Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 131 - 132: Interstellar Real Estate Tycoon
Chapter 131 -132: Interstellar Real Estate Tycoon
“The launch of the ‘Golden Sun’ consumed too much of the Deep Space Foundation’s manpower and resources.
Or perhaps it was the death of some key political figures, the shifting winds of the times, and the real backers of the ‘New Civilization School’ disappearing…
For various reasons, the Deep Space Foundation, an organization that had stood for hundreds of years, finally entered its period of decline.
Flowers do not bloom for a hundred days, and man does not enjoy a thousand days of prosperity. Watching his last ‘old friend’ slowly walk towards death, Zhang Yuan felt an indescribable sorrow in his heart.
Yet, all he could do from 5 light years away was to stand by and watch helplessly…
The next report.
‘Greetings to all the colleagues of the Earth Era and the Golden Sun, I am Ma Wentao, the current president of the Deep Space Foundation.’
‘In this report, I’ll bring everyone up to date on the recent changes in Earth Civilization…’
Although the Deep Space Foundation was weakening, it was still a government-supported organization. As long as it had governmental support, its complete collapse remained quite difficult.
The entire civilization’s population continued to grow slowly, having already surpassed sixty billion, and with the development of projects around the Solar System, the economy of the Earth Civilization was booming.
But then a seemingly insignificant, yet profoundly impactful event occurred.
After crossing a certain threshold, real estate prices on Earth began to skyrocket!
Especially in the first-tier cities, where housing prices soared several times over in just a decade!
Why?
Isn’t going to work in space all about making money?
And after earning money, isn’t it about returning home in glory, to enjoy a better life?
And where could one find a better life, if not on Earth?
Humans are high-order biological beings evolved from Earth, fully adapted to its environment, including the Earth’s gravity, atmospheric pressure, microbial components, etc. Living on other planets, even with all sorts of high-tech equipment, just wouldn’t be as comfortable.
Therefore, on Earth, a house is definitely something to buy, a basic necessity.
Moreover, according to a research study, people who live on Earth long-term have a much higher average life expectancy than those on other planets.
This further fueled a nationwide frenzy to buy houses!
Who wants to shorten their life for no reason?
But the space on Earth, especially for high-quality housing, is limited. To achieve comfortable living, normal cities have certain plans, such as skyscrapers not exceeding 1200 meters in height, and buildings spaced widely enough for each household to receive sunlight, and so on…
Villas?
Ordinary people can forget about it; it’s the real power brokers and the wealthy who naturally live in villas.
And there must be a large number of supporting facilities, such as parks, pedestrian streets, hospitals, schools, and various entertainment venues.
Only such houses are considered excellent residences.
Zhang Yuan wasn’t particularly concerned with this recent surge in housing prices; he simply saw it as normal market behavior. Several reports had mentioned it, and he subconsciously overlooked them.”
Zhang Yuan became aware of the seriousness and profundity of the situation only after a few major events occurred.
The first event was a hidden financial crisis triggered by a real estate bubble. The surge in prices was theoretically driven by genuine demand, but the rising prices sparked a frenzy of speculation among the population.
People were hoping to buy houses and then sell them after a few years to profit from the price difference, and just like that, speculators began to play a game of hot potato with properties. Housing, from a basic necessity, had transformed into an investment asset, and the government departments hastily implemented various purchase restrictions, but house prices continued to rise.
In this environment of rapidly increasing prices, the savings of the masses dwindled, and they all shouldered enormous mortgage debts…
The second major event was a real estate development giant who outright purchased all the land of a poor small country for property development!
“What is this? Buying a whole country? A major interstellar real estate developer?” Zhang Yuan scratched his head.
It was this astonishing display of wealth that truly made Zhang Yuan take notice.
The skyrocketing house prices on Earth had become an event of historic proportions, signifying that the poor would no longer have the right to live on Earth.
As for the original inhabitants who were poor, they became interstellar evictees, happily receiving a sum of money they could never have imagined before, then cheerfully abandoning their homeland to head to an alien planet…
Foll𝑜w current novℯls on ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm.
For the impoverished population, money was the most important thing. Matters such as lifespan should be considered later.
Enjoy the wealth while you can!
Zhang Yuan didn’t know if there was a catch, but while evictions could be lucrative and provide significant short-term benefits, surely there would be some who would resist?
An entire country being bought out, sovereignties discarded, such an affair was too exaggerated.
Senior Brother Zhao said, “You must understand, in this era, the gap between countries is even greater than that between humans and monkeys.”
“Take our Mu Country, for example; with a stable political environment, we are pioneers in the space industry, having rapidly developed for several centuries. Meanwhile, many countries have made very slow progress or no progress at all in these hundreds of years… In some regions, owning a cassava processing machine can still make you the richest person there.”
“Behind these capitalist moguls are nations. When a powerful country really eyes their land, do they truly have a choice? As long as it doesn’t look too ugly, who cares about sovereignty?”
After giving it some careful thought, Zhang Yuan concluded that such events had indeed happened before. For instance, there was once a country on Earth named Nauru, known as the “Bird Droppings Kingdom.” After its bird droppings were exhausted, the small country quickly went bankrupt, and in the end, it was consumed by Australia. Its former territory became a prison.
The competition in the world is very fierce, with no country willing to aid another without compensation.
These poor countries lacked technology and capital, and naturally, they could not develop their own national industries.
Even if they managed to develop something, they would be defeated by superior products, unable to sustain themselves.
To give a specific example, semiconductor technology began to rise in the mid-20th century; at that time, all the theories and patents were emerging. If a country started catching up then, it wouldn’t have been particularly difficult.
Korea and Mu Country both seized opportunities in the 20th century to become semiconductor powerhouses.
Xia Country began to aggressively develop semiconductor technology only in the 21st century; being only a few decades late had cost it exponentially because the market was already dominated by the forerunners.
Fortunately, Xia Country had a large enough domestic market and talent pool, which allowed it to gradually catch up…
Nowadays, semiconductor technology has been developing for several centuries; if a leader of a poor small country, on a whim, decides to dabble in semiconductors, it would be an impossible task.
Many things, if missed, are missed forever, and the gap grows ever wider, with no possibility for remediation.
Moreover, with the development of the alien economy, numerous polluting industries on Earth have come to a halt, particularly since the gold and diamond mines found on Mercury are much superior to those on Earth. Thus, many countries completely lost their economic foundation, leaving them with no choice but to sell their land.
“In other words, the entire Earth Civilization is involuntarily expelling this portion of backward and impoverished populations from the planet through economic efficiency.”
This was a subtly transformative process that had continued… for over a hundred years!
