The British representative touched on the concerns of small and dium-sized European countries, naly that if the German governnt indeed acted as a rogue, these countries would have no good solutions.
Even countries like Italy, which are not considered small or dium-sized, may not have enough say in front of Germany.
Germany is a proud nation, and the Germanic tribes are a proud people.
Those who understand the character of Germans know that after their defeat, they absolutely do not think of retreat or fear.
The proud Germans will only reflect on their failures and make a coback at a certain mont.
British representative John constantly observed the facial expressions of other small and dium-sized country representatives, and after confirming that they were moved by his statents, John continued to add fuel to the fire, saying: "Gentlen, the current losses are for us to gain better benefits in the future.
The World Alliance will protect the interests of all mber countries, ensuring that any one of you can fully receive reparations from Germany."
Guaranteeing that all small and dium-sized countries can fully receive reparations is what their representatives are most eager to hear.
After hearing John’s indirect promise, it was clear that many small and dium-sized country representatives beca interested, but they were still hesitant.
The 20 billion pounds of reparations were reduced to 15 billion pounds, a reduction of a full quarter.
For the Four Great Powers of the Allies, Britain, France, and Russia had to reduce their reparations by 1.275 billion pounds, and Australasia had to reduce theirs by 425 million pounds.
Furthermore, all large, small, and dium-sized countries would lose a total of 750 million pounds, which was enough to make all countries hurt.
The first eting ended inconclusively, and while many small and dium-sized countries were interested, the representatives had to consult with their governnts and receive their instructions before making a final decision.
However, both the British representative and the British governnt were not in a hurry, as reducing Germany’s reparations ratio was not an easy thing to do, and even if the eting passed, it would take a long ti to implent.
Exactly how much of a reduction, as well as the annual reparations Germany needed to pay after the reduction, would require further negotiations and would only be communicated to the German governnt afterward. Explore stories on empire
That’s right, even though this matter would benefit the German governnt, they still had no right to know.
Only after the final eting had concluded, and everything had been settled, would the World Alliance inform Germany.
The entire eting process was also conveyed to Arthur’s desk, and Arthur was no exception.
In the original history, Germany’s loans went through several rounds of reduction, from an extrely outrageous number to a more outrageous number.
Yes, Germany’s reparations in history were still very outrageous, even being repaid until the Cold War period after World War II.
Repaying World War I reparations after World War II was indeed an outrageous matter.
Arthur replied to this, still maintaining the previous decision, not actively supporting the reduction of reparations but not refusing it either.
This was just a small episode, and Arthur’s main focus was still on the developnt of Australasia, such as the welfare guarantees for the aging population currently facing Australasia.
Any country has an aging population, with the only difference being the proportion of the total population.
Thanks to the large number of immigrants and newborn babies, Australasia’s aging population is not large, which is good news for the current governnt.
However, as ti goes on, the aging population in Australasia will increase.
Australasia’s current policy to protect the welfare of the elderly, besides building a large number of nursing hos to take care of those without children or relatives, is to increase the subsidies for the elderly population.
But even with the highest subsidies, there are certain limits, especially as the aging population grows, placing a heavier burden on the governnt.
Therefore, implenting a policy that can ensure a source of inco for the elderly after they retire or lose their ability to work has beco the primary goal of the current governnt, especially the Departnt of Civil Affairs.
When it cos to such policies, the first thing that cos to Arthur’s mind is pension insurance.
During their pri working years, people would purchase pension insurance in advance to ensure inco during retirent and old age. This was the primary way to ensure the elderly would have sufficient material resources in later generations.
The advantage of this approach was that it wasn’t just the governnt shouldering the burden, but rather a joint effort between the younger generation and the governnt to support themselves in their old age.
A large number of young people buying pension insurance provided the governnt with a certain source of inco, allowing them to have enough funds to help the elderly.
Under normal circumstances, as long as there isn’t a crisis in the birth rate, the governnt would have enough funds to assist the elderly through the continuous replacent of people at various ages, without any economic risks.
This system is quite suitable for present-day Australasia, as there are many young people who could use their pension funds to fully bear the cost of subsidies needed by the elderly.
Of course, compared to the current pension systems in other countries, this system is more advanced.
The pension systems in European countries nowadays are imperfect, even superficial.
Even in a country like the British Empire, pension systems generally only consider short-term issues, and simply cannot withstand close scrutiny.
Put bluntly, the pension systems established by European countries actually just pay lip service to the public, only informing them that the country has this system in place.
As for how much help this pension system can actually provide, the living conditions of the elderly population in European countries speak volus.
As for the now ubiquitous retirent pensions, they are unheard of and unseen in this current era.
Even so major contributors to enterprises might not have a retirent pension after retiring, let alone ordinary employees.
One of the worriso issues with establishing a pension insurance system is the decline in birth rates.
In fact, there is a precedent for this - according to European intelligence, in industrialized countries like Britain and France, birth rates have gradually declined as they entered industrialized societies.
There are many reasons for the decline in birth rates, but the most fundantal factor is the decrease in the happiness index of residents’ lives.
This is quite strange - why would the happiness index of people’s lives decrease after entering an industrialized society?
This phenonon may seem odd, but as soon as one delves into the social situations in Britain and France, it becos apparent.
With the advent of an industrialized society, the rise of capital is inevitable. Not all factories and businesses can be held in the hands of the state and the royal family, aning that so people will inevitably ride the wave of industrialization and beco major capitalists.
However, everyone knows that capital is profit-seeking. Newly risen capital will not treat commoners kindly; instead, capitalists will exploit them to achieve their goals.
Under such circumstances, although society has beco industrialized, the happiness index of people’s lives continues to decline.
Although inco has increased and life has beco more technologically advanced due to industrialization, what happiness can be derived from soone working more than ten hours a day?
What’s more, they must worry about their inco being deducted, working themselves to exhaustion just to feed their families, and sotis not even having enough food while still worrying about the risk of unemploynt. Under these circumstances, if the birth rate didn’t decline, then there must be an error in the data.
These circumstances have appeared in both Britain and France, indirectly proving the presence of significant capital in both countries.
But thankfully, both Britain and France are powerful nations and possess nurous colonies. They can extract substantial funds from their colonies to alleviate dostic conflicts.
As a result, Britain and France appear to be powerful nations on the surface, and their dostic conflicts and crises are not serious.
For Australasia, the problems faced by Britain and France must be avoided.
Birth rate decline must be prevented, as well as the nation becoming controlled by huge capital.
The good news is that currently, Arthur is the largest capital in Australasia, and no one is qualified to compete with him in the short term.
Being the leader of capital himself, Arthur can influence the capital environnt in Australasia and ensure that the lives of Australasian citizens do not beco as miserable as those in Britain and France.
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