Father of France

Chapter 56 Everyone is equal before mathematics
This wasn't Koeman's original idea; it was a Soviet policy, but it hadn't yet developed into a single tax. At present, it's called a childless tax, with a tax rate of six percent of monthly income.

Koeman figured that since they'd already gone this far with taxing married couples without children, it was only a matter of time before they went even further and levied a single tax. So he figured he might as well just break the ice.

He believed that the Soviet people could afford to pay six rubles out of every one hundred rubles earned per month. He thought the tax rate was not high.

Similar taxes didn't only exist in the Soviet Union; it seems Yugoslavia also had a similar policy.

Koeman believes that this approach will eventually spread to other countries. It seems that Japan, as an early adopter in East Asia, has already begun to formulate this strategy. As an early version, Japan has already proven in many areas that once Japan takes the lead, other neighboring countries will follow suit; it's only a matter of time.

If both men and women were to accept it, considering the ironclad rule that a lose-lose situation is better than a win-win situation, men might not necessarily object.

However, in Corman's view, because the national conditions of each country are different, France is not like the Soviet Union, which has experienced structural population imbalances and has ways to deal with them. France does not regard gender equality as the only truth and vigorously promote equal pay for equal work like the Soviet Union. Therefore, France can think of ways to address the income of men and women.

Simply ensuring that French women earn less than 50% of what French men earn should be effective. This is just a random thought from Corman; if it's too high, it can be lowered appropriately—that depends on the mathematician's skill.

If a country experiences a population collapse, it ultimately boils down to a shortage of livestock. In countries like France and other parts of the free world, this situation could lead to an overabundance of immigrants. If there aren't enough domestic livestock, they'll import foreign livestock. Countries like Japan, which claim to be a single-ethnic nation, will have to tough it out.

The value of people of different ages is definitely different. Raising children requires considering the future labor force, while adult men and women are the current labor force. However, the elderly have no value to the country and not only do they have no value, but they also incur additional costs, such as medical care.

A decrease in young people will lead to the shrinkage of many industries, the closure of kindergartens and the reduction of schools, a lack of buyers for real estate, and an overabundance of elderly people, which will also cause social attitudes to become more conservative.

In his previous life, when he was in his thirties, Koeman had already sensed that he was becoming more conservative in his thinking. He discovered this by chance when two sixth-generation fighter jets appeared. When he saw the videos, he subconsciously leaned towards Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, even though Chengdu Aircraft Corporation's was actually more futuristic.

Even though he knew that Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group's fighter jets were more futuristic and had greater potential, he still thought Shenyang Aircraft Industry Group's fighter jets were better.

Shenyang Aircraft Corporation's fighter jets are better than those of the United States on the surface, while Chengdu Aircraft Corporation's fighter jets are better in ways that Koeman neither understands nor comprehends. It was from that time that Koeman knew that Koeman's mentality was aging and his thinking was becoming more conservative.

He didn't reveal his plan to exacerbate gender inequality to Pavlov, because Pavlov was the motherland in the hearts of the proletariat, and he couldn't be so politically incorrect.

It might be worth a try in France. After all, the liberal left has been shouting slogans loudly for years, but equal pay for equal work is still a long way off. This is a solution based on the unique national conditions of the free world.

Koeman believes that French women should be grateful to him, as French women currently earn less than 50% of what French men earn, and this gap will likely remain for the next 20 years. Therefore, his ideas are very much based on the realities of France and can withstand scrutiny.

The only obstacle was the French system. He still felt that establishing a military government was more in line with the national conditions for the next few decades. With his hands in his pockets, Coman couldn't help but think to himself, "He's thinking about how to go backwards every day."

Back at the French Embassy, ​​Corman borrowed paper and pen from the embassy secretary, Henri. He needed to produce something from his month-long investigation, otherwise his trip would have been in vain.

He made a sweeping assertion that the Soviet death toll definitely exceeded ten million, and his first day's report was fresh off the press. However, he couldn't portray the Soviet losses as too devastating. Firstly, Koeman lacked supporting data and could only extrapolate from French experiences; if the numbers were too high, it would expose his incompetence, and France, and indeed not only France, would be unlikely to believe him.

Furthermore, if the weaknesses of the Soviet Union were exposed and Britain and the United States still believed in them, it might foster adventurism.

If the US military were really like that, that would be fine, but Coman knew very well that Montgomery's description of the US military as "the Italians on our side" was absolutely accurate.

The image of the US military as invincible is purely fabricated. Just like in the early postwar period, countries believed that the Soviet Union contributed the most to the victory over Germany, but gradually the US became the one that contributed the most.

Even if the death toll exceeds ten million, this number would still be within the limits of the free world's imagination regarding the concept of devastating losses.

If the numbers are even larger, then it's a different concept altogether; people can't imagine things they haven't seen before.

While Koeman was writing his report, NKVD officer Pavlov was also writing his, reporting on the day's events, including his assessment of the Soviet labor force losses by the French soldier he was in charge of.

Pavlov hadn't expected that Koman would reveal such a bombshell on his very first day in the Soviet Union. At the end of his report, Pavlov said, "This French soldier claims to disdain lying and to conduct dialogue without concealing his true purpose. I really hope he's a little hypocritical."

Koman, who embodied the same disdain for concealing his true intentions as the reactionaries, was unaware of the profound impact he had on an NKVD officer.

He was joking around with Henry, the embassy secretary he was currently most familiar with, saying, "I hope the Soviet Union won't plant any spies around me, because I have nothing to hide. If you want to know something, just ask me; I'll gather more information than any spy could."

Before going to bed, Coleman flipped through Henry's translation of the Soviet book "100,000 Whys," which was also his childhood enlightenment reading material in his previous life. He couldn't understand the original Soviet version, so he asked Henry to help translate it. This kind of enlightenment reading material must be brought back to the French colony.

Nothing more was said that night. The next day, Koman officially began his investigation of the Soviet education system. With the help of the embassy, ​​Koman plunged headlong into the investigation itinerary arranged by the Soviet Ministry of Education with the air of walking into a trap. Of course, the person in charge of being vigilant against the imperialists' persistent desire to destroy China was still Pavlov.

Before the war, France was most famous in academia for mathematics. This is the origin of the saying that the center of mathematics was Paris and the center of physics was Berlin.

Koman's itinerary included Moscow University, but his main purpose today was to understand the level of secondary education in the Soviet Union and, incidentally, collect secondary education textbooks.

Today, Koman was much more serious. He even chose to sit in on a class, but he had already given back most of what he had learned to society, so he could hardly understand what the teacher was saying.

However, Koman's beaming smile led Pavlov to mistakenly believe that he had gained a great deal, and he said smugly, "I believe Lieutenant Koman has seen the Soviet Union's powerful basic education system."

"That's exactly what I need, to filter out the idiots early on." Koeman didn't mind that he was among the idiots. "I believe that mathematics is the fairest thing in the world, and it even conforms to your Soviet concept of equality. If it works, it works; if it doesn't, it doesn't."

(End of this chapter)