Marah had an appointment for an interview with the magazine 'Economic Journal'. It was about the announcement of tax law changes and a few other things. The interview took place at the magazine's headquarters in Rosenberg. In addition to Reyji, Marah also had an official from the SSW with her.
The three were greeted at reception and led by the employee to an empty room on one of the top floors of the building. The door from the corridor to the room was made of metal. They came out directly in front of a stage. The room looked like a hall that had been converted into a small theater. There was a stage and rows of seats for guests. The windows were covered by black curtains. Spotlights were screwed to the ceiling in front of the stage. The chairs in the rows were real theater chairs. The rows of seats had no incline. Behind the rows of seats was a double door where the audience normally entered. Today there was none. The interview would be printed in shortened form in the magazine.
In front of the stage in the first row, the chairs were not foldable, but were more expensive ones. In the front row, closer to the metal door, there was a low wooden table with a red typewriter and lots of papers and files. This typewriter cost as much as a thoroughbred horse. Reyji knew the model because Marah had the same one in black.
The team that would take care of the interview was near the table. There were three of them. As soon as they entered, they came out to greet them.
In the meantime, the receptionist bowed out without saying a word. He then left the room and closed the door behind him.
The reporter who would be in charge of the interview was the first to introduce himself. He was a somewhat flippant-looking middle-aged man. He was wearing a brown suit, but without a tie or matching trousers. It was probably meant to look casual, but to Reyji it seemed rather unprofessional. Next was a woman with rectangular glasses and then she herself introduced her assistant. The woman was the scribe. She was wearing a suit with a skirt and high heels. Her clothes looked strict, but her face did not. She made a rather clumsy impression on Reyji. When she stood up from her seat, she had made a small leg movement with a glance, as if she had not come up properly with her heel.
After a brief exchange, Marah suggested that they start the interview. The man then offered Marah and Reyji to follow him onto the stage, which they did.
A small staircase led up to the stage. There were three wing chairs on the stage and a small vase table at one of the chairs. Otherwise, the stage was empty.
Marah sat down at the vase table. Reyji sat down next to her and placed Marah's handbag next to the chair. The man took a clipboard and pen from the last chair and then sat there, facing them. Reyji handed Marah a file from the handbag, which Marah placed on her lap.
Meanwhile, the woman with the glasses sat down at the typewriter and her assistant disappeared with the SSW officer to get Marah a cup of tea.
"First of all, I would like to congratulate you on behalf of the house on the birth of your niece and wish you yourself a happy birthday."
"That's very kind of you. Thank you very much."
"Maria Krysta Brandt Von Rosenberg, it's the name of a ruler. One day she will become the Queen of Jena. Was that the main reason for the marriage?"
"If you're asking me whether position played a role in the choice of partner, then I have to say that only my sister would know."
"I've seen a photo of the child. You can recognize her immediately by her eyes. I can't wait to see what the future holds for her."
While the man was talking, the assistant put a cup of fruit tea on the vase table for Marah.
"Let's get started. I have a long list that I'd like to work through first, then we can discuss individual points further."
"I'm fine with that, if that's what you want."
"Very well." Marah opened the file and flicked silently over the first page. "One second..."
The man waited silently. If he had seen a recent photo of the child, then perhaps he had already seen more than Marah. Marah had been at the birth. She had traveled all the way to Jena. Since she had been back in Baele, she had received weekly letters from her sister with photos, but she had not yet touched any of them.
"Where it is not already the case, admission to the following public facilities and places will be completely abolished by the end of the year: these include many cultural sites, castles, palaces, fortresses, towers, monuments, museums, observatories, playgrounds, beaches and parks. In addition, admission to the following facilities and places will be completely waived for citizens until the end of the year: the ice hall, all types of sports facilities, all types of swimming facilities, botanical gardens and animal gardens. I would like to emphasize once again that this only applies to admission and only to public facilities and places. The following public fees will be completely abolished for citizens within the next few months: library fees, kindergarten fees, school fees, tuition fees and all other types of fees in the field of education, as well as birth certificates, registration fees of all kinds and registry office fees regardless of the number of people. Exploitation is prevented by other limitations. All types of travel tickets will also be abolished for everyone from next month. Public transport owned by Liefer or one of its daughters will therefore be available to everyone without a ticket. The following public courses will be completely free of charge for citizens: business start-up, tax declaration, financial planning, food handling, handling a weapon, first aid, self-defense, horse riding and swimming. The exact locations will be announced at a later date. The following services are now fully covered by state health insurance: menstrual cups, IUDs, sterilization and vasectomy. The following activities will also be offered free of charge to children and young adults by public providers in future: Membership and lessons in an riding arena with an own horse, membership in the new youth guard of the military including lessons in martial arts and weapons, unlimited internship with free choice of working hours in parliament or in any public institution or state company. The internships are compensated. In addition, lessons for further artistic training or membership of a sports club and the necessary equipment can also be fully covered for children in future on application to the social court. For example, attendance at a ballet school plus clothing for the child. Please note that there is a minimum age and minimum requirements for the public offer and that prior registration may be necessary due to the limited capacity."
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The sheer amount of points pushed the man back into his chair.
"That's quite a lot... How is it going to be financed?"
"Yes, I thought about it for a long time and eventually decided to finance it with money. Do you have a better idea?"
"Excuse me?" the man asked, perplexed.
"I'm sorry, I just always get this question first." Marah sighed slightly. "Of course I understand what you mean. It's all justified. It just sounds like a lot, but a not inconsiderable part of this income is eaten up by the cash management and personnel costs alone, which also ties up manpower unnecessarily, and then we also had a budget surplus last year and we'll see where the rest comes from."
The man thought about the answer for a moment, but did not seem satisfied with it.
"Can I have a look at your file?"
"You can have the first page."
Marah handed him the page from the file, whereupon he began to read through it with the note close to his face.
"Free swimming facilities, kindergartens, schools... That all adds up to at least 100 billion S-Mark, doesn't it?"
"All in all, it is more." Marah replied calmly.
"But the budget surplus was only 80 billion S-Mark?"
"As I just said, the rest will become clear in the course of the conversation."
"Are you planning tax increases to compensate?"
"We'll come to that next."
"Would you like to justify individual points beforehand?"
"If you look at it like this, you will see that, on balance, it contributes the most to the education or health of citizens. Such expenditure should always be made when the opportunity arises, so it will be made, because I make the decisions. I don't think I need to explain any further why it is advantageous if every citizen can treat others, swim, ride and shoot, is physically fit, highly educated, artistically active and interested in history. Especially things like offering first aid for a fee is quickly a loss. Nobody goes there because he is bored. For me personally, the mentruation cups are about ruining the tampon market. I think it's a waste of time to produce something that is thrown away immediately after use if it doesn't have to be. I realize that this is not a viable alternative for every woman or in every situation, but for those for whom it is, they should use it. The same goes for condoms and other waste. The fees mentioned are the same for everyone and therefore all useless, so they will all be abolished. Besides, I don't want to have the social security authorities reimburse every little thing that I in the end had charged myself. In some cases, the levies don't even cover the costs and at the latest when you add everyone's work, then almost all of them are no longer covered. I'd rather raise a tax that I already levy anyway, then it's fairer, more efficient and less bureaucratic. It's the same with tickets and travel passes. It all costs time. It all ties up manpower. It's all nonsense. That's all I want to say about it." Marah nodded and put her page back in the file. "Let's move on to the more interesting part, the taxes. Over the last few months, I've read through all the tax books carefully and I have to say that it makes more sense than I would have expected. Unfortunately, some things were not taken into account, which I will correct." Pondering, she leafed through the file. "The question now is, what's the best way to structure this? Should I list everything first?" she asked herself quietly. "It's best to start with the existing taxes on consumption." She spoke up again. "The following taxes will be abolished from next year: Beverage tax, coffee tax, tea tax, wine tax and sales tax on all food and beverages."
"All of them?" The man looked confusedly at the woman with the glasses, then at Reyji and finally back at Marah. "All food?" he asked again in disbelief.
"Yes, they're all dropped and it doesn't matter what kind of food or beverage it is. For the sake of simplicity, there will be no list of exceptions. This means that everything that generally falls into these categories will be exempt from sales tax."
"Does that mean that luxury food and luxury restaurants will also become cheaper? Won't that relieve the burden on people who don't need it?"
"That's what I wanted to hear. That's a popular bogus argument when it comes to tax cuts, because you can bring it up again and again with every tax cut, as if they think I can't do math. As a rich person, I can tell you that rich people spend more money on everything. There is no tax that you can simply lower in rate without giving me more relief than others. That is true, but only according to the bare figures. As a percentage of income, the lower classes are heavily burdened by the sales tax on food and beverages, whereas for me, for example, it's not a burden at all. I don't look at the menu in the restaurant to see how expensive it is before I sit down, while others have to work out whether they can afford to buy food for the week. Do you see what the problem is? Taxes are for steering. Why should I make access to food more difficult? People should eat and drink as much as they want."
.../ End Part