Forging America: My Campaign Manager is Roosevelt

Chapter 385: Chapter 181: The Basic Axiom of Finance (Part 2)

"Leo, you’re not actually naive enough to think you can get rich alongside those hicks, are you?"

"That’s a fairy tale."

"In reality, it’s winner-take-all."

"That isn’t common sense, Evelyn," Leo responded coldly. "It’s fraud."

"I promised those mayors this would be a win-win alliance. I promised those workers their hard work would pay off."

"You’re destroying my foundation."

"Foundation?"

Evelyn shook her head, seemingly amused by Leo’s naivete.

"Leo, your foundation isn’t the mayors from those poor backwaters, nor is it those grease-stained workers."

"Your foundation is Pittsburgh."

"As long as Pittsburgh prospers, your tax revenue increases, and your citizens live well, your position will be rock solid."

"As for Erie and Scranton..."

Evelyn took a sip of her wine.

"It’s their honor to serve as a blood supply for Pittsburgh."

"They should be thanking you. At least you’ve let them into the game. At least they can still sell a few things instead of slowly starving in isolation."

"We’re helping them clear their inventory, helping them optimize their asset structure."

"The process might be a little painful, but that’s the price of modernization."

Evelyn walked up to Leo, extended a finger, and tapped it lightly on his chest.

"Don’t forget, Leo."

"You’re the Mayor of Pittsburgh, not Mother Teresa."

"Your duty is to make Pittsburgh win."

"And I am helping you win."

Leo looked into Evelyn’s eyes, which held not a trace of guilt.

He knew that discussing his ideals with someone like her was like talking to a brick wall.

’Mr. President,’ Leo asked in his mind, ’should I kill her?’

"Leo, calm down."

Roosevelt’s voice rang out.

"Anger at a time like this is cheap."

"You need to make capital understand who its master is."

Leo reached out and seized the finger Evelyn had pressed to his chest.

His grip tightened with surprising force.

Evelyn froze for a moment, then pulled her hand back.

"You’re hurting me," Evelyn said, her brows furrowed and a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Good. It’s supposed to hurt."

Leo said coldly.

"I built this alliance to save them, to get the steel mills in Erie smoking again, to give the truck drivers in Scranton work."

"I promised them a win-win."

"I told them that if they followed Pittsburgh, if they joined this system, everyone could survive."

Leo stared intently at Evelyn’s face.

"And the result?"

"This system you designed is sucking them dry."

"If they go bankrupt, this alliance will disintegrate in an instant."

"Those mayors will point their fingers at me and call me a liar. What about Murphy’s votes? What about the situation in Pennsylvania?"

"Are you trying to destroy everything we’ve built in Pennsylvania?"

Leo’s questions came out like a rapid-fire barrage.

He couldn’t accept this betrayal. It was the bedrock of his political credibility, the promise he had made to those who believed in him.

"Ha!"

Evelyn let out a short, sharp, scornful laugh.

"Pinning all this on me?"

"Leo, don’t act so innocent."

"Can you honestly say there isn’t a single part of you that wants to use Pittsburgh’s dominant position to suck the surrounding cities dry and strengthen your own base?"

"All this high-and-mighty talk about ’for the alliance,’ ’for a win-win.’"

Evelyn took a step forward.

"Is this what a politician is? You sling all the mud at your partner, then stand on the moral high ground shouting slogans?"

"It’s not the same!"

Leo retorted, "Using a position of strength is one thing. Setting a trap is another."

"Your people are hiding things from me. You’re deliberately accelerating the process. You want to crush their economies in the shortest time possible."

"That wasn’t my goal, nor was it my original intention for setting up this system."

"What I want is a sustainable ecosystem, a cycle that allows everyone to survive, not a slaughter that drains the pond to catch all the fish."

"Sustainable?"

Evelyn shook her head contemptuously.

"Leo, you’re too naive."

"In the world of capital, there is only efficiency, not sustainable charity."

"The logic is the same in the world of power."

Evelyn stared into Leo’s eyes.

"You’re worried they’ll betray you? Worried the alliance will fall apart?"

"You’re thinking about it all wrong."

"Only the bankrupt are truly loyal."

"If they have money, if they can still survive on their own, they’ll bargain with you. They’ll be just like before, ready to run at the slightest threat from Warren. At the critical moment, they’ll betray you just like they betrayed Warren."

"But what if they go bankrupt?"

"What if their cash flow is completely cut off, they can’t even pay their civil servants’ salaries, and they don’t even know where their next meal is coming from?"

"When a man is starving to death, he doesn’t care who gives him the bread in his hand. He’ll only kneel and kiss the feet of the one who gave it to him."

"I want to make them kneel."

"Beg you."

"And beg me."

The temperature in the room instantly dropped to freezing.

Leo looked at the woman before him, and for the first time, he saw the true colors of her soul.

It was a greed and a desire for control even purer and more extreme than Morganfield’s.

’Mr. President,’ Leo called out in his mind, ’is this the logic of capital?’

Roosevelt’s voice, tinged with a sigh, echoed in his mind.