Chapter 31: Minimum Subsistence Allowance

Fu Chen took out paper and a pen: "Alright, let's draft two different proposals simply."

"The first one, as Cai Zhiyuan suggested, will be a relatively idealized plan. Although it's highly unlikely to pass, it will help us further confirm the community's rules."

"And if it actually passes, we'll hit the jackpot."

"This proposal is... the community grants every player ten thousand minutes of visa time every day. No, let's say one thousand minutes."

"Ten thousand is too much; it's higher than the mandatory 1,440 minutes required daily, so the probability of failure is greater."

"In comparison, the success rate for one thousand minutes will be slightly higher. If the one-thousand-minute proposal passes, we can continue to propose higher amounts next time."

"If even the one-thousand-minute proposal fails to pass, then it's obvious that this path is a dead end."

He looked up; seeing no objections from the others, he continued writing.

"The second proposal: every day, we deduct 3,000 minutes of visa time from the three players currently holding the most remaining visa time and transfer it to the three players with the least remaining visa time."

Li Renshu shook her head hurriedly: "No, no, no, that's inappropriate."

"This is a bit like 'taxing the rich to aid the poor.' It might not get more than half the votes, and Wang Yongxin will definitely not agree."

Cai Zhiyuan didn't care: "So what if Wang Yongxin disagrees? We only need seven votes."

"As long as the five of us reach a consensus, and we can get two more votes from Uncle Ding, Auntie Su, or anyone else outside, this plan can be implemented. We don't need Wang Yongxin's consent."

Having said that, he looked at Fu Chen.

However, after a moment of silence, Fu Chen crossed out his previous plan.

"It's better to try to get everyone to agree if possible; otherwise, we might create unnecessary rifts."

He looked at Lin Sizhi: "Lawyer Lin, what do you think?"

Everyone knew that in the previous games, Lin Sizhi and Wang Yongxin had profited the most. Therefore, if this plan were implemented, the result would be that visa time would be taken from them.

Gaining Lin Sizhi's consent was crucial.

Lin Sizhi pondered for a moment: "I also feel this proposal is somewhat inappropriate."

"It's not because I'm reluctant to give up 3,000 minutes of visa time every day—that's not a huge amount. It's mainly because I believe this plan is detrimental to the unity within the community."

"To put it simply, this method of welfare security is a bit too crude."

Fu Chen lowered his head and thought: "Hmm... perhaps you're right. I indeed don't have much experience in this area."

"Then... is there a better plan?"

Li Renshu took over the conversation: "What we are actually doing now is the redistribution of the visa time currently held by each person. In other words, it's 'taxation.'"

"If we want to provide welfare security for the entire community, we first have to collect this portion of visa time before we can talk about redistribution."

"And the principle of taxation is to pluck the most feathers from the goose while hearing the least amount of honking."

"In other words, it is best if we collect it universally rather than just targeting the top three."

"Furthermore, it would be best if the collected visa time were used entirely to exchange for food and supplies for redistribution, rather than transferring the visa time directly to specific individuals."

"We provide basic welfare security, but we must not create a tendency to 'support the lazy.'"

Fu Chen thought for a moment, then drew several more lines through his original plan on the paper: "Yes, that's true."

What Li Renshu said was not difficult to understand. Everyone present was intelligent, and they quickly grasped her meaning.

Taking visa time from the top three and transferring it directly to the bottom three was indeed a form of redistribution, but it was too blunt and would easily trigger widespread dissatisfaction.

The top three would certainly be unhappy because the targeting was too specific.

Those slightly below the top three might also be unhappy, as they could become part of the top three in the future; this would cause them to hold back in subsequent games or even deliberately control their visa time balances.

Even those who were slightly behind but not in the bottom three would be dissatisfied.

Because even though their visa time wasn't much, they wouldn't benefit from this rule.

The bottom three would essentially be getting something for nothing, which exceeded the scope of "minimum subsistence."

Everyone's visa time was earned through their own hard work, and earning it in the future might even involve risking their lives.

Therefore, an overly direct and crude method of distribution would likely trigger collective opposition.

Li Renshu said: "I think we could do this."

"Let's calculate the approximate visa time required to provide everyone with their essential daily living supplies."

"For food alone, 80 minutes of visa time is sufficient."

"For 12 people, that would be 960 minutes."

"The total visa time we earned from 'Blood Poker' seemed to be... 1,055,500."

"0.1%."

"We only need to deduct 0.1% from the total visa time every day to cover everyone's essential living supplies."

"Of course, considering that visa time naturally depletes over time, as well as the need for a margin of error, there is plenty of room to increase this number."

Li Renshu's calculation was actually quite rough, but it was largely correct.

Earlier, the large screen had displayed the visa time each person obtained from "Blood Poker," and Li Renshu had made corresponding notes at the time.

Fu Chen suddenly realized something: "Wait, the screen said earlier that these chips would only be converted into individual visa time after 24 hours."

"Is this also implying that we can actually change the distribution method within those 24 hours?"

"How much time is left before the 24 hours are up?"

Cai Zhiyuan looked at the clock in the room: "A little over an hour."

Fu Chen nodded: "Then we have to hurry."

Li Renshu continued: "We can consider two methods:"

"The first is to deduct based on each person's total visa time—0.1% daily, or 3% monthly."

"The second is to deduct based on the visa time earned in each game. Assuming each person plays at least one game per month, then at the current rate of return, it would be more than enough to simply deduct a fixed 3% or 5% from the game winnings."

After considering it for a moment, the others said: "The second option is better."

While the first plan seemed fine, it could easily affect everyone's original spending plans.

Suppose 0.2% is deducted daily or 6% monthly; for an individual player, the more they spend before the tax is deducted, the more "cost-effective" it becomes.

With the same 0.1% daily deduction, if a player's balance was 100,000, they would be taxed 100; but if they spent money aggressively the day before and brought their balance down to 80,000, they would only be taxed 80.

This difference might seem insignificant, but among 12 players, there were many who were meticulous with their finances.

If certain players accumulated large amounts of visa time in the future, far exceeding what was needed for daily life, they would inevitably use aggressive spending to minimize their taxes.

Therefore, this method had certain flaws.

While it might not be obvious in the early stages, it could trigger a series of problems later on.

In comparison, it would be easier to gain the support of the majority to deduct a flat 3% from game winnings after each game.

After thinking for a moment, Cai Zhiyuan raised a new question: "But the calculation method of deducting a fixed 3% from game winnings to maintain basic living needs is based on a premise: that everyone plays at least one game per month and maintains the current rate of return."

"Do we need to clarify this in the rules?"

"Suppose some people, not due to force majeure but out of personal choice, decide to be lazy and intentionally avoid participating in games—should we establish corresponding penalties?"

Li Renshu shook her head: "Let's not."

"Once such a rule is established, it means there must be someone specifically tasked with judging the subjective intentions of the violators, which makes it easy to use as an excuse to stir up conflict."

"Moreover, the welfare policy we are currently formulating only solves the problem of food; it doesn't involve the natural daily depletion of visa time."

"In other words, one cannot survive by relying solely on the welfare policy."

"When visa time is running low, everyone will still participate in games to earn as much visa time as possible. Therefore, the situation you're worried about likely won't happen."

"Of course, if we are worried that future games won't maintain this rate of return and want to increase the margin of error, we can raise this number to 5% or even higher."

After another brief discussion, Fu Chen finally finalized these two sets of plans.