Baby Truck (2)

Trucks bearing the Mir Childcare Supplies Circulation Center stickers roamed through apartment complexes, villa districts, and residential neighborhoods.

In the past, such trucks used to roam neighborhoods buying up unused TVs, refrigerators, and computers. Now, they were collecting childcare items.

"They really came..."

Lee Yun-ha, the older sister of the Mayor of Mir City, brought out the stroller her son had used for a long time. She also brought out a car seat. Car seats are divided into categories like newborn, toddler, and child depending on the months and age group; since her son, Subin, had recently transitioned to the child version, the toddler one was left over.

"Let's go."

Holding her six-year-old son's hand, she walked to the entrance of the complex, where a crowd of citizens had already gathered.

"Hello."

The city hall officials had received prior training on the methods and standards for classifying and inspecting used products.

They pulled up a database of general childcare supplies used in Mir City, which had been analyzed and prepared in advance, on their tablets to identify the brand and model of each product.

Next, they checked the expiration date and purchase date, and systematically inspected for plastic damage, frame cracks, discoloration, mold, washability, damage to belts or fasteners, and missing basic accessories like power adapters and safety guards.

They even performed on-site boot tests for electronic devices by connecting them to portable batteries.

The purchase price was up to 20% of the original retail price.

Originally, childcare products have terrible resale value retention, so even on secondhand markets like Karrot, it's common for mint-condition products to go for 20 to 30% of their original price.

The city hall shaved off a bit more. Because it was a public interest project.

Most people didn't complain; instead, they offered to donate their items for free.

Rather than a few tens of thousands of won, they wanted the donation receipt and the certificate of appreciation. Especially the certificate of appreciation.

The certificate, written in Lee Yun-hyeok's own handwriting, copied, and carefully laminated, was in itself a teaching aid and a keepsake for the children.

"Look at this, Subin."

Lee Yun-ha also donated her car seat and stroller. She handed the certificate of appreciation to her son.

"The uncles gave you an award to say thank you for gifting the things you used to use, Subin!"

A bit further up in the Beomdol complex, Hanjun's mom came out with a baby crib.

The baby, who was only four months old when she used to leave him at the Raymi Castle daycare center, had grown rapidly and recently had his first birthday party. The crib he had been using was now far too small.

'It would have been so much better if a policy like this had come out sooner.'

Hanjun's mom couldn't help but think.

As a single mom, she didn't have a car.

So even if she found items like a baby crib on Karrot Market, it was difficult to bring them home. She had been forced to order a brand-new product online.

But if a policy like the city hall's childcare supplies circulation was in place, she would be able to rent and use plenty of necessary things from there.

"I hope it gets implemented quickly. Right, Hanjun?"

Hanjun, who was still just a one-year-old baby, could expect to benefit quite a lot from this policy.

She patted the baby in her arms as she walked back home.

And at City Hall.

Civil servants whose children attended the workplace daycare center donated a massive amount of items.

Even non-civil servants donated. For example, Kim Si-jun, an 18-year-old high school student who worked in the cafeteria.

"My youngest sibling used this. It was just sitting abandoned in our old house."

The youngest of Kim Si-jun's siblings was currently six years old.

Until recently, he had ridden in a stroller.

A fair amount of childcare supplies had piled up in the house where Kim Si-jun used to live, and he had packed them all up to donate.

"It reminds me of when we moved into our new house," the second sibling said to Kim Si-jun.

The "new house" referred to the two-room apartment where Kim Si-jun and his siblings had temporarily resided after being rescued.

At the time, the Parent Association centered around Tanseo High School had fully furnished the house with desks, bookshelves, beds, tableware, bath supplies, a computer, and all sorts of other items.

Going from being on the receiving end to the giving end in just a year and a half felt strangely ironic to Kim Si-jun.

"I hope this policy does well."

The response across the entire city was explosive.

In the first place, bulky items were a hassle to sell secondhand, so they ended up just taking up space at home as white elephants.

But because collection trucks actually came to visit, the sheer convenience prompted people to bring out heaps of items.

The massive warehouse of the Mir Childcare Supplies Circulation Center quickly began to fill up with childcare goods.

"Not a single day goes by quietly."

Han Gi-jeong took a deep drag of his electronic cigarette, his mind heavy.

Mir City was pulling off another bizarre stunt.

The overall structure of the policy itself was simple.

Buying up used childcare items in bulk from all over Mir City, and then renting them out to those in need.

It was a service-oriented welfare policy where the city took over the process of collecting secondhand items, which citizens previously had to do individually by running around themselves.

"Easier said than done..."

Normally, basic local governments wouldn't even dare to dream of such a thing.

Because it required a logistics operation of considerable scale.

Systems for warehousing, logistics, and inventory management were essential; they had to hire staff to manage them, and they also needed to secure cargo trucks and drivers for delivery and collection.

Fundamentally, it required industrial management capabilities, not just administrative ones. Local governments had no experience with such things.

Therefore, the success of the policy could not be guaranteed. Yet, the budget required to push it forward was massive.

That was why they didn't dare touch it.

Leaving aside the criticism they would face if it failed, there was a high probability of being audited by the council or higher authorities. One wrong move, and a political career could go down the drain.

What kind of crazy bastard would stake their political life on a mere welfare policy?

"But what Mir City is doing right now seems highly likely to succeed," the chief of staff said.

"I suppose so."

Compared to the scale of the project, Mir City had drastically cut down its initial budget.

They remodeled an abandoned bus depot into a logistics center, bought up childcare items secondhand across the city, and encouraged donations.

So, it was highly likely to succeed.

Since they directly hired logistics drivers and management staff, it would cost an additional one to two billion won in labor costs annually, but who could find fault with that?

'We are protecting individual owner-operators ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who were in trouble due to the jiip system—which the government can neither maintain nor abolish—by directly hiring them.'

If they answered like that, what could anyone say?

'And by directly hiring women whose careers were interrupted, the city has helped them reintegrate into society.'

If they answered like that, what could anyone do?

In fact, the central government would likely welcome it. If the utilization rate of the policy was high enough, it would be highly praised as a productive welfare policy that involved socially vulnerable groups.

"All the other municipalities in Gyeonggi Province are going to go wild again. Especially the cities that were terraformed by Mir Childcare 365—they'll rise up demanding we implement this immediately."

Han Gi-jeong exhaled a puff of vapor from his e-cigarette.

"When did things turn out like this?"

A man who was unemployed this time last year had suddenly become a local government head, and now his fame was echoing across the entirety of Gyeonggi Province.

"How is the atmosphere in the Liberty Party lately? Heard anything?" Han Gi-jeong asked his chief of staff.

The Gyeonggi Province Governorship was crucial for the Liberty Party as well.

Seongnam Mayor Choi Gwang-seop, who was virtually pre-nominated as the Liberty Party's candidate for Gyeonggi Governor, welcomed guests from the central party leadership.

It was two-term Assemblyman Kim Jae-o and tacticians from the Strategic Planning Office.

These were people who used their extraordinary brains to establish election strategies, shape public opinion, and keep rival figures in check.

"The Mayor of Mir City is growing too fast."

Two-term Assemblyman Kim Jae-o was a strategic expert in the party leadership, hailing from the Strategic Planning Office.

"Just as Mir Childcare 365 spread, there is a possibility that the Childcare Supplies Circulation Center will grow into a province-wide welfare policy model."

"Yes..." Mayor Choi Gwang-seop replied, tense.

"Timing-wise, other municipalities might start operating it right before next year's local elections. If that happens, Lee Yun-hyeok's standing in the local elections will, frankly speaking, surpass yours, Mayor Choi."

Choi Gwang-seop swallowed hard.

"But, Mayor."

Assemblyman Kim Jae-o's eyes gleamed.

"Doesn't a crisis always present an opportunity?"

The Liberty Party's Strategic Planning Office judged that Lee Yun-hyeok's current project might actually backfire on him.

"Backfire?"

"Because it's a policy that can expand to the provincial level."

"Does that pose a problem for Lee Yun-hyeok?"

"Every policy has its light and shadow. Implementing such a policy in a basic municipality with a population of 490,000 isn't a big issue. However, if such a policy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is pushed in Gyeonggi Province, which has a population of 13 million and the highest proportion of newborns..."

Kim Jae-o said, "Won't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the childcare industry push back?"

Articles began to appear.

The political affairs meeting, held amidst a barrage of attacks from all sides, had a somewhat subdued atmosphere.

"We have collected approximately 9,551 childcare items over the course of a week."

Except for Yun-hyeok.

"It's highly successful. Everyone, please praise the working-level staff. They worked incredibly hard."

"Mayor..."

"Since we are in the starting phase of the project, demand won't be extremely high right now. A significant portion of babies between ages zero and three likely already have the necessary items. However, demand will gradually increase for newborns born in the future. Keeping that in mind, we must look ahead to expanding our manpower and inventory."

"Mayor."

To the cheerful Yun-hyeok, Deputy Mayor Kim Min-cheol spoke.

"The current atmosphere is not good."

"Because of the articles?"

"A statement was also released this morning."

Kim Min-cheol showed him the statement he had printed out in advance.

Yun-hyeok read through it briefly and set it aside.

"What do you all think?"

"I think it would be best to announce that we have no plans for province-wide expansion and take a step back," Kim Min-cheol suggested.

"No, that won't do."

Yun-hyeok smiled.

Kim Min-cheol is highly competent as an administrator, but he's still quite naive as a politician.

"This is a gold star given to me," Yun-hyeok said.

"Pardon...?"

"I'm just a basic local government head, yet they are treating me as if I'm the person responsible for drafting province-wide policies."

It was unnatural for so many articles to be published and for so many companies to form an alliance and issue a statement when the policy hadn't even been fully implemented in Mir City yet.

This situation had been engineered.

It was likely designed by the tacticians of the Liberty Party or the Hanmin Party leadership.

They were trying to trap him in a dilemma.

If he drew his sword and declared he would expand it to the provincial level, he would have to fight the childcare companies. And he would face massive attacks under the logic of destroying the market.

If he backed down as Kim Min-cheol suggested, he might be safe, but it would be tantamount to admitting that his limits as a politician lay within the boundaries of a basic municipality.

If he withered away inside that trap, it would go exactly as they intended.

But having the stage set in a way that questioned his qualifications for governor was actually a good thing for Yun-hyeok.

Because he could just break right through it.

"We should meet with the childcare companies. I was planning to do so anyway," Yun-hyeok said.

"Did you know that in this era of low birth rates, even though the number of newborns has been cut in half, the sales of childcare companies have actually risen?"

It was precisely because of premiumization.

An era where there are nearly 70 "must-have" childcare items. In a "Golden Kids" trend where children are precious and parents pour everything into a single child, marketing preys on parents' competitive psychology, guilt, and anxiety: 'When you go for a stroller walk with other moms, place your precious baby in a 2.5-million-won luxury stroller advertised by a celebrity!'

Ironically, that was exactly what made parenting so difficult and ate away at the birth rate.