Chapter 121 - Loan Options

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General Douglas and the other officers spent the rest of the week compiling data and trial results for their many different military programs.

Fortis returned to the Prime Alliance compound in LA to prepare for their live professional match held in Austin the next week, kicking off season 4 of the APL. Jaden and Alice decided to remain living at the Dalton Manor and enjoy more of the local sites as house guests of the young CEO.

Hailee spent time with BTS, Pharrell, and the recently arrived Future Records label artists as she wrote and recorded her first music studio album while preparing for the APL concert weekend.

Vince and his good friends worked on their respective projects like the Everlife expansion for Kyle, the Infinity Channel platform for Jessica, and the feature-length film for Sarah and Rick.

At the Future Tech Headquarters law offices, a blonde Caucasian-American woman in her late 30s was occupied by leading the biggest media licensing deal in the history of the global entertainment industry.

Marcia Kemp and her army of Juris doctors expended thousands of billable hours negotiating and finalizing Infinity Channel distribution rights with significant international media corporations like Universal Studios, Comcast, Viacom, amongst plenty others.

Of course, the law firm had to also deal with Future Tech divisions and subdivisions for their specific legal needs and requirements.

Marcia stopped reading documents on her Infinity Workstation to prepare for a scheduled appointment with the BitCash Executive Director, Dollar.

She wore her company-issued Hypervisor, connected to a NetServ video call, and said, "Good day, Dollar. I've skimmed through the Bitcash loan proposal you sent. We've spoken to Ralph's accounting team, and we'll have to edit a few pages and lines, but the program should be feasible."

Dollar had been focusing his time assisting with the financial situation in Afghanistan, as their current monetary system is transitioning towards the primary use of Bitcash.

The wealthy citizens didn't have problems because Karzai's government purchased their Afghanis using US Dollar reserves in the national treasury. Still, the middle and lower-class people required financial support to reinvigorate the local economy.

The free 500 Bitcash for all working Afghan adults was a decent first step, but buying a plot of land and a house would be impossible without housing loans for most citizens.

Marcia had to be very careful with implementing loans because of the many risks involved for Future Tech and the taxpayer burdens on the populace.

The proposal from President Karzai requested 5 billion Bitcash, meant for business and personal loans with a 4% annual interest rate.

The Afghanistan government will not profit from the loans; instead, the citizens will pay the interest directly to Future Tech via the BitCash portal.

They discussed the proposal for an hour before Dollar said, "Thanks for your time, Marcia. I'll speak with Ralph about reserving $5 billion of the liquid funds we have on hand to back the value of the newly issued Bitcash."

The NetServ video call ended, and Marcia returned to working on the Infinity Channel deal with her team.

Future Tech ensured that Bitcash loans were limited in supply, unlike the messed-up financial system in the United States, where banks like Wells Fargo can continuously provide loans by infinitely adding debt to the federal reserve.

This fragile system will eventually result in rapid inflation and constantly increasing federal taxes regular citizens must pay throughout their lives and their descendants' lives.

Vince and Dollar understood that in modern monetary theory, the concept of paying only interest for an entire nation's debt worth hundreds of billions was unsustainable on many metrics.

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A Korean man in his early 30s named Hwang Ryung, a lead field engineer of Hyundai C&E, sat in his Kandahar office while reviewing progress reports of the national utility grid project in Afghanistan.

He was a diligent and responsible employee unaware of President Lee's illegal activities. So Hwang felt relieved when Future Tech dropped the lawsuit against his company in fear of getting fired, but they settled out of court instead.

The international courts required the South Korean conglomerate, Hyundai, to repay Future Tech for its breach of contract through reasonable goods and services.

Hwang was involved with the power grid update in Austin and LA, working closely with SpaceX and Future Tech engineers.

He opened a document on an Infinity Tablet and thought, [We're making good progress for only a week of construction. The experience from the States is paying off and saving us time and money.]

More than half of the engineers performing on the utility grid project were South Korean but had no issues working in a desert because of their competitive salaries and privileges.

Hwang suddenly received a notification on his NetServ workspace regarding the housing initiative and reviewed the boxed disassembly unit featured in a product video demonstration.

After a few minutes, he pondered, [These houses look pretty nice. I bet it would easily sell to rural folk in the South Korean market.]

He signed off on the construction contract as the lead field engineer before updating his staff regarding Future Education training for properly disassembling their new product.

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The following day, massive video billboards located in the largest cities of Afghanistan began showing advertisements promoting the upcoming budget boxed houses and the government's low-interest Bitcash loan options.

The more affluent citizens who owned an Infinity device and subscribed to NetServ found a featured post regarding the same products on their homepage.

The houses were only available in Afghanistan and the USA until Future Tech, and Hyundai C&E built more dedicated cargo vessels in their shipyards for more international sales.

Vince Dalton received a dose of criticism online for selling cheap houses, considering he owned the most expensive manor in Texas. Still, the more optimistic fans pointed out the constantly rising housing costs in the world, which the boxed house product would alleviate.

It didn't matter much to the young CEO as he treated the haters as added promotion, and he was too busy to worry about random strangers online.

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A unit of FS operators escorted one of the many construction convoys working across the arid deserts as they trained potential Afghan military officers President Karzai recruited for their army restructuring during the uneventful journey.

A considerable amount of the prior and current generals were too corrupt to improve their national security, so most of the Afghan new blood had been reassigned to learn from the war veterans amongst Future Security.

An FT hybrid support truck carried supplies like food, medicine, and two types of ammunition; one for combat and another for practice.

A young Afghan soldier in his late teens, Ramesh, had shown significant progress during the week of his first deployment.

President Karzai spent some of his tribal visits recruiting soldiers willing to fight for their community's prosperity, and newly enlisted privates would earn 1,500 Bitcash each month with benefits.

Ramesh scored high enough on the written exam and physical tests to land him an on-the-job training position for officers.

After a long day of target practice, he was on break and decided to clean his beloved government-issued rifle, the FA-416.

Future Tech wasn't allowed to sell weapons to non-NATO allies, so President Karzai purchased the reliable Future Arms weapon system from the US military as an intermediary.

Ramesh rebuilt his rifle and thought, [I hope my family is doing alright.]

His tribe wasn't known for any particular trade and was relatively poorer than the others, so he decided to work in Kandahar to provide for his aging adoptive parents.

He wanted them to migrate to the city, but the most available housing options built by Future Tech were large condominiums, not fit for older folk.

A colleague and friend of his brought him back from melancholy by hearing him say, "Ramesh, watch this video on my Infinity Phone. You mentioned wanting to get your parents a place in Kandahar, right? Maybe one of these would be nice."

Ramesh read the details on his friend's phone, noting loan options for any adult citizen with a BitCash account.

He excitedly pondered, [The boxed house is perfect! It's small enough for three people, and it even has a pre-built utility system!]

Ramesh thanked his friend and used his own phone to purchase the expandable basic unit on his existing account on the BitCash Portal.

Future Tech would install it on land provided by the local governments as part of the national housing program.

The young soldier was in tens of thousands of Bitcash in debt, but it didn't matter to him because he could earn money, but his parents were much more important.

Ramesh returned to perform his duties as a security escort. He continued his practical training under men who were risking their lives in a foreign country to better its people.

Plenty of other capable and ambitious Afghan locals took the opportunity of low-interest loans to improve their lives and contribute to society for good and respectable reasons as Hive Mind Manfucaturing suites at the Austin Tech Campus produced boxed houses en masse for the pre-order customers.