Chapter 132: Responsibility at a Discount

“You want those trucks?”

Ferraler, who had arrived at the courthouse a little later, asked with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. There was a great deal of fatigue on his face. In the past, it had been rare to see him smoke.

Smoking left a smell of tobacco on the body. In certain situations, that was a serious breach of manners. Most people tried to avoid it, especially someone like Ferraler, an important aide to the mayor.

Their outward appearance often represented the mayor’s image. They were also frequently assigned important tasks by the mayor, so even hobbies that seemed perfectly ordinary to many people were off-limits to them.

But at this moment, he no longer had the attention to spare for all that. One deep drag softened even the expression on his face.

He flicked the ash and glanced at William. “Those trucks aren’t worth much, but they carry a heavy burden.”

“Thirty-three trucks and forty-nine trailers. You’ll need to provide at least sixty jobs, and those jobs cannot be canceled during the mayor’s term.”

He flicked the ash again. Taking something worth several times, or even dozens of times more, at a cabbage price did not mean paying nothing at all.

The Biddle Group’s industries in Sabine City were being carved up. Those who swallowed pieces of the cake also had to assume the responsibilities attached to those resources. At minimum, they had to provide hundreds of jobs to society. At most, thousands.

And those positions would only continue to increase. They absolutely could not decrease.

There was never such a thing as a free lunch in this world. Even though they had always maintained a cooperative relationship with the mayor, they could not obtain such a large fortune out of thin air.

Ferraler’s meaning was simple. Swallowing these things would not be hard, but keeping them would not be easy. Sixty jobs related to truck driving, with each person’s monthly pay at no less than three hundred dollars, would mean eighteen thousand dollars in wages alone each month.

That batch of trucks seemed as if it truly was not worth much, but the jobs generated by those trucks would take more than two hundred thousand dollars a year from William’s side in wages.

Those wages could feed at least sixty families, and they would affect the actual living conditions of roughly one hundred twenty to one hundred eighty families.

One year. Two years. As long as the mayor did not leave office, William could not reduce those jobs. If the economy did not improve, or if there were problems with his operations, those things would become dead weight dragging him down.

In truth, the other large companies were the same. After swallowing up those assets, a few of them would also find themselves unable to bear the burden and could only choose bankruptcy. Yet everyone was still desperately stuffing themselves. They were gambling, gambling that before they went bankrupt, the economy would improve.