Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 832

Chapter 827: Endogenous Problems in the Alliance

: How can the Alliance’s system retain its vitality, maintaining a highly centralized structure while still providing the lower classes with a robust upward path?

This is a crucial and challenging task.

Upward mobility isn’t something that can be easily achieved.

In the early days of the Alliance, a large number of those who joined in its construction have now occupied senior positions, forming new interest groups.

The Alliance’s interest groups are actually relatively simple. Rank determines the world, and everything from benefits and status to power is clearly tied to this system. While some individuals earn income beyond their rank, they are not the mainstream of society.

Therefore, the Alliance’s current interest groups are those who hold high positions within the rank system. Their origins are complex, but the most prominent and well-connected group are those who have followed the Alliance’s expansion and economic development. Another important component is the former powerful individuals from various worlds who have actively integrated into the Alliance’s system during this process.

Over the decades of the Alliance’s development, these two groups have clearly converged. The fundamental reason is that any interest group, once established, naturally tends to consolidate its own interests.

Currently, the Alliance’s core channels for advancement are two: obtaining a higher level of social status through academic education, and then earning promotion through work performance within the system.

Alternatively, outstanding performance at work leads to promotion, which then leads to further education. After graduation, combined with experience and performance, it’s easy to move up the ladder.

These two paths aren’t mutually exclusive, or even two sides of the same coin. The former focuses on rapidly advancing young talent, while the latter allows rising stars with accumulated experience to stand out.

Theoretically, within the Alliance system, even those without connections and from ordinary backgrounds, as long as they possess talent and ability, can rise quickly. However

, this is only an idealistic view.

In reality, while the Alliance’s upward and downward promotion channels are indeed much smoother than those in most imperial societies, those interest groups that have already established themselves can still find ways to squeeze into both channels.

Their actions weren’t actually that egregious. Blatantly monopolizing the advancement path was unacceptable to the Alliance.

But there were some methods that no one could fault.

Education? They’d quietly raise the cost of education.

Administrative edicts wouldn’t be a good idea; they often diligently educate their children, nephews, and close relatives from a young age. Affluent families can significantly advance the foundations of ordinary students.

On this basis, while there are certainly talented individuals among ordinary students, and their larger population base allows them to gain a higher percentage of admission to various academies, when compared to their success rate, the offspring of high-ranking officials are undoubtedly far superior.

This was undeniable.

Even Gu Hang had to admit that since they were screening for talent, and if they had invested heavily in education and nurtured talent, it wouldn’t be fair for the academy to consider background during admissions to give ordinary students more spots.

In reality, Gu Hang didn’t discriminate against talent based on background. Anyone who can contribute to the Alliance’s cause deserves due respect, regardless of their background.

Gu Hang will not suppress those so-called “interest groups” who seek to “take over” by investing in education; rather, he encourages them. This is especially true for those who were once powerful individuals from various worlds. Such behavior clearly signals their commitment to integrating into the Alliance system.

However, one type of behavior might be less desirable.

Investing in education, ensuring their offspring can attend a reputable institution within the Alliance’s educational system and secure a prestigious position upon graduation… The descendants of the powerful, with their greater access to educational resources and broader perspectives, do have a higher probability of success than the average person. But generally, competition is on a level playing field. The civilian population is so vast, and even though the descendants of the powerful have many advantages, it’s often the talented and determined among the common people who emerge victorious.

The field is overcrowded.

Naturally, those unwilling to resign will resort to tactics,

such as the so-called “carrot pit.”

Aren’t there assessments required to gain admission to prestigious institutions and secure prestigious positions? While they wouldn’t dare rig the assessments, they could certainly tweak the content, tailoring a set of special recruitment requirements for well-connected candidates.

A certain college might suddenly have a few special recruitment spots for a certain planet, supposedly to support talent development. These

aren’t open to everyone on the planet, but rather to those born in certain places because of their contributions. There are

also gender restrictions, age limits, and special experiences prior to admission. There’s also a further requirement for possessing certain “special skills.”

And while these special recruitment spots are publicly announced, without any proactive advertising, it’s difficult for outsiders to identify a single, potentially limited application window within a few days amidst a sea of documents.

The universe is vast, but with the right conditions, the right candidates can always be chosen.

Such underhanded tactics are unacceptable.

Alliance leaders have repeatedly stressed the need to take such matters seriously. If similar operations are carried out, not only will the individuals involved be dismissed, but those responsible for colluding in these schemes will also be dealt with.

You want to make it easier for your offspring to get into a certain school or position, right? We’ll get rid of you first!

Such tactics only have a small impact, opening a small door for the benefit of a few individuals. While they are certainly unfair, they’re not necessarily that egregious.

At least they’re not as bad as large-scale monopoly.

This happened once in the Menghe Star Region.

On Mengyang Star, the region’s capital and educational hub, they implemented a scheme: the government’s Ministry of Finance and the Union Taxation Bureau conducted special recruitment for tax management programs at several top universities on Mengyang Star. They planned to recruit 70% of their future tax bureau officers from these top universities.

So far, this seems reasonable. While the work schedule restricts schools, it doesn’t restrict them individually. Instead, they’re grouped together based on a list of top universities provided by the Union Education Ministry. Restricting to relevant majors isn’t a big deal.

However, a surprising move was that the top universities on Mengyang Star subsequently significantly limited the number of students admitted and raised the application requirements for the Tax Management major. One particularly serious requirement was the requirement for internship experience in relevant financial and taxation work during the course of study. However, since “internship experience” wasn’t directly tied to job rank, it was a requirement that individual institutions and units could freely regulate recruitment and didn’t contribute to the alliance’s budget.

This policy was originally implemented primarily to address temporary staffing shortages in certain units. However, since these shortages were not expected to persist for long, recruiting large numbers of full-time employees would result in a future oversupply, leading to a temporary policy.

This combination of factors produced a powerful effect: the tightening of university quotas, coupled with the fact that counterpart units only recruited students within these quotas, ensured that admission to these programs at these institutions guaranteed future employment in the Menghe Star Region’s tax bureaus.

To qualify for the tax program at these top universities, internship experience within a tax bureau was required.

As long as internship quotas were limited, only a small number of applicants could obtain internships, creating a closed loop.

How could someone from an ordinary background possibly obtain this kind of internship? They wouldn’t be able to get into the taxation majors at those top universities, and even less so when targeted positions are created. They’d have to squeeze into the remaining 30% chance.

Some well-connected individuals, however, are using the excuse of “unpaid dedication” to gain internship experience.

What? Ordinary people want to contribute? Is he worthy?!

This has led to the situation where the taxation management major at top universities has significantly lower admission requirements than other majors, offers better job prospects, and often leads to positions directly under the Star Region government. Yet , the number of applicants is incredibly low.

To put it bluntly, certain powerful figures in Mengyang are colluding to exploit the system to benefit their own descendants, specifically training a specific group of people to succeed the taxation bureau. They can even use these precious resources as leverage for their own gains.

It’s a bit embarrassing for the bureaucrats at the Tax Bureau to use this trick to get their children, nephews, and relatives into the job, but they could just make an exchange with other departments. Promote one of my people, and I’ll give your child a certificate of internship experience, guaranteeing a job at the Tax Bureau.

This group of people has been doing this for two or three years…

Gu Hang was furious when he learned of this.

This leads to at least two problems: the work of the Tax Bureau is affected, and the quality of talent is expected to decline in the future, which will naturally have a negative impact on efficiency.

Furthermore, and even worse, it will block the path to class mobility within the Alliance.

In the Tax Bureau, administrative officers start at a high level, and the work is important, offering ample opportunities for future advancement, easily leading to more important and senior positions.

If we categorize by class, the Alliance’s ranks are clearly defined. Such a position offers a promising path to upward mobility. How could Gu Hang accept this being cut off by a group of vested interests using administrative power?

This incident directly led to a severe internal purge across government agencies, including the Mengyang Planetary Government, the Menghe Star Region Government, the Alliance Finance Department, and the Alliance Education Department. Many senior officials, even those with no involvement in the incident, were held accountable.

Subsequently, the Alliance’s Ministry of Internal Affairs launched a nationwide investigation to determine if similar incidents like the one in Mengyang had occurred elsewhere, and to what extent. This investigation

wasn’t limited to this incident; it also included the previously mentioned “carrot pit” issue.

In short, all matters related to university applications were thoroughly scrutinized.

This also included the process by which graduates from various universities, considered high-caliber professionals, entered key positions.

These so-called key positions encompassed not only the Alliance’s directly affiliated and local government units, but also senior engineering positions, educational positions, and so on. In short, as long as the position met any of the following criteria—”a high starting rank,” “great future development prospects,” or “high importance to the Alliance and the Dark Side Crusade”—then the applicant’s eligibility would be reviewed.

In more drastic cases, the Internal Affairs Department would even retrieve the files of all personnel who had joined the position over the past five or ten years, and even interview specific individuals to understand the situation.

The investigation was extensive,

but this was only the beginning.

The Internal Affairs Department was also tasked with investigating the rank and position promotions within the alliance.

Naturally, normal promotions were off the table. There were a set of regulations for normal rank promotions. As long as the ratings for years of service and completion of job responsibilities were not poor, promotion was possible based on the years of service, no problem.

But wasn’t there also a promotion for “outstanding performance” that allowed for skipping levels? This was reserved for talented individuals. Gu Hang didn’t want units to leave it unused, leaving high-quality talent behind and unable to advance; nor did he want it to become a tool for powerful groups to exploit.

Gu Hang’s cheats could still be of some help in this regard.

He constantly expended a significant amount of grace points on talent enlightenment in the [Hero] interface.

These enlightened individuals were spread across various industries. Those eligible for enlightenment often possess talent and demonstrated performance. After enlightenment, their talents are realized, and their level rises significantly.

Under normal circumstances, these individuals stand out from the crowd.

In fact, this is a new channel for upward mobility that Gu Hang has opened up by leveraging the system’s capabilities.

Hero enlightenment, a feature that prioritizes individual skill and talent, doesn’t consider any background or background.

Every year, Gu Hang invests millions of grace points across various industries, inspiring hundreds of thousands of people. At the most basic level, 10 grace points per person only elevates them by 50 or 100 points. As long as they don’t invest in extremely high levels, the grace point expenditure is manageable.

These individuals, accumulated together, form the Alliance’s most valuable talent pool.

He also instructed the Ministry of Internal Affairs to investigate these lists.

Do the enlightened individuals in each unit experience rapid advancement in rank?

If so, and if a high proportion of those receiving special promotions are among them, it demonstrates that the unit is doing a good job organizing talent development.

If the promotion rate is relatively low, but the main reason is that the special promotion quota is already very small, then the unit will be ordered to improve, and it will be considered that the unit is too conservative in organizing talent training and is afraid of taking responsibility.

If the promotion rate is neither high nor low, and the number of promotions is normal, but the proportion of inspirers among the promoted people is not high enough, then it proves that the unit is not doing well enough and cannot even distinguish talents. It will also be reprimanded and ordered to improve. After two years of observation, if it still does not work, it will be punished.

If the number of promotions is normal, but the proportion of inspirers is extremely low and cannot be promoted at all, then the problem is serious.

Using identified talents – inspirers, not only expands the talent pool of the alliance, but also tests the effectiveness of organizational talent training. It is indeed making good use of all aspects that can be utilized.

The problems inherent in the alliance have always been a serious problem that Gu Hang treats as a major concern.

(End of this chapter)