Chapter 362: State-Owned Companies

"The Los Angeles City Government pays? Standard Oil Company provides people? Set up an oil company owned and operated by the government?"

Deng Wenshun was very puzzled and confused by Liang Yao's idea.

"Isn't this just a matter of transferring money from one hand to the other? Why do we have to do it all at once?"

"It's not a matter of transferring money from one hand to the other. One is public and the other is ours." Liang Yao said seriously.

"In California, aren't we public?" Deng Wenshun still couldn't understand Liang Yao's idea.

"If it's true as you said, we are public, and the deficit of the state government at the beginning of the year should be filled by us." Liang Yao smiled.

"Why? There are so many rich people in California, why should we be the only ones to pay for this hole? Robinson, Sutter, Fremont, Ge Wen, Wu Yuanhua, Pan Zhengwei, etc., usually get a lot of benefits."

Speaking of this, Deng Wenshun immediately became anxious.

"If we have to pay, we shouldn't be the only ones to pay."

"This is the difference between the government and the private sector." Liang Yao sat down and said.

"Some industries that require large initial investments but are not profitable still need the government to do it, such as the railway. Although California has developed so fast in the past two years, the California Railway Company has not yet recovered its investment.

These projects require too much initial investment. If the government wants to do this kind of project, it also needs money to do it."

Deng Wenshun remained silent. After pondering for a long time, Deng Wenshun said, "Third brother, I don't have much knowledge. You are the one who wants to do big things. I will listen to you on how to do it."

"If you don't have much knowledge, read more. Is the Los Angeles City Government's finances in surplus this year?" Liang Yao asked about the financial situation of the Los Angeles City Government.

"It stands to reason that the Los Angeles state government should have a fiscal surplus this year, but you know that.

Los Angeles has spent a lot of money this year, paving roads and building bridges, expanding docks, co-founding a chemical engineering school with Standard Oil two months ago, and last month recruiting more than a dozen doctors from San Francisco to set up a city hospital.

All of these cost money, and they cost a lot of money. After all this, there is not much money left in the Los Angeles city government's accounts."

Deng Wenshun knows the financial situation of Los Angeles like the back of his hand.

Although Los Angeles' fiscal revenue was small in the past, there were fewer people in Los Angeles, so the expenditure was naturally small. Although Los Angeles' fiscal revenue has exploded this year, the population growth rate in Los Angeles is not less than the growth rate of fiscal revenue.

"How much is left?" Liang Yao asked with a frown.

"Not much, not little, about 75,000 US dollars." Deng Wenshun replied.

"I can help you think of a way to deal with the money, but you must choose the right people for me. This is the first government-owned company in California. If it succeeds, Los Angeles will benefit the most. Don't be careless." Liang Yao specifically instructed.

This is the first government-owned company in California. Its success or failure is related to the establishment of other state-owned companies in the future. This matter can only succeed, not fail.

"Understood, I dare not be careless about what the third brother told me." Deng Wenshun nodded and said, "Does the third brother plan to pay for the establishment of this government-owned company?"

"Pay for it yourself?" Liang Yao shook his head and said, "California is everyone's California, how can I pay for it myself? I'm not a great philanthropist? The state government will pay some money, but not too much. The big part will depend on other wealthy people in California. They are the biggest beneficiaries of California, just like us."

"It's more painful to let them pay than to kill their parents." Deng Wenshun laughed.

The capitalists in California are no less generous than the gentry in the Qing Dynasty.

Based on Deng Wenshun's understanding of California capitalists, Fremont, Robinson, and Sartre, who truly regarded California as their home, might be willing to pay.

As for whether other people are willing to pay money to the public, it is really hard to say.

The gentry of the Qing Dynasty thought it was a sin to use the white silver to help the poor.

The capitalists in California would also think it was a sin to hand over the golden dollars to the government.

This is human nature. Everyone has the same virtue, so no one should laugh at anyone else.

"You just need to do your job well, and leave the rest to me." Liang Yao said, "You rest in the hall first, I'll go to the house to change clothes, and we'll have a meeting when the dignitaries in California are all here."

Liang Yao took the silver plate photos sent by the newspaper in the morning and returned to the bedroom on the second floor.

When Liang Yao returned to the bedroom, Aoki Ling was sitting at the desk, biting his lips, racking his brains to choose words and sentences, and writing instructions for Vaseline.

Liang Yao approached quietly and silently read the instructions written by Aoki Ling.

Aoki Ling's Chinese is very good, both in oral level and reading and writing ability. The Chinese instructions written by Aoki Ling are concise and the sentences are fluent and beautiful. Liang Yao himself may not be as good as Aoki Ling's.

However, Liang Yao is not good at Aoki Ling's English.

Liang Yao glanced at the English instructions that Aoki Ling had only written halfway and had many loopholes, and habitually patted Aoki Ling's butt.

After the lovemaking, Liang Yao gently kissed Aoki Ling. Aoki Ling wrapped in a nightgown found a tuxedo and a shirt that had just been ironed for Liang Yao from the closet, and helped Liang Yao put them on.

After putting on the clothes, Liang Yao took out Aoki Ling's photo from a stack of US dollar bills in his wallet. This was a photo developed from negative film.

The emergence of negative film made it possible to copy images in batches.

This technology has become increasingly mature after more than ten years of development and improvement. However, compared with the non-reproducible silver plate photos, the relatively cheap negative film also has a relatively large disadvantage, that is, the image quality is not as high as the silver plate photos.

Therefore, many celebrity photos that have been passed down to later generations during this period are silver plate photos.

Due to the high image quality and non-reproducibility of silver plate photos, these photos are often very valuable for collection and are hard to find in the market.

Liang Yao applied some vaseline on the back of the paper photo and then pasted the photo on the vaseline bottle.

"Does it look good? I want to use your photo portrait as the packaging of vaseline." Liang Yao said, holding the vaseline bottle with the photo pasted on it.

Qingmu Ling is plump and round, dignified and generous. She is a typical oriental beauty. It is just right to use her portrait as the packaging of vaseline.

Qingmu Ling looked at herself in the mirror and at herself on the silver plate photo, and was amazed.

"It's exactly the same, not even a single detail is different. Even the best painter in Edo couldn't draw such a realistic portrait."

"One is art, the other is technology, there's no comparison." Liang Yao said calmly.