Accompanied by the promulgation of the New Tax Law, and the collaborative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service, the Justice League, and A.R.G.U.S., America has essentially returned to the path of state capitalism before the arrival of Christmas. To put it in detail, it is capitalism with strong state intervention, the so-called "visible big hand."
The free market emphasized by capitalism is actually about redistributing social resources through the market itself. But it's obvious that such distribution is bound to be inertial.
Just like what the Kent family farm experienced, when taxes are high and subsidies are also high, farmers can only rely on farm revenue; and once mandatory subsidies are canceled, farmers won't invest cash into reproduction but into finance.
This isn't because they are bad, nor because they are foolish; it's the nature of the free market.
Think about it, working in the fields with your face to the earth and back to the sky for a year, even though America is primarily mechanized agriculture, the busy farming seasons are still exhausting. Even if you don't have to plow or harvest yourself, various farm chores will occupy most of the farmer's time. After a year of hard work, the earnings are just about enough, most of which need to be spent on preparing for the next year's production, leaving little spare money in hand.
But if one year all earned money is invested in the financial market, catching a good market spell, one could make a fortune instantly, possibly earning more in a year than in ten. In a bubble expansion period, getting rich through finance is the easiest thing.
Especially for farmers and factory owners with real industries, they can liquidate assets to acquire a considerable principal, and once invested in the financial market, the profits are much higher than doing real work.
People avoid harm and seek benefits; if they can get rich by staring at the stock market and moving fingers, why still work? In that era, many chose to sell their real industries and gamble in the financial market.
And those real industries they sold would be acquired by big landowners. For example, Bill Gates, who holds an astonishing amount of land, bought much of his land from these asset-selling industrial holders. The harm of land annexation needs no further explanation, and on a national level, the biggest issue is that these large landlords and monopolists, too, won't put more money into reproduction but continue to create bubbles with their real industries, leading to deindustrialization.
One could say that pure free market capitalism becomes increasingly unproductive, making more and more people inflate the same bubble until eventually the bubble bursts, leaving a mess behind.
However, state-regulated capitalism can better avoid this issue, maintaining the free market while using various policies to keep the rate of industrial possession, preventing the financial bubble from growing too large.
Some might think that it was due to an excellent leader that the right path was chosen, but actually, it was quite the opposite. It was because a powerful enemy appeared that forced them to elect a leader who would follow this path and then walk this way.
Because during that time it was an era of war, and the giant creature from the Far East had already formed. The pressure from war and ideology forced them to go this way. And now it is the same.
Although the ideological confrontation is gone, the pressure of war is much greater than before. They are not facing humans like themselves, but Mars people who surpass them in both physical qualities and technological development. Hence, the leader elected this time is more powerful and excellent, and the policies are more thoroughly implemented.
In short, it is no longer quite like state capitalism. To quote a lyric, "When I grow up, I become you."
It must be said that this is actually a kind of path dependence. Under Bruce's leadership, the Justice League's huge fabricated lie couldn't be said to be entirely flawless. But, because there was this previous experience, no one bothered to examine it closely, and with a wave of emotion, they just acted, which is to say, they limped along with one hoax.
Of course, it might also be because the fabricated story is unimportant, but those tangible pieces of evidence that surpass human technological levels falling on Earth are what matter. Regardless of who is behind it, if they dare to do this, exterminating the human race would be just a wave of the hand, and the pressure remains the same.
Despite this, Bruce prepared a lot of detailed evidence, such as more and more photos of Mars cities, some Mars artistic works scattered on Earth, and even some well-preserved family videos they found in Mars cities.
These did not make humans feel at ease, but rather increased their panic. Because they realized that Mars people are very much like them, and humans are well aware of how anti-human they can be, so Mars people who are similar to humans won't be lenient in being anti-human either. The imagined alien saints do not exist; between them, there are only two outcomes: either you extinguish me, or I extinguish you.
And as more details were made public, this also caught Clark's attention. He was curious about Mars civilization as well, and, unlike ordinary humans, Mars to him was very close, one big leap away.
He hadn't gone before partly because being president was quite busy, even just sitting in the office signing documents was a lot, and then there were interviews, speeches, handling diplomatic events, etc., which, all in one breath, left him no time for even a half-hour break.
On the other hand, he wasn't completely confident facing the Mars civilization, as the three stakes the Mars people struck into Earth had proven their high level of basic science. They had materials that could completely neutralize his laser, so their weapons might not fall far behind either.
His physical condition was indeed good, and he could even use magic energy and partially immunize against Kryptonite, but he wasn't invincible. If the opponent had sufficiently powerful weapons, he could still get injured.
If he were just a superhero as before, he would go and probe even at the risk of injury. But now he was the president, bearing the hope of the entire human race. If he faced the Mars people and was at a disadvantage, they might launch a wave of public opinion attacks, leading to panic among humans. The new policies that were just implemented might also be shaken. He couldn't take that risk.
However, after struggling for a while, Clark still decided to take a look, but not openly, rather he had to go secretly. Luckily, after a period of training, he had become more adept at controlling magic energy. He could use it to hide himself and generally wouldn't be discovered, and even if discovered, he could run away.
Thus, Clark took half a day off, coincidentally on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. He quietly arrived near Mars City.
Although Mars City was already quite conspicuous, what initially attracted Clark was the giant spaceship hovering above Mars City. This might probably be the main ship of the Mars people?
Although the style of the spaceship and the city below was a bit different, style didn't prove anything. What truly attracted Clark was that the spaceship blocked his perception. Clark's super senses couldn't penetrate it at all.
Because of this, when Clark approached Mars City and didn't find any signs of life within, he didn't assume that there was no one in Mars City, but rather thought that the material science of the Mars civilization was so advanced that it shielded his perception, so he couldn't sense the presence of Mars people.
Compared to directly entering Mars City, Clark actually preferred entering the main ship because he was worried about the main cannon. He believed that probably only the firepower level of the main cannon could harm him, and once inside the main ship, the main cannon couldn't possibly fire at him. Moreover, there were more people inside the city, and the level of force might be higher. Although the main ship was strong in space battles, there might not be many people inside.
Thinking this, Clark gradually approached the spaceship. Of course, he didn't dare to enter through the main entrance. Fortunately, such main ships always had an escort ship docking bay, and after circling the bottom of the spaceship, he found a boarding gate. The material strength here wasn't very high, so he pried open a corner and slipped inside.
The spaceship was large, the lighting was dim, and it could block out perception. Clark wandered around downstairs for a long time, almost not able to get out. Luckily, he was fortunate enough to find the vent of the air circulation system, then got to the upper level through the vent.
After arriving on the upper level, Clark felt something was wrong. From the video, the Mars people should have been about the same size as humans, but the facilities on the spaceship didn't seem designed for humanoid creatures of human size. Some things were simply giant-sized, even the Mars people would find them inconvenient to use.
Not to mention the lighting design was terrible, it didn't look like it was designed for a race that relied on sight as their primary sense. Although Mars people could read minds, they still needed to see the road. Making the cabin so dark, what benefit did that bring to them?
Walking toward the center of the spaceship, Clark finally heard some noise. He became nervous, continued using magic to conceal his figure, and cautiously approached the area ahead.
Getting closer, the noises became clearer; it seemed like someone was walking around, and there was also the sound of eating. Perhaps there were voices of conversation too, but they couldn't be heard clearly.
Walking further in, the lighting finally wasn't so dim anymore. However, Clark sharply noticed that some lights were added later, their models completely different from the original ones. The wiring was later connected, although quite neatly, but couldn't escape his eyes.
Continuing forward, finally escaping the darkness and returning to a region of normal brightness for humans, Clark felt momentarily out of sorts. And the scene in the bright hall left him completely dumbfounded.
At this moment, in the center of the spacious, bright hall stood a massive Christmas tree, adorned with various exquisite decorations. Piled underneath the tree were gift boxes and dolls, all walls were covered with colored lights, and wreaths hung on the cabin doors.
A young man with a tender face sat on the sofa wrapping gifts, a tall green-skinned man carefully stacked an Oreo Tower on the kitchen island platform, a green figure flew up to place a sparkling star at the top of the Christmas tree, a hairy tall man was stuffing spices into the turkey's belly, a Black man with mechanical light flickering on half of his body was adjusting the lights on the wall, three women were setting the table, one laying the table runner, one placing a vase, one arranging cutlery, while a man with white temples and another in a suit were selecting red wine in front of the wine cabinet.
With a "plop", the star in his hand fell to the ground, the Oreo Tower collapsed in response, the ribbons of the gift boxes unfurled, the turkey belly was punched through, the colored lights "swished" off, plates fell to the floor, and the vase shattered everywhere.
Only the figure with the red wine turned around, looked at Clark, and smiled, saying, "You're here."