pjbooks Chapter 193 The Answer from Pittsburgh
Chapter 193 The Answer from Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, the Hills.
This area was once the city's most troublesome slum, filled with drugs, shootings, and broken families.
But today, it looks like a fairy tale world transported from Northern Europe.
The streets were so clean it was almost unreal; there wasn't a single cigarette butt on the red brick sidewalks.
The once dilapidated walls are now covered with brightly colored murals, all themed around unity, labor, and a green future.
A brand-new banner hangs on the lamppost by the roadside: Community Experimental Demonstration Zone.
Leo Wallace, dressed casually, walked down the newly renovated street.
Behind him were several reporters carrying video cameras, and several left-wing scholars taking notes.
These elites from New York and California surveyed their surroundings with a reverent gaze, exclaiming in astonishment. "Unbelievable, this is practically a blueprint for America's future."
"Look at that daycare center, the facilities are better than private schools in Manhattan, and it's completely free."
"This is the power of universal employment security. There is no idle person here. Everyone has a job and dignity."
Leo listened to the praise with a polite smile, but his hand, hidden in his pocket, clenched into a fist.
The scene he saw was different from what these scholars had seen.
At the entrance of that community public daycare center, three brand-new school buses were parked, and five childcare workers were surrounding four children.
At the end of the street, four government employees wearing orange vests were sweeping up fallen leaves.
What used to be a task that could be done by one person is now being done by four. One person sweeps, one person holds the bags, and the other two direct traffic or chat.
This is the core pillar of Sanders' theory: universal employment security.
The government, as the employer of last resort, provides a safety net for all the workforce.
If you want to work, the government must provide you with a job with a wage of $15 per hour and full health insurance.
If you don't know how to repair roads, then paint murals; if you don't know how to paint murals, then sweep the streets; if you can't even sweep the streets, then stand by the roadside and maintain order.
In short, the government gives you money.
"Mr. Mayor."
A reporter from The Nation magazine approached and asked excitedly.
"How did you eliminate unemployment and poverty in such a short time? Does this prove that poverty can be eliminated institutionally as long as the government is willing to invest?"
Leo stopped and looked into the reporter's eager eyes.
"Because we've redefined value," Leo gave a perfect, official answer. "Here, labor itself is value, whether it's building a car or sweeping leaves."
The reporter noted down the sentence with satisfaction, considering it another golden quote.
The inspection of the hilly area has concluded.
The streets covered in murals, the children running around in daycare, and the former unemployed workers in uniform repairing the roads—all of this formed the perfect backdrop.
The media briefing was held in the basketball court at the community center.
The facilities here are very basic, with only a few rows of folding chairs and the smell of rubber flooring in the air.
But nobody cares about these things.
Reporters from major media outlets across the United States crowded the place.
Cameras from CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, and even Al Jazeera were all in position.
They were all waiting for someone.
Daniel Sanders.
The gray-haired Vermont senator had just arrived in Pittsburgh.
He looked somewhat tired, his oversized suit hanging loosely on his thin shoulders, his tie askew to one side.
But his eyes were very bright.
That light burned with an almost religious fervor.
He strode up to the podium, and Leo Wallace stood in the shadows behind him, his hands clasped in front of him, quietly watching the progressive leader.
Sanders seized the edge of the speech, leaning forward as his gaze swept over the long line of cameras and microphones below.
"ladies and gentlemen."
"The United States of America has been established for over two hundred years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776."
"In a few months, we will celebrate this great moment once again."
A polite round of applause followed, a standard response to patriotism.
Sanders paused for a moment, letting the applause fall sparsely.
Then, he asked in an almost sarcastic tone.
"But what do we have to celebrate?"
The applause stopped abruptly, and the people below looked at each other, the atmosphere becoming somewhat awkward.
"Look out the window, look at this country, we are standing on ruins."
Sanders held up one finger.
"At this momentous occasion, we are no longer faced with fireworks and parades, but with four enormous wounds tearing this country apart." The journalists in the media section instantly erupted in excitement. They picked up pens or turned on their recording devices.
They knew the real drama was about to begin.
"First, immigration."
Sanders' voice turned somber.
"Once, it was the barbed wire crisis on the US-Mexico border. Now, it's the internal decay of our city."
"Over the past few years, the governors of Texas and Florida have crammed tens of thousands of asylum seekers into buses and dumped them in New York, Chicago, and Denver like livestock."
"They used people as weapons for political revenge."
"And the result?"
"New York's finances collapsed. The mayor was forced to cut library budgets, reduce police overtime pay, and even close public swimming pools, just to provide the most basic shelter for this sudden influx of people."
"Our city is bleeding."
"What's the most absurd thing?"
Sanders swung his arm violently.
"The most absurd thing is that our farms are rotting! Strawberries are going unpicked in California, cows are going unmilked in Wisconsin, and construction sites in Texas are shut down because they can't find workers!"
"We are facing a severe labor shortage. Agriculture, domestic service, and construction are suffocating because of a lack of workers." "On the other hand, millions of young and able-bodied immigrants are sitting in detention centers, receiving welfare and just sitting there, waiting a year or even two for their legal work permits because of the damn bureaucracy."
"On one hand, there is a severe shortage of people, and on the other hand, work is prohibited."
"This stupid bureaucracy is creating hatred."
"The local poor felt angry when they saw the immigrants with food stamps. They felt that their welfare was being taken away and that their community was being invaded."
"This is America today, a self-contradictory madhouse."
The reporters below were taking notes quickly.
Sanders' words were harsh, tearing away the fig leaf that Washington had been trying to cover up.
Second, housing.
Sanders continued his accusations.
"If you are a young person living in modern times, or a father in a middle-class family, what is your biggest anxiety?" "It's housing."
"Although the Federal Reserve tried to cut interest rates, it was a drop in the ocean compared to the already sky-high housing prices."
"The secondhand housing market has disappeared. Nobody wants to sell because they're all locked into low-interest loans from a few years ago. Market liquidity has dried up, and housing prices are stuck at high levels."
"So people started to flee."
"They fled New York, fled San Francisco, fled those unaffordable big cities. They flocked to Charlotte, flocked to Indianapolis." "But what was the result?"
"As a result, housing prices in these second-tier cities also began to skyrocket, and the locals who had been living in peace and contentment found that they could no longer afford to buy houses." "This led to the emergence of a completely new class: the working-class homeless."
Sanders' voice trembled.
"Go and look at the parking lots in Seattle, look at the underpasses in Los Angeles, they're full of people."
"They are not drug addicts, they are not lazy people. They have full-time jobs, they wash their faces and brush their teeth in the McDonald's restrooms every morning, and then put on their uniforms to go to work."
"They work hard, but they can't afford a room with a roof."
"Is this what we're supposed to be celebrating—Independence Day?"
The scene was deathly silent.
Sanders gave people no chance to breathe.
Third, drugs.
"The supply chain has become more covert and complex. Those deadly powders infiltrate every community through express delivery and the internet."
"Look at our downtown area."
"San Francisco, Portland, even Philadelphia."
"It turned into a zombie apocalypse, with thousands of people wandering the streets, their bodies contorted and their minds clouded."
"What followed was a complete collapse of public order."
"Retail theft became commonplace in order to obtain a few dozen dollars for drugs. CVS closed down, Target withdrew, and Walmart locked all its shelves."
"City centers are turning into retail deserts."
"What's even more terrifying are the children."
"Thousands upon thousands of opioid orphans are flooding into the foster care system, their parents either in prison or dead from overdoses." "This generation was ruined before they were even born."
Sanders took a deep breath, his gaze becoming incredibly sharp.
"Finally, and most fatally."
"The collapse of trust."
"Republican voters live in one world, and Democratic voters live in another."
"We no longer share the same reality."
"Nobody trusts the Supreme Court anymore, nobody trusts the FBI anymore, nobody trusts the Department of Justice anymore."
"In the public eye, these once sacred and neutral institutions are now merely tools for partisan struggles, weapons used to attack political enemies." "Cities despise rural areas, and rural areas hate cities."
"Federal laws become worthless at the local level. Governors erect barbed wire along the border to defy the president's orders." "This is quasi-civil war."
"This is America today."
Sanders stopped.
He braced his hands on the lectern, his chest heaving violently.
This speech was his judgment on this era.
He laid bare all of America's wounds, exposing them raw and painful to the American people.
despair.
This was the only feeling among everyone present.
"but."
Sanders then changed the subject, turning around and pointing to the young man who had been standing in the shadows.
"On this dark night, in this country filled with despair."
"I saw a ray of light in Pittsburgh."
All the cameras immediately turned and focused on Leo Wallace.
Leo emerged from the shadows.
He was wearing a dark blue suit, without a tie, and the collar was slightly open.
His expression was calm, but his eyes were cold.
"Leo," Sanders stepped aside to speak, "tell them."
"Tell the whole of America how Pittsburgh did it."
"Tell them that we have another option on these ruins."
Leo stepped forward to speak.
He gripped the microphone, the coolness of the metal traveling through his palm.
He looked at the reporters below, at the camera, and at the hundreds of millions of anxious Americans behind the camera.
"The senator described a scene of hell."
Leo began, "Unfortunately, that's reality."
"We are living in this hell."
Leo's gaze swept over the camera lenses that had been set up.
"We have seen chaos at the border, anxiety among the middle class, drug-ridden streets, and a collapse of trust in society. These are all symptoms."
"In Washington, people are arguing about the causes of these symptoms, blaming each other, and shifting blame."
"But in Pittsburgh, we don't argue."
"We only solve problems."
Leo reached out and pointed out the window, pointing to the newly renovated hilly area.
"Look here, this used to be one of Pittsburgh's deepest wounds."
"Drugs, violence, unemployment—these scourges of American society are all present here."
"But now, it's our show flat."
"That's the answer we provided."
Leo began to elaborate on the logical loop known as the "Pittsburgh Solution".
"Regarding immigration and labor."
"The elites in Washington are looking at reports in their offices and saying we are experiencing a labor shortage, while the governor of Texas is putting immigrants on buses and saying we are experiencing a refugee crisis."
"This in itself is a huge irony."
"What we did in Pittsburgh was break this paradox."
"We don't need to wait for those federal bureaucracies to slowly review your identity; we've established the New Citizen Settlement Service Center." "As long as you're willing to work, we'll issue you a citizenship card."
"With this card, you can enter factories, work on road construction projects, send your children to school, and visit community hospitals for medical treatment."
"We have invested the entire budget that was originally used to maintain public order and drive away homeless people into vocational training."
"We taught them how to operate excavators, how to repair pipes, and how to install solar panels."
"And the result?"
A proud smile appeared on Leo's lips.
"As a result, we no longer lack manpower on our construction sites, and our construction progress is the fastest in the state. Those immigrants who were once considered a burden have now become the engine of our city's revitalization."
"They pay taxes, they spend money, they become part of the community."
"We didn't build a wall, we built a bridge."
Next, Leo talked about housing.
"This is probably the biggest headache for every American right now: housing prices are outrageously high, and rent is eating up a large portion of wages." "The market has failed."
"Since the market is failing, the government must step in."
"The community land trusts we are implementing in the hilly areas are designed to take land back from speculators."
"The government will repurchase the idle land and entrust it to a community trust for management. The houses on this land can never be bought or sold, only rented." "And the rent is determined by the tenant's income."
"We stipulate that the rent cap can never exceed 30% of a family's monthly income."
"This means that no matter how much money you make outside, you never have to worry about not being able to pay rent, and you never have to worry about being evicted by your landlord." "This gives people a sense of security."
"Only when a person no longer worries about the roof over their head will they dare to consume, start a business, and dream."
"That's why our community businesses have been able to recover, and why there are so many more small shops on our streets."
"Because people are willing to spend money."
Regarding drugs and law and order, Leo's proposed solutions were more radical.
"We don't arrest drug addicts."
This statement caused a stir among the reporters present.
“Arresting doesn’t solve the problem,” Leo explained. “You put a drug addict in jail, spend taxpayers’ money to support him for a few years, and then release him. He has no job, no skills, his life is still hopeless, and he will only go back to drugs and commit crimes again.”
"This is a vicious cycle."
"In Pittsburgh, we used the money meant for repairing the prison to repair the factory."
"We provide jobs for drug addicts."
Even if it's just sweeping the streets, even if it's just carrying bricks.
"We told him that as long as he came to work on time every morning, we would pay him. But the condition was that he had to pass a urine test every morning."
"If you pass, you'll get your full salary; if you fail, you'll only get half, and the other half will be forcibly deposited into your drug rehabilitation account." "We replace drugs with work, and pleasure with dignity."
"When a person discovers that he can support himself with his own hands and earn the respect of his neighbors, he no longer needs that cheap chemical illusion."
Leo paused, his tone turning cold.
"Of course, for those stubborn individuals who repeatedly refuse to mend their ways, and even attempt to sell drugs on construction sites, we also have an ultimate solution." "If you give up on yourself, if you choose to become a cancer in this community."
"Then Pittsburgh will no longer have any illusions about you."
"We will strip you of all your benefits and then send you to the harshest rehabilitation center."
"You will spend the rest of your life there, until you are clean, or you die."
"The data proves this."
Leo pointed to a report in his hand.
"In the past month, drug-related deaths in the Hills have dropped by 90 percent, and theft has dropped by 80 percent." "We haven't added a single police officer, but the streets are safer."
Finally, Leo addressed the grandest theme: trust.
Senator Sanders said that American society is tearing apart, and people no longer trust each other or the government.
"This is because the government has betrayed the people."
"When politicians only put on a show on television and attack each other for partisan interests, people will naturally be disappointed."
"The only way to rebuild trust is through action."
"Do practical things."
"We never engage in those empty ideological debates. We don't care if you're red or blue, or what religion you believe in." "We only care if your roads are smooth, your water is clean, and your children have access to education."
"When the government starts to think like a servant rather than a ruler, trust will naturally return."
"That's the answer from Pittsburgh."
Leo gave his final summary.
"We are not creating miracles, we are just returning to common sense."
"Let's go back to that common sense that Washington has forgotten: the purpose of government is to make people's lives better."
"The hilly area is just the beginning."
"We have proven that this model is feasible."
"Now, we need to roll it out across the city, across the state, and even across the United States."
"Senator Murphy is pushing forward a new bill in Washington to ignite more sparks."
"This is the future."
"A new America that is not held hostage by capital, not torn apart by partisan strife, and truly belongs to the people."
Leo finished speaking.
Thunderous applause erupted in the basketball court.
Everyone present saw a clear blueprint, an actionable plan.
Compared to the empty slogans of Washington, everything in Pittsburgh seems so real.
At least, the hilly areas outside are proof of this.
Sanders stood to the side, looking at Leo with a relieved smile on his face.
This model room has been successfully completed.
This young man is not only an excellent executor, but also a natural orator.
He didn't choose the wrong person.
After the media briefing ended, the crowd dispersed.
Leo, Sanders, Murphy, Ethan, and Sarah returned to the mayor's office in City Hall.
Sanders took off his suit jacket, loosened his tie, and sank into the sofa in a relaxed manner.
"Well done, Leo."
"Today's presentation went very smoothly."
Sanders looked at Leo, his gaze becoming deep.
"I've already arranged that two billion dollar bill."
"The Senate Appropriations Committee will hold its first hearing next Wednesday."
"Murphy, as the proposer, you will be giving the keynote address at that hearing."
Sanders turned to Murphy.
"You should prepare well these next few days. Leo will give you all the materials."
"You need to bring out the same momentum you had during the campaign."
"You have to tell those old guys that if this bill isn't passed, America will lose to its competitors, supply chains will break down, and national security will be threatened."
Murphy nodded, his expression serious.
"Don't worry, Daniel, I know what to say."
"very good."
Sanders stood up and patted the wrinkles on his pants.
"I should go back to Washington too."
"There's still a tough battle to fight over there."
"Whether this money is approved or not is not only a matter of Pittsburgh, but also of our progressive wing's standing within the party."
"If this succeeds, we will have the leverage to negotiate better terms with the pro-establishment camp."
Sanders walked to the door, stopped, and glanced back at Leo.
"Leo, remember what you said today."
"Don't let that showroom become just an empty shell."
"What if one day, the lights there go out?"
"Then all our efforts have become a joke."
Leo stood up and nodded solemnly.
"The lights won't go out, Senator."
"As long as I'm here, as long as the fire in Pittsburgh is still burning."
"That's good."
Sanders pushed open the door and went out.
Murphy followed him out; he was going to the airport to see Sanders off and to discuss the details of the hearing on the way.
Only Leo, Ethan, and Sarah remained in the office.
"call"
Sarah let out a long sigh and slumped into her chair.
"I was so nervous just now. I was worried that the reporter would ask about the fiscal deficit."
“They won’t ask,” Ethan said with a laugh. “They’re captivated by the grand narrative. In this atmosphere of saving America, who cares about that pitiful deficit?”
"Moreover, Marcus's data is flawless."
Ethan patted the thick folder in his hand.
"Even if they ask, we have the perfect answer."
Leo walked to the window and looked down at the square.
The media vehicles are leaving one after another.
The public relations campaign went very smoothly.
Through this meticulously planned visit and speech, Pittsburgh successfully established itself as a "pioneer of reform" in the national media. But to bring that ambitious vision to fruition, they still need to do much more.