Competititon is for Losers. (Part 2)

Monopoly Corporations use PPP (Public-Private-Partnerships)

„Competition is for Losers“ is a satire novel, written by Walter Schoenthaler

KI-Picture: Shutterstock 2658565493

Competition is for Losers – Part 2 >>> Here is the Link to Part 1: Competition is for Losers. (Novel, written by Walter Schoenthaler)

Schickelgruber

Rapota’s cell phone played the polyphonic ringtone. It was the assistant of the owner of the Vienna Economy Express, a daily newspaper, on the phone, informing her that the editorial meeting had been postponed by half an hour. Rapota had barely hung up when it rang again. It was Schickelgruber on the line, Dolf Schickelgruber, the owner of the Vienna Economy Express himself. His Majesty himself, not the assistant pearl he usually puts forward, the pale blonde Clara Scheibenreif. Something must have happened. There had to be a fire somewhere…

„Good morning, Miss Weinbergbauer. Can you please be in my office in five minutes?“ Schickelgruber intoned curtly and immediately hung up again without waiting for Rapota’s reaction.

Rapota’s highly sensitive early-warning system came on. The vertical wrinkle on her forehead seemed to have deepened at that moment, as her thoughts turned to fear. Schickelgruber had never contacted her directly before; she was too small a number in the publishing network for that. When she met him in the corridors, he behaved in an exceptionally charming manner; he had turned to look at her several times, indeed, he too seemed magnetically attracted by her ambiguous aura.

The tone of voice on the phone did not fit in with this, and it certainly did not fit in with Schickelgruber’s obsessive need for harmony. Aggression was alien to this man; he ignored conflicts by simply letting them sit out. He left his employees to social Darwinist principles, where the strongest survived and the weakest fell by the wayside or left the building; he ignored bullying for as long as possible.

Schickelgruber’s most outstanding strength lay in his ability to find advertisers. As with any print medium, large-scale advertisements formed the financial backbone of the Vienna Economy Express. Before his stellar career in newspaper publishing, Schickelgruber had owned an advertising agency and a small publishing house. Both companies had teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, but in this struggle for survival he had learned the craft of advertising wedging to perfection.

One of the most successful tricks in his extensive sales repertoire was to tell the potential customer that another customer had withdrawn his advertisement at short notice and without warning, due to force majeure, as Schickelgruber occasionally used his school French, shortly before the start of printing. So he asked the new customer for help by appealing to their compassion and also activating their professional greed.

He offered to place the advertisement at half the list price as an exceptional bargain for the customer he had thus won over. „It’s all strictly confidential, of course, nobody must know about it,“ he whispered conspiratorially to the impressed customer. When the customer then argued that an ad was out of the question at such short notice, as he had neither an ad text nor a subject ready, Schickelgruber’s best coup came: he told the customer that he would develop a finished PR text within two hours: „Free of charge, that goes without saying.“

He then appealed to the vanity of the potential customer by asking them to send him a good portrait photo, which he could integrate into the PR text. Pity, greed and vanity – Schickelgruber’s advertising keyboard consisted of these three basic modules.

When Rapota entered, Schickelgruber was sitting behind his desk reading. He was wearing his special FFP2-mask with his newspaper’s logo again today, which was a bad omen. Either he was afraid of catching a cold, or he wanted to cover his face, which he usually did when he wanted to keep a safe distance from the messages he was announcing to his employees. He didn’t stand up, he didn’t even look up as he pretended to continue reading.

„We’ve thought about everything in great detail,“ Schickelgruber began, his restless gaze directed downwards at the open laptop, the rest of his face hidden under the tight-fitting FFP2 mask, which inflated with every breath in time with his rapid hyperventilating and collided again in the vacuum. „Unacceptable and scandalous!“ he continued in outraged indignation. „How could you write such madness? Without any proof.“ He took a deep breath, the mask clinging to his nostrils for several seconds, before blurting it out in a single sentence and panting his trained regret: „I have to let you go, Mrs. Weinbergbauer … and, believe me, I’m very, very sorry about that.“ He put on his reading glasses. A futile attempt to avoid his employee’s gaze. „I would have liked to have spared you that, but it can’t be avoided. You were an excellent journalist. Believe me, no one in our company can explain what has gotten into you. We are very, very disappointed in you, Ms. Weinbergbauer. How could you do this to our newspaper, to our publishing house? You´re fired!“

Rapota had to smile. She didn’t know why. Schickelgruber was just too funny, and it was all just too absurd to seem real to her; the situation, the accusation, the resulting decision. Her disbelieving gaze was aimed at Schickelgruber’s evasive eyes, her lips seemed to want to say something, but the soundtrack only started after some delay.

Schickelgruber was surprised and relieved by Rapota’s calm reaction.

When Rapota realized that this situation was real, she shook her head for a long time and tried to put the wildly jumbled thoughts into a structure as the seconds ticked by until the soundtrack started. The feeling of having been betrayed in this cheap way blocked her thinking. For years she had provided this Schickelgruber with the best reports, had fed his vain press releases with exciting content, elevated them above the ordinary, made them unique, ennobled them… Content that she had compiled alone, over weeks of work and with the utmost care. And now she got a kick in the butt!

It was part of her professional journalistic ethos never to work carelessly or sloppily, and she never accuses anyone without clear evidence, giving everyone involved the opportunity to present their side of the story before the journalistic account of the facts went to press. Rapota had conducted the interview with Engelbert Ludius, the CEO of the stakeholder group, at the exclusive attitude journalists‘ club Le Cigarre, where the stakeholder boss had given a press conference on the subject of „Gender-neutral collectivism, the stakeholder economy and the function of the ecological footprint for the beauty and stability of solidary societies“.

As far as this particular case was concerned, her report on Wilhelmus and the stakeholder group, Rapota had worked particularly carefully and thoroughly. She had discussed every detail with the editor-in-chief in advance. Only when the evidence was fully stored on the editorial server did she publish the story in the morning edition – with the express permission of the editor-in-chief. Every word of the report was correct, every sentence had been researched according to the rules of quality journalism, and the interview had been recorded on her smartphone and thus documented.

Rapota had researched and written the story with the knowledge and explicit approval of the editorial team, and the interview with stakeholder CEO Ludius had been the subject of a separate editorial meeting. Ludius had had the opportunity to comment on it in the interview, everyone in the editorial team knew about it. And that’s why Schickelgruber, the editor wanted to fire her?

„Sir, the whole thing can only be a mistake,“ said Rapota. „Every single word of the article and the interview with Ludius, the CEO of the Stakeholder Inc. Group has been appoved in the editorial office, there are witness statements on tape and copies of the correspondence of those involved, so there is clear evidence. Everything is stored on our network server. Ask Mr. Kewer, the editor-in-chief. Everything has been double checked, as journalistic ethics demand of us.“

When Rapota was upset, she reverted even more strongly to her edgy Waldviertel way of speaking. Her asymmetrical face looked different from every angle and every angle of light, her alert and intelligent eyes were red with anger at the ignorant Schickelgruber, who simply wanted to fire her after five years because of a misunderstanding and without having spoken to her about it beforehand.

„But the editor-in-chief has a different opinion,“ Schickelgruber replied coldly. „It’s true that he knew about the matter, but in his opinion the publication in today’s issue was too early. Franz says, and I completely agree with him, that you should have checked the evidence against Stakeholder Inc. again before you went public with it. The soup you have cooked, dear Ms. Weinbergbauer, is too thin. It is neither tasty nor filling. Whatever your motives, you have acted deliberately or at least with gross negligence. You have caused great damage to our publishing house. How do you see this? You’re not new to the industry. We are a quality newspaper, a reputable communications company. You cannot simply commit character and reputation assassination against one of the most important advertisers of our publishing house, that is dishonorable and suicidal,“ Schickelgruber finally summed up his accusation.

„Nonsense!“ Rapota exclaimed, startled at the same moment by the violent force of her reaction. You sneaky, cowardly rat, she thought about Schickelgruber, coming up with ever more impressive Waldviertel expletives for men like Schickelgruber, which she could only hold between her teeth with great difficulty.

„What you’re saying, Mr. Schickelgruber, is not true. I’ve saved the evidence on my laptop, I’ll show you all of it.“

„I’m no longer interested in that, Ms. Weinbergbauer. I’m offering you an amicable termination on the same terms. I’m very, very sorry about everything,“ Schickelgruber whined like a little boy who had been caught doing something naughty by his mother, only to catch himself again in his false pity. Finally there was silence for a moment, then Schickelgruber took a sheet of paper in his hand, on which he had obviously made notes for the dismissal, and read the prepared final text from the page like a schoolboy: „You don’t need to show up for work tomorrow; we’ll pay you the rest of your leave. Collect your belongings today, that’s it. You can go now. Good day!“

„Schi-ckel-gru-ber!“ shouted Rapota, emphasizing each syllable individually, it sounded almost as ominous as the call of death at the Jedermann performance at Salzburg’s Cathedral Square.

The elemental power of her robber baron ancestors flashed. The furious Rapota seized the valuable gold-plated fountain pen lying on the desk in front of Schickelgruber next to a twenty-cent coin and hurled it at him with the concentrated energy of Waldviertel granite stone. Schickelgruber was only saved by his hypersensitive nervousness, as he slumped back in his adjustable executive chair, shocked to the core by the energetic eruption of the brutal provincial. His eye expression reflected his inner reaction to the brutal attack with a piqued and horrified expression. The distinguished green ink of his exalted writing utensil splashed violently against the wall, two coins, a twenty and a cent coin, flew apart under the force of the fountain pen bullet, they must have been lying around at the point of impact.

After the female descendant of the Kuenring robber barons had vented her desperate rage, she realized that she had lost the game. For a few seconds she stood in front of Schickelgruber’s desk, ready for further acts of violence. Schickelgruber’s hands trembled like the tail of a Waldviertel young lamb. Rapota turned around abruptly and stormed out of the room.

In her office, she tried to boot up the PC. She tried about a dozen times, then her suspicions were confirmed. Access to her computer was blocked and the files with the evidence were lost to her.

Schickelgruber picked up the phone and dialed the number of Ludius, the CEO of the Stakeholder Inc. Corporation. He only ended up on his voicemail. But the publisher, who could hardly wait to iron out the unpleasant story, left a message on the CEO’s answering machine: „Everything’s fine, Mr. Ludius, we’ve got rid of the cause of the problem and we’ll clarify the matter in the issue after next. Our editor-in-chief will write the report himself. He will elegantly put the matter back in perspective. I can promise you that you will be satisfied. As for the double-page insertion on Sunday, I have a special treat for you in the editorial section. It costs you nothing and generates a lot of goodwill for your company. It’s called an advertorial and is a mixture of an advertisement and an editorial report. Can we use your authorized portrait photo from the last report again? I apologize again for the inconvenience and wish you a pleasant day. I am available for you at any time. Thank you!“

He had barely hung up when Schickelgruber’s phone rang, the head of the IT department was on the line: „Everything’s okay, boss. She’s made eleven dial-in attempts, all in vain. And we’ve also come up with something creative for the editor’s private mailbox.“

With these words, Koin Senior, the 20 Eurocent Coin Boomer finished the first part of the story he told  Coin-Junior under the cashier of the Stakeholder supermarket in Wien Erdberg. The young Koin Junior, Generation Z, did not like the story, he was upset. 

KI-generated Picture: Shutterstock 2620430279

„It’s a scandal!“ Koin Junior said indignantly. „It’s unfair and unjust, I feel sorry for the journalist. Do these monopoly groups want to destroy small and medium-sized enterprises?“

„No,“ replied Koin senior, „they simply want to implement their new business models and use their influence on politics and the media to do so. A power and influence that small and medium-sized companies don’t have.“

„Well, but what’s wrong with that,“ the junior countered. „Is it really so bad when big companies eat the small ones? A law of nature, so to speak.“

„Do you have any idea what small and middle sized enterprizes do for our economy?“ asked Koin Senior.

„No idea,“ replied the junior.

„In Austria, 99.6 percent of all companies are small or medium-sized enterprises, so-called SMEs, in Germany the proportion is 99.5 percent, and within the EU-27 the proportion of SMEs is as high as 99.8 percent. SMEs are the backbone of the European economy. In 2019, before the coronavirus crisis, the 346,000 SMEs in Austria generated more than 60 percent of gross value added in Austria. They employed 2.1 million people before the coronavirus crisis. They trained 53,200 apprentices. They were growing steadily before the lockdowns. Between 2008 and 2019, the number of SMEs increased by 16 percent. Employment growth in SMEs amounted to 15 percent in the same period. Meanwhile, turnover increased by 27%. In terms of gross value added, i.e. the economic added value created, the increase between 2008 and 2019 was as much as 36%.„

„Wow. Old man, you’re really cool. You can recite all that freehand?“ Koin Junior was surprised that an old coin could memorize and calculate so well.

The old coin could hardly be stopped and continued unperturbed to retrieve more data from his electronic memory. „That’s not all: these small and medium-sized enterprises, the SMEs, pay the highest taxes. According to a global study by an international consulting firm, the average tax performance of an SME in Austria is a whopping 53.4 percent. This means that more than half of what an SME earns in Austria goes to the state. Large corporations, on the other hand, exploit tax advantages by parking part of their profits in tax havens. And they practice their tax avoidance games quite legally because they draft the laws that allow this themselves via their own highly paid lobbyists and then have them passed by the EU and national governments.“

„And no fewer than four lockdowns have been imposed in Austria since 2020 against SMEs, this supposed engine of our economy, as you say, against small and medium-sized enterprises and their employees?“ asked the little one, who couldn’t quite believe it all.

„Yes, it was a senseless, arbitrary act of self-destruction that was ordered four times in a row. It should have been clear after the first lockdown that lockdowns and lockdowns only benefit the platform economy, but cause massive damage to SMEs.“

„Do you have any reliable figures?“ asked Koin junior, who didn’t quite want to believe it yet.

„Sure. There are official figures that document that almost all SMEs have been hit hard by the lockdowns. This is shown by a study by the then Austrian Federal Ministry for Digitalization and Business Location (BMDW), which is hardly known to the public. The lockdowns imposed on the population in 2020 have hit small and medium-sized enterprises particularly hard economically: Their turnover has fallen by an average of 10 percent, individual sectors such as accommodation and gastronomy have lost a quarter of their turnover due to the lockdowns, and many have had to give up and close down. These facts and figures can be found in the ministerial study with the innocuous title „SMEs in Focus 2020“ by the Ministry of Digitalization (formerly the Ministry of Economic Affairs), whose political leadership ordered precisely these lockdowns.“

„Okay, but where can you read that?“

„On the internet on the ministry’s website,“ the old coin replied and flashed the link to the website on the surface using his electrons. „The supermarket staff have switched on the WLAN. You can check it out for yourself here, kid!“ https://www.kmuimfokus.at/assets/kmu_im_fokus_2020.pdf

„I’ll have to take a look. If that’s true, then I agree with you, dude: it’s not okay,“ commented the young coin. He was still having doubts when a counter-argument popped into his head and he added flippantly: „But hey, the companies were generously compensated for the lockdowns – weren’t they?“

„That’s right. Companies were compensated for their losses at the beginning of the pandemic, sometimes with far too high amounts. That’s why many kept their mouths shut. There were a few isolated protests from entrepreneurs. They held back, according to the motto ‚whose bread I eat, the song I sing‘. Among the tens of thousands of people who demonstrated against the lockdowns and the restrictions on fundamental rights on the streets of the capital cities, there were very few entrepreneurs. But the rude awakening for SMEs came later, when they had to pay tax on the profits generated by the sales refunds. At a time when many had to realize that their customers had been driven to online retail. The lockdowns were a celebration for the big platform companies. While SMEs were hit hard by the lockdowns, the world’s largest online retailer – unsurprisingly – reported a 22% increase in sales.“

„Okay, that’s strange,“ the little boy conceded. „Are you ready for the next chapter?“ asked Koin senior. „Of course,“ Koin junior said nonchalantly.

Koin Senior told the next story to Koin Junior:

The Metaverse

Ludius and the mayor celebrated the signing of the contract for the mineral water spring. With the deal just signed, Stakeholder Asset Management Inc. now controlled seven of the country’s eight mineral water bottlers. All that was missing was the spring in Striessnig to gain total control of the strategically important water market. However, the Striessningers were a tough nut to crack. The owners were unwilling to enter into sales negotiations with Stakeholder Asset Management, and the shares in the Striessnig mineral water spring were privately held, not traded on the stock exchange, and, on top of that, syndicated. This meant that the shareholders were bound to each other by syndicate agreements. All attempts to buy the last mineral water spring still owned by the family has been unsuccessful.

Ludius held his secret business meetings regularly as jour fixes in his own individual metaverse, which belonged to Stakeholder Inc. and to which only he had access on his personal, private terminal of the Stakeholder Inc. Metaverse.

In the digital, three-dimensional space of the virtual property, the two public-private business partners were able to take a break from the stress of the real business world, relax, and discuss innovative business models in a virtual social setting, undisturbed and with their data secure. Today, to celebrate the deal with the water source, they had chosen a sauna club as their location, where they were pampered by virtual female avatars in an interplay of physical reality, virtual reality and augmented reality.

The mayor had dressed up in a fluffy coat made of fine terry cloth. “Man, you look stupid in your terry cloth coat,” Ludius said, trying to trip the female sex robot who was walking past him in stilettos.

“Stupid.” Anyone who was caught by Ludius‘ favorite word ended up under a large tractor wheel, was unceremoniously screwed into the ground, and came out on the other side flat and covered in dirt.

The mayor was offended. Out of reflex, he stretched out his thin, chicken-like, hairless legs, but immediately pulled them back in when his fluffy bathrobe opened, leaving him sitting in the open from the navel down. His feet, size forty-two, were stuck in white slippers made of an indefinable plastic, his beer belly bulging adipulously from his massive body. He switched to avatar mode, clicked through a few models of male beauty, and made the dubious decision to choose one that bore a striking resemblance to a French prime minister.

In order to restore the air of worldly nonchalance he had briefly lost after his unsuccessful entry into the metaverse, the mayor groped the heavily bleached blonde woman from the sauna who had sat down next to him at the bar.

Next to Ludius, another artfully crafted beauty with artificial intelligence and a comprehensive repertoire of job-specific programming had taken her place. She swayed her hips in high heels and, in view of the new avatars, abruptly switched her routine operation to premium mode.

The fake blonde acknowledged the mayor’s groping by turning toward him with provocative slowness, a programmed trick from her job description. She peered at the potential customer with a raised eyebrow, perceived his beardless face with her cool eyes, and positioned her professional X-ray gaze of artificial intelligence appraisingly on the mayor’s open bathrobe.

“I think a little encouragement would do you good, my sweet,” she cooed in a well-modulated voice and immediately began to play the standard program for earthlings in business friendship by leaning forward to show off the artificial assets of her trade in the best light.

Gliding in, gently swooping down like a dove in its final meters, she placed her left hand on the mayor’s pale, thin thigh while adjusting her hair clip with her right hand in silent movie fashion.

“By the way, in case you haven’t guessed yet: my name is Aphrodite, my darlings,” cooed the perfected goddess of love, casting admiring glances at Ludius and the mayor that were as genuine as her overly perfect physical appearance.

The mayor, now a little uneasy about the artificially intelligent self-confidence of the extremely active and, in his opinion, very attractive lady, shook his head in alarm and gripped his much too tight bathrobe with both hands.

With soft silence, he slumped into the chair, gathering his virtual toga with both hands, like a Roman Senator at the beginning of a speech.

Ludius took up position right next to the mayor, offering his artificial Bay Watch beauty the chair on the other side.

He stretched out his long legs casually, turned to the mayor, and grumbled in a patronizing tone: “Well then, mayor, what is the first commandment of our public-private partnership?”

The mayor didn’t hesitate for a split second, his answer coming like a shot: “The only thing that matters is the monopoly.”

“Exactly!” growled Ludius with satisfaction. The fact that the experienced, solution-oriented activities of the goddess of love, Aphrodite, were increasingly reducing his concentration did not seem to diminish his sense of corporate ideology in any way. “And how do you define PPP, Mr. Mayor?” Ludius gasped, seemingly with his heart beating rapidly. He gently pushed Aphrodite toward the mayor, where she immediately began her program again without being asked to do so.

“It’s obvious,” replied the mayor. “The PPP is our distinguishing mark, the ruler and the two coins… and it’s the Pfitschigogerl, our ritual exercise…”

“Nonsense!” Ludius corrected his political partner. “I sometimes wonder where the button is that turns on your limited brain cells. As a trampoline jumper and children’s book author, you should know that,” Ludius said sarcastically.

“I’ve explained it to you a million times, so now one last time, slowly and clearly so you can follow,” Ludius lectured. „PPP stands for public-private partnership. PPP is also the guiding principle of our think tank, the PPP World Monopolic Forum. But PPP is also the numerical expression of our stakeholder economy. We have developed an 18-point plan to save the world. The idea of the stakeholder economy calls for less inequality and, consequently, more equality. We want to create an egalitarian, equal society. There will be no more poverty or hunger. Together with pharmaceutical companies in a PPP, we will take care of health and well-being. there will be gender equality and diversity, clean water, clean energy, measures to protect our climate, more sustainable consumption and production, smart cities and fifteen-minute cities, and once the war is won, there will be peace, justice and strong institutions, such as the World Health Organization, to take care of us. No one will be alone or selfish anymore; we will all live together in our shared future. We will reduce climate-damaging meat production and build a sharing economy and responsible agriculture.

“Absolutely!” added the mayor enthusiastically. „And we, the politicians with responsibility, will regulate the planned transformation at all levels of society, from the highest level of the Unabled Nations to near-governmental organizations such as the World Heat´s Organization to the Ministry of Truth. We will restrict excessive, selfish private transport. The age of unrestrained, selfish consumption is over. The energy crisis has brought us into a transitional stage from an unrestrained economy of excess to an economy of scarcity and war. It is now already in the best interests of every responsible individual to put the interests of the community above their own interests. This will bring about a fundamental transformation of values. And that is the stakeholder economy. No longer will the profit of individual entrepreneurs be the essential criterion, but rather the responsibility that every company and every individual assumes for the well-being of the climate and the collective.“

“That’s right, Mayor. The individualization of human life is being replaced by the collectivization of human life. We can therefore assume that each individual is now more aware that decisions are linked to values. If we abandon the attitude of self-interest and competititon that poisons so many of our social interactions in the future, we will be able to pay more attention to issues such as inclusivity and fairness.”

“There are simply too many people living on our wonderful world,” Ludius concluded with satisfaction, rising and leaving without giving the mayor and the artificial intelligences another glance, even though he had to push them aside as he squeezed past their seats to get to his PP partner. He went to the restroom.

In the restroom, Ludius positioned himself like Rodin’s Thinker statue. He wanted to ponder the world a little from the perspective of a stakeholder fundamentalist. His gaze fell on a roll of toilet paper attached to a silver holder at about the height of the seated figure’s head.

In this moment of contemplative relaxation, one of those great business ideas that had brought him to the top of his corporation, combined with his unerring instinct and keen sense of power and the different motivations of his various subordinates, came to him.

An inner voice spoke, proclaiming to Ludius the ten commandments of stakeholder economics and PPP:

• Rule #1. “People who sell themselves are politicians.”
• Rule #2. “Most people believe x – but the opposite is true.”
• Rule #3. “Market economy and capitalism are opposites.”
• Rule #4: “Competition is for losers.”
• Rule #5: “Monopolists tell fairy tales to protect themselves.”
• Rule #6: “The best start-ups are a bit like cults.”
• Rule #7: “Money makes money.”
• Rule #8. “A world without secrets would be a just world.”
• Rule #9. “Some secrets are more dangerous than others.”
• Rule #10. “You have to be able to afford morality.”

Whose voice was it that rang out in Ludius and whispered this sudden, sublime inspiration to him? Suddenly, he was certain: it was the voice of the company’s founder, T.H. Schwobb-Duggin, speaking to him. Ludius was deeply moved. The venerable chairman himself, the unforgettable founder of Stakeholder Asset Management Inc., had revealed himself to him here and now, in this inconspicuous place of the most ordinary business.

Ludius stood up, about to turn toward the sink, when he discovered two shiny coins in a hidden corner of the quiet place, a small copper one-cent coin and a yellowish twenty-cent coin.

Twenty-one cents, could it be true? Exactly the coins for our ritual game: the Pfitschigogerl. Almighty!

T.H. Schwobb-Duggin himself must have left them there for him. And even though Ludius wasn’t the type to need a sign from above or a positive oracle to make a decision, the small find nevertheless strengthened him in his resolve, lending his train of thought a special luster in the form of metallic coin glitter. Like a high priest, he washed his hands and coins in an almost ritualistic manner and put the two coins in his pants pocket. Then he stepped outside to announce his visionary inspiration to the waiting world full of unbelievers and ignoramuses, but first only to his disciple and follower, his colleague, the mayor.

“Verily, I say unto you, next we will buy Striessninger Mineralwasser GmbH. And you will help me.” Ludius presented the bewildered mayor, who had returned from the metaverse to a real sauna bar and was sipping freshly squeezed stakeholder juice through a straw that was much too short, with a fait accompli. „What’s more, through this action, or rather this mission, we are making a substantial contribution to the sustainable development of the country, not only in economic terms, but also in ecological and social terms. Our venerable founder, T.H. Schwobb-Duggin, will receive further posthumous honors, which we will accept on his behalf and for his gigantic life’s work, which we are privileged to continue. We are assured of the sympathy and love of our customers, and the founding father will receive his prestige here on earth.“

“With all due respect,” replied the mayor tentatively and irritated. “Firstly, I don’t know how I could help you with your mineral water project. And secondly, the orange juice in this meta-brothel tastes awful.”

Ludius, whose ganglia were now revolving solely around the Striessninger spring, reacted to the mayor’s reproaches in a sober and relaxed manner. He postulated laconically: “What do you want, mayor? This is a sustainable Metaversum club. it´s sustainable.”

PPP

KI-generated Picture: Shutterstock 2620438093

“Do you remember how that guy tricked us in the toilet of the meta-brothel? These guys are playing a game with us that they call Pfitschigogerl,” complained Koin Junior indignantly.

“Well, I don’t think it’s that bad,” replied Koin Senior.

“But what really upsets me is that this so-called PPP, the public-private partnership, in conjunction with this stakeholder economy, is, to me, like corruption and socialism rolled into one, a kind of corporatism.”

“Like corruption. No, it’s not like corruption. It IS corruption!” cried Koin Junior indignantly.

„Well, it’s now called PPP, public-private partnership. Public-private partnerships, abbreviated PPP, are quasi-monopolies that are transferred by the state to large private corporations and then protected from competition by the state.“

The junior added: ”They hate competition. For these PPP missioners, competition is for losers.

They say it themselves: the market economy is a fiction. It’s all about building monopoly advantages.“ ”

Exactly,“ added the old man. ”Monopoly corporations develop laws that benefit them and enforce them through lobbying. According to estimates published on the EU’s own website, there are more than 29,000 well-paid lobbyists at the EU headquarters in Brussels. Monopoly corporations censor free speech on behalf of the state. They do what the state is not allowed to do. This is also a variant of so-called public-private partnerships, or PPPs for short. And the contracts that the vaccine companies have signed with governments are strictly confidential and still not public.“

End of Part 2 of 4

Competition is for Losers - A Satire Novel written by Walter Schönthaler.