Chapter 232 Disparate Output Values

"Hey! What are you guys working on here?"

Jim slammed on the brakes and pulled over to the side of the road, grabbing two bottles of water he bought on the way and walking into the construction site.

Due to the lack of a safety helmet, Jim didn't enter the interior of the construction site. Instead, he greeted a middle-aged white man who seemed to be on guard duty outside the site.

"Where are you from?"

Taking the water Jim handed over, the guard seemed to be in a good mood. Before answering the question, he joked with Jim:

"We're building a new residential area here. I've seen the plans, hey~ it looks really nice, and the house prices are cheap too! But unfortunately, you're too late. The houses here are only for citizens, and if you want to become a new citizen, it'll be three years later."

"New citizen? You guys..."

Getting citizenship in Douglas? That's unless he's completely bored.

Seizing the loophole in the guard's words, Jim squinted slightly. If new citizens were entering, then it would make sense for the demand for real estate to increase.

"Right, I'm from Alma, Theo Phil Madison! And you?"

After exchanging names and shaking hands, Madison, the guard, looked at Jim with some confusion. Since June 1st, whenever there were new faces coming in, after hearing his above-mentioned words, a normal person shouldn't be filled with regret, wondering why they hesitated and didn't come earlier.

It was the first time Madison had seen someone like Jim, whose expression remained calm, with just a hint of surprise.

"I came from New York looking for someone. I wanted to ask, are there many people like you coming from Alma? Is it because there are jobs here?"

"Not many from Alma. We're close to Waycross, so many people go there. Mostly from Agar, Lenox, and Omega. Of course, it's because of jobs. Although they're not very satisfying, at least there's a somewhat stable job without worrying about food and clothing."

Taking out two chairs from the guardhouse and handing one to Jim, the two sat down by the construction site and chatted.

"But I feel like my job is too leisurely. When there are no delivery trucks coming, I don't know what to do all day."

"A little leisure isn't bad, right? Is this your own construction company or another?"

"Of course, it's a company. But it's also like building our own houses, after all, we're all workers from Mr. Blake's DOG Construction. It's just that the company's first project is our future homes."

"Why do you guys... I mean, wouldn't it increase a lot of costs if a commercial company got involved?"

Jim was puzzled. If they built the houses themselves, the costs would only include building materials. Regarding labor, they'd only pay for time, and for most people, time isn't worth much.

So why...

"Hehe, we're not stupid. Don't forget, these houses are built bit by bit by us, so we know the costs. But have you ever thought about one thing? If we build the houses ourselves, the prices we purchase at won't be as low as the company's bulk purchases, so in the end, the economic costs are about the same. Besides, letting the company make money means security for our future, right?"

Sighing, Madison, with a hint of bitterness, took out a cheap pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one:

"Although it can't guarantee that we won't be laid off again, at least we signed proper labor contracts. Even if we're laid off, we can at least get some severance pay, so we won't be too embarrassed, or, we need to add a bit of fault tolerance to our lives."

"In this regard, joining Mr. Blake's company is undoubtedly the best choice. You see, the cost of buying a house is almost the same as if we did it ourselves, but if we did it ourselves, no one would pay for our time. But now, we have a basic income of $500 each month, and if there's still work after the houses are built, that's great. If there's no work, and the company can't continue, we can still get some severance pay to ease the embarrassment and start over."

Jim found Madison's survival wisdom easy to understand. But apart from that:

"This construction company should be newly established, right? The job that attracted you at the beginning probably wasn't this one, was it?"

"Indeed, it wasn't at first. At that time, it was HT Company, also under Mr. Blake's. But by the time we arrived, HT Company was already full, so we had no choice but to come here. My original plan was actually to go to HT Company. I'm pretty good at cooking, so maybe after working for a while, if I had enough money, I could join them and become my own boss!"

"Although life now is somewhat different from what I imagined, I'm still quite satisfied. Unlike New York State, here in Atlanta, almost sucks the blood out of the entire state. For someone like me, a farmer without any skills, there's no job to be found in Atlanta. Without a job, I can't support my wife and kids."

"In the end, isn't personal future less important than food for one's family?"

Behind Madison's carefree smile, Jim sensed a deep bitterness.

Growing up in Alabama, Jim was no stranger to Atlanta, the southeastern center of the United States. Not to mention its impact on the state of Georgia, the suction range of Atlanta completely covers several states including Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

A large amount of capital and talent are attracted to Atlanta. The direct result of this is that the richer Atlanta becomes, the poorer the rest of the areas become.

Not to mention that even without the major developments in Georgia and Florida, such as the one that hadn't started yet, even in the future, after the major development in the 1980s, around 2010 or 2011, the total GDP of the whole state of Georgia was about 400 billion dollars, while Atlanta alone accounted for 286 billion dollars.

The remaining 114 billion dollars are divided among the 159 counties and around 800 cities in the state. And within that, there are cities like Macon, Savannah, Columbus, and others, which take a big chunk of it.

The actual GDP of small towns like Douglas and Alma might not even reach 80 million dollars per year. And this is data from thirty years later!

Today, this gap would only be larger!

A small town with a population of tens of thousands, being able to generate a total GDP of 10 million dollars per year, would be remarkable. And behind this meager GDP, it also indicates that the region's productivity, or production efficiency, is extremely low.

Many of the population cannot be transformed into high-value labor. A large number of people can only engage in low-end, easily replaceable jobs. So, when a crisis hits, they are the first to suffer.

Jim could clearly see this on his journey south. In places like Ohio and New York, with developed industries or finance, people's living conditions are generally much better.

The expressions of worry on people's faces started to increase noticeably only after passing Iowa, or in other words, after leaving Iowa behind.