't want an income tax or a sales tax the what are you going to tax?"

"Easy. Land. A lot of it will be land. I'll also tax business, but too much. I'm not a fan of a lot of taxes on businesses. I don't want to discourage business and industry production. As for land, it will be a land value tax. This will cause people to use the land they own and make it 'do something' instead of just having it."

"Why not property tax?"

"Yeah, I know property taxes. My parents paid a lot of property taxes. I was thinking of that, but you can't really have a land value tax and a property tax. Well, a land value tax is a kind of property tax, but not really. Anyway, it's time for business. Not taxes, but regulations and other laws. I don't want any monopolies forming or one business having too much control in anything. There's going to be anti-trust laws. And as for regulations, each business is different, so it will depend on what kind of business it is."

"Can you give an example?"

"Do you want something normal or something more 'extreme'?"

"Uh, extreme. I'm curious."

Hmm, what could be considered something extreme in this case? Something that fits into this world instead of Earth. I need to think of something more…prevalent…something that could be considered controversial, or a hot topic of debate. Oh, I know. 

"Prostitution. Sex work. Whatever you want to call it." That'll get anyone talking.

"Woah, uh." Rimuru was a little surprised at what I said, but he asked for it.

"You said you wanted extreme." I just told him how it is.

"Yeah, but I wasn't expecting that." He does know what kind of world htis is, right?

"Rimuru, this is a semi-medieval world. There's going to be prostitution, brothels, and other things of that nature. It's going to happen no matter what, even if we make it illegal. It doesn't happen here in this town, but what about Falmuth? They have it there." I would need to encourage more reconstruction there now that I think about it. It's been cleaned up, but I really want to try to hammer in more of our influence onto them, make them forget about Falmuth and change their identities to people of Tempest. Religion is one way to do that, but I don't want to force them to convert or anything, but let them know what the "main" religion of Tempest is.

I think it's time to build another cathedral. No, a basilica. Let's change it up. But which one? Oh, there's the one in Spain, in Barcelona. That one is really cool and awesome. Yeah, that one. I'll talk to Geld and Adalmann later. 

"Oh, yeah, you're right." It seems I was lost in my thoughts a little, because I kind of forgot Rimuru was here. Back to the topic.

"If you can't beat them, join them. I'm not going to make it illegal, but if it's going to happen, it'll be under the watch and oversight of the government, along with strict regulations. Plus, that's another industry from which to get more tax money." Oh, I really sound like a government now. Getting my filthy hands into these kinds of things, but it has to be done sometimes.

"Ok, hold on. I have a question about the land value tax. What if it causes the environment to be damaged? If the land value tax is supposed to encourage people to use the land and improve it, won't the environment suffer because of it, depending on what's done with the land?" Finally, a good question. And it's about the environment. I'm all for the environment and efforts to conserve, protect, and preserve it.

"I'm glad you brought that up, Rimuru. The environment is good to protect. Part of the regulations I'm going to impose will make sure that businesses are mindful of the enviroment and to reduce damage to it. Since we're in a giant forest, trees will have to be cut down as we expand, and the dryads and treants realize this, so they are allowing some of that kind of thing to happen, but we're also not going to blitz our way through. So, one way to protect the environment is the establishment of national parks. That's one of my favorite parts of the United States. And we have a lot of land to work with."

"A national park?"

"Yup. It's government-protected land where the natural environment is protected. It's not something where the government actively intervenes a lot, but it's a place where nature just runs its course. It can make a good attraction for tourism, and there are rangers who patrol and make sure no one is doing anything bad to the land, like polluting it among other things. They have other responsibilities and things they do, but it's a lot to go through right now. Also, you do know that land that is way out from a city is simply not that valuable? Who would buy land that is there? Or we could just issue a piece of land for conservation and protection, but not make it a national park."

"That sounds interesting."

"Yup. We'll just have to send out some expeditions across the nation to see what places are good to make into national parks. If things go theoretically right as they should, we're going to make so much money. We already have control of big trade routes, including the ones we got from Falmuth, and with the many kinds of laws I'm writing, it should attract a lot of business and industry to move here and encourage more business domestically. They'll be attracted by the low corporate income taxes and relatively low regulations, depending on what they do. Well, if this world understands something like that. If they don't, then it's a win for us."

"Ok. You seem to know a lot about this stuff."

"I don't. This isn't that complicated. I took an economics class in college, but it was one of those classes I was forced to take for general education, but I still paid attention. Not like that qualifies me as an 'expert' or anything. But if Milim's nation can have a universal-based income system and have it work without problems, then something tells me things will be just fine here. Call it an…instinct, I guess." 

Seriously, though, a UBI is one of those more idealistic ideas that people say is too unrealistic to achieve, and that it would be hard to put into practice, but Milim is making it work. Well, her...advisors...council is making it work. I don't think my ideas are as idealistic as a UBI. I think they're generally more grounded and closer to a more "realistic" kind of approach.

"So, what now?" Rimuru's question got me focused again. What now?

"Well, I'm basically about done with what I wanted to do. I guess I could write some things about crime and justice. Have some courts and categorize types of punishments depending on the crime, and take into account the different races and their lifespans. Basically just an improvement to what is there already. A more streamlined process."

"Does that mean we'll need to build more jails, prisons, dungeons, or whatever?"

"Dungeons? Come on, Rimuru. You want to build the Tower of London here or something?"

"You did say this was a sort of medieval world." Touché. Alright, he got me there. But no.

"Yeah, but we're not going to use a dungeon. Let me rephrase that. "We're not going to build any new dungeons." There were dungeons in Falmuth that had some people there.

"So I take it there will be no torture then? Or a death penalty?" I know he doesn't mean it like that, but the way he words it would make someone think he sounds disappointed about not having those things.

"Not torture, Rimuru, 'enhanced interrogation techniques'. Oh, and we'll have the death penalty. I'm not too big on crime, but I think it will only be something we use rarely. That also doesn't mean people are going to be sent to jail for an absurd amount of time for mundane things that amount to a non-violent crime. There's levels to this stuff."

"You know, you seem all over the place with all of your ideas and thoughts."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, I don't know, uh, nevermind."

"Well, things are done here. I'll leave the rest to you." 

'The rest to me? What are you talking about?"

Holding the stack of papers in my hand, I got up from my desk and said goodbye to Rimuru, before handing everything over to our advisors so they could start writing out all the details onto the "offical looking" documents for signature. Well, I don't need to place my signature on all the things; they can do it themselves. Now I can go home.

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(A few hours later)

Rimuru was still doing some paperwork, and just when he thought he was done, a hobgoblin assistant walked in carrying another large stack of papers.

"Greetings, Lord Rimuru, these are documents that need your signature." The hobgoblin placed everything on the desk in front of Rimuru. Rimuru tried not to look demoralized at seeing all of this.

"Where did all this come from?"

"These are from the many laws and other ideas that Lady Pendragon gave us. We wrote out all the details and asked for more clarification on certain things that she told us. After some more tweaks and conversation, we just need your signature to make it all official."

"And Artoria's signature is on all of these?"

"Yes."

"She wrote on all of that?"

"No, me and the others used stamps that had her signature to 'sign' all of them. It's an authorized copy that is strictly overseen to make sure it's not used improperly. It saves us nad her a lot of time in writing."

"Oh. I see. I'll get to work on these." The assistant said goodbye, leaving Rimuru with all the documents. He had enough today, so he was just going to sign it without looking at them. It wasn't like he was going to read all of it. But one thing did stick with him.

'How did I not think to do that? I could just use a stamp for my signature and make things go so fast!' At least Rimuru was finally coming up with something to increase the speed of paperwork.

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(A/N)

Historical fun fact of the day: Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president of the United States in 1872. Her running mate was Frederick Douglass, but he didn't know that.