Mr. Jens shook his head dismissively. The fact that the boy was so impressed certainly got on his nerves.

"Don't you not also only pay so little welfare because practically everyone who is lying half-dead in hospital still has an employment contract?"

"Yes, and so what? It doesn't make a difference. If someone is seriously ill and can't come to work for several years, he still won't get fired, or only when he's well again. Isn't that a nice thing? What do I care what money I pay out over which corners. It's all one pot."

"The lack of protection against dismissal also applies to public companies?"

"Yes, it applies to state companies too. Anyone who is redundant or does a bad job has to go."

"Ah, but I know something else! Public companies lack innovation. They only ever do what the state wants them to do. There are never any great ideas."

Marah was just about to drink, but had to put her cup down again so as not to spill anything as she started laughing.

"Hahaha, lack of innovation? Is that what you learned in business school? The reality is different. When you get a vaccine or a medicine, when you buy a chemical, when you buy new technology, in every case the research was funded by the state. That's always the case. Nobody would put their money into uncertainties just for the sake of it. If someone wants to research something, they first get state funding and if they don't get it, they don't do the research. If everything wasn't funded by the state, we wouldn't even have detergents today. There are also a lot of things from military research that you wouldn't expect. Rubber tires, binoculars, cans, to name just a few things. Private investment is only supplementary or only for research that can't fail at all, so mainly for product research and for market research and stupid studies, of which half can be thrown away because they cannot deliver no interesting results or they won't be published next time."

"Hmm... So you would say that in the end your public companies are just like private companies?"

"No, I would not. How can public companies compete with private companies, you asked? But that's not the right question. The right question is, how do other countries manage that their public companies cannot keep up with private companies? The most successful pharmaceutical company in the world is our state company Rotkäppchen, even though we almost give the products for free away domestically. In other countries, something like that would be unthinkable. But I can explain you why it is like this. One crucial difference is that we stand behind our state companies. We do not put obstacles in their way. We don't legislate against them. We don't take all the profits, but also invest. In other countries, the state gives contracts to the cheapest. We don't do that. If possible, we only make contracts with state companies. In other countries, state companies give contracts to the cheapest. We don't do that either. If possible, our state companies only make contracts with our state companies. That's what I understand the least. If you have a daughter or sister, you don't give money to external companies. No one in the private sector would do that either, as long as he still has all his cups in his cupboard. In many other countries, people would love to privatize everything because the private sector promises better products or better service and higher profits, but the only reason it doesn't happen is that no one wants full privatization as little as the private sector. For example, in the case of insurance, if I were to announce today that I'm going to distribute public insurance customers fairly to all the private insurance companies and they have to make it sustainable themselves because we don't want to do it anymore, they would come to me tomorrow and beg me to reconsider because they don't want all customers. Mr. Jens has private insurance, a full bank account and pays all his bills when they are due. But if you're frequently sick, overdraw your account, don't pay your rent, and still trash your apartment, then you're insured by law or fully by the state, with a state bank or other state credit institution, and you live for rent with a state housing corporation or other with the state. Customers go to private companies because they get better conditions there, but only those customers who make a profit are accepted, because otherwise they could not offer such good conditions. So they wonder why the private company, which only accepts customers who make a profit, can makes a profit, but the state company, which has to accept all customers, does not. The causes cannot be determined directly. The employees certainly lack the innovative power of a private coffee drinker to become profit-oriented. The best thing to do is to privatize everything in order to permanently reduce the costs for the state. However, after an undefined period of time, it is sadly discovered that they are apparently not as good at handling money as they seemed in the beginning, because they are all pretty deep in the red. Unfortunately, the insurance companies, hospitals and banks were not completely unimportant. So they are forced to put together a small rescue package, the basic cost of which alone far exceeds the full cost reduction of privatization. In some cases, the economic and social damage is so absurdly high that it cannot even be estimated. In other countries, the subsidies are public, the losses are public, and only the profits are private. Performance is not rewarded because that would cost extra, which the supposedly poorly performing state companie cannot afford. Bad personnel won't be cut, but kept, because the state want's to avoid social securtiy payments. Again, this only causes higher costs for the state by inefficiently using staff that could be used effectively elsewhere. Everything is always looked at in isolation, because apparently no one can ever put two books side by side. You are neglected by the owner and in some cases actively hindered. You have to meet social goals. You have to accept every customer and keep all your staff. Profits are deducted and not invested, but losses incurred due to lack of investment are then criticized. At the same time, you are supposed to hold your own against a competition that doesn't have any of these problems. The fact that some state companies in other countries are still able to operate in the black under these conditions, and in some cases even have the best offer, makes the private companies of the competition look pretty pathetic. They are really inefficient. They would not survive in Baele, because our state companies don't have to try hard to keep up with private companies. They're highly superior."

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"I didn't mean to interrupt you. I just want to state that I don't see it that way."

"Then please let me explain my reasoning and afterwards I'll be happy to respond to your arguments, if you have any."

"I have, but please. Go ahead." Mr. Jens devoted himself to his coffee.

"Our state companies all have a fixed profit margin that must be reached. There is a minimum wage and bonus payments. There is a performance-related bonus if the nature of the work allows it to be measured. There is a bonus depending on the company's profit and other factors. Good work is rewarded, bad work is punished. You would think this would be the case in all companies, but large companies in particular struggle with corruption and incompetence at all levels. Let me give you an example of how this can happen. When you're older, you'll probably work at the free banks, but you won't be sitting at the counter of a branch, but at the head office in the management floor and maybe even as a director. Regardless of whether there's someone who could do it better, you'll get the job if your father puts his weight behind it. That happens all over the world. Someone ends up in a position that he is not up to because he has shares or contacts. He runs the company badly, pockets profits and the employees follow his lead. By the time he is replaced, the damage has already been done. This cannot happen in our state companies. Bribery, theft and other problems are reported by colleagues because their bonus depends on the success of the company. There is no nepotism either. If someone wants to take up the position of managing director, for exmaple, the human resources department will check his file, but in the case of the managing director, it may even be the entire workforce that decides whether he is actually hired. Incidentally, new employees also have to have several interviews with the Human Resources department after being hired. For example, they are asked how they have settled in, how they rate their own performance so far or whether they have any suggestions for improvements in the company. These interviews are important to train the human resources department. In many other companies, they hire people they never see again. You can't learn anything if you don't get any feedback and perhaps don't have to bear the consequences. When the managing director starts, he gets the minimum wage like everyone else. The only difference between the janitor and the managing director is the scaling of the bonus payments. Negotiating skills or sympathy do not help. Who can earn how much is determined by the financial court. If the company cannot reach the lower profit limit, the managing director earns as much as any other employee, namely only the minimum wage. Perhaps the managing director is not to blame for the poor result, but that is an occupational hazard. State companies are not there to ensure the wealth of individuals. If the managing director is unable to produce sufficient output from his position, then he might have to sell his house. If the company is again unable to reach the lower profit limit in the next measurement period, the accountants from the financial court come and dismiss anyone who might be at fault or even shut down the entire company. There are also many ways to call a full or partial staff meeting. For example, staff at a lower management level can also submit a removal motion against staff at a higher management level. If the majority of the workforce relevant to the chosen procedure decides that, for instance, that the managing director is no longer acceptable, he will also be dismissed. There is no severance pay in any case. Dismissal is an occupational hazard. Again, you would think this would be normal, but strangely enough, it's not."

"That all sounds terrible. Why would anyone volunteer to work for a company like that?"

~I'm sure it sounds terrible to you.~

"One of the reasons is the pleasant working atmosphere. If you cause trouble, you won't stay long if the rest can kick you out. Everyone has a say. Everyone bears a share of the responsibility. Every employee who helps to lead the company to success benefits from the company's success. If the company can reach the profit ceiling, lower and middle-ranking employees in particular earn far more with us than they would in the same position in a private company. Unlike them, we also offer our own offices for anyone who needs one. We also have company pets, company sports, sports teams, shared flats, apartments close to the workplace and free meals. When a position becomes vacant, we can usually hardly save ourselves from applicants. People with self-confidence who know how to earn money come to us. People we make redundant go into the private sector, where they can fuck up with impunity. If we didn't block it by law, our state companies would completely devour the global economy in the long term. People simply work much more efficiently when they are treated well and they know that they personally benefit from not just doing their time. At our food producer Ebensbach, half of the processing staff are currently on special paid leave because they've earned too much money once again. It's terrible. I wanted to teach my parliament how to make a sensible budget. If they always have so much money, they won't learn anything. The rest of the profits of all state companies go into the state coffers, which is why we can afford such low taxes. We collect the money in a different way."

As Marah explained the state companies, other emotions flashed across the boy's face in succession, ranging from enthusiasm to disgust, but nothing was dealt with long enough for any one emotion to take a clear hold. Some things he obviously liked, like the feedback for the human resources department or Marah's pride, but anything that might somehow incur unnecessary costs aroused distaste in him. Mr. Jens, meanwhile, had just been listening quietly and seemed relatively indifferent.

What Marah had omitted in her explanation was that the profit floor of state companies could also be negative. This was necessary in order to provide citizens with certain services at a low cost or even free of charge or because a positive balance was simply not possible. For instance, a hospital, or at least the healthcare system as a whole, could not make a profit and fulfill all social objectives at the same time. Baele did have many hospitals abroad that managed to make profits, but to call them hospitals was misleading. They were not really hospitals. They were much more something like operating theaters with revolving doors. Even if you were very rich, you never got the best treatment, you always got the most expensive one with the shortest stay possible.

.../ End Part