Decoding Common Prosperity | "Mr. China's Income Distribution" refutes four fallacies

　　China News Service, March 12 (Reporter Li Jinlei) The 2022 government work report proposes to "rely on common struggle and solidly promote common prosperity". Although there is not much focus on it, the topic of common prosperity remains hot.

　　For some time, there has been some vague understanding of common prosperity in the society, such as "private enterprises withdrawing from the market", "robbing the rich to help the poor", "forcing donations in disguised form", and "egalitarianism and welfarism".

In this regard, the "China New Observation" column of Chinanews.com interviewed Li Shi, the dean of the Institute of Sharing and Development of Zhejiang University, known as "Mr. China's Income Distribution", to clarify the fallacy, clear the fog, and correctly understand the common prosperity.

Promoting common prosperity is inseparable from the market economy

Chinanews.com: Some voices believe that promoting common prosperity will lead to "exit of private enterprises" and "weakening of the market economy". Do you think it will lead to these consequences?

How to allay these market concerns?

Li Shi:

Promoting common prosperity is inseparable from the market economy and private enterprises. It is not about returning to the old path of the planned economy.

It is completely wrong to think that to promote common prosperity, the private economy must be retired.

In fact, the market economy and private enterprises should play a greater role in promoting common prosperity.

　　The reason why Zhejiang was selected as the Common Prosperity Demonstration Zone is that Zhejiang has a high degree of development and sharing, and the income gap, urban-rural gap, and regional gap are small.

Why can Zhejiang do it?

Zhejiang has a relatively advanced market economy in the country, and has a large number of private small and medium-sized enterprises, thus bringing more employment, increasing residents' income and narrowing the gap.

　　To achieve common prosperity, we must first make the "cake" bigger, and private enterprises are an important driver of economic development.

Therefore, instead of eliminating private enterprises, we must continue to improve the market economy system, create a better environment to promote the development of private small and medium-sized enterprises, and let them play a greater role in promoting development, stabilizing employment, and increasing income.

　　The socialist market economy pursues the unity of efficiency and fairness, and the two cannot be neglected.

In the past, we put more emphasis on efficiency and growth, and in the future, we will focus on sharing in development, taking into account fairness and efficiency.

For the voices of concern in the market, the government must respond in a timely manner, and create a favorable atmosphere for the development of the private economy by introducing measures such as encouraging policies and creating a better business environment, so that the public and public opinion will have a positive impact on the private economy in promoting common prosperity. more awareness of its positive role.

Common prosperity is not "robbing the rich to help the poor"

Chinanews.com: To achieve common prosperity, it is necessary to "

Li Shi:

People from all walks of life agree with "lowering" and "increasing the middle", but different people have different understandings about "raising".

Some people think that "raising the increase" means "robbing the rich to help the poor" and "dividing the local tyrants" to reduce or deprive the income of high-income people. This is a complete misunderstanding.

　　Common prosperity is not "robbing the rich to help the poor", the so-called "raising", on the one hand, it is necessary to ban illegal income, and impose strict restrictions and prohibitions on this part of income.

In addition, reasonable adjustment of excessive income. Although some high incomes are legal, they are abnormally high incomes caused by market distortions. In particular, monopoly and unfair competition behaviors should be curbed to obtain income.

In addition, some high incomes are regulated by tax systems such as personal tax. The higher the income, the higher the personal tax rate. This is completely different from the adjustment method of "robbing the rich and helping the poor", and it is an adjustment within a reasonable range.

　　High-income people are a very small part of the whole society. The focus of promoting common prosperity should still be on "improving", so that low-income people can continuously improve their development capabilities, have more development opportunities, share more development results, and get better results. Great benefits, benefits, and income can increase faster to narrow the gap with other members of society.

A panoramic view of Dongtou District, Wenzhou City.

Photo by Yao Xiaoqin

Make charity a social fashion

Chinanews.com: The realization of common prosperity emphasizes three distributions, and supports willing and capable enterprises and social groups to actively participate in public welfare and charity.

Some people think that it will lead to "forcing donations in disguised form". What do you think of the correct connotation of the three allocations?

Li Shi:

There are different reactions in society to the three distributions. The rich are worried about whether it is time to donate more money. This is actually a misunderstanding. The central government has repeatedly emphasized that the three distributions are active and voluntary, not To force donations.

　　The third distribution is to mobilize enterprises and social groups to participate in public welfare and charity through social responsibility or moral power. It is a useful supplement to the primary distribution and secondary distribution, and helps to optimize the income distribution pattern.

　　The tertiary distribution is different from the secondary distribution. It is not a government-led distribution. Voluntary is the most basic principle and cannot be forced, otherwise it will be a disguised secondary distribution.

In the three distributions, the government cannot directly intervene, but should introduce and improve encouraging policies and systems, strengthen the protection of property rights, and create various favorable conditions and atmospheres. The main body of charity can get a stronger sense of honor.

Common prosperity is not equal prosperity

Chinanews.com: Regarding common prosperity, some people think that it can be "flattened" and "wait for it", and some people think that the government will engage in "welfare" and "egalitarianism". What do you think?

Li Shi:

It is another misunderstanding to understand common prosperity as egalitarianism and welfare.

Common prosperity is not uniform egalitarianism, equal prosperity, or equal prosperity.

　　Even in a common prosperity society, there are still differences in the prosperity of people.

Some people will be very wealthy, some people will be generally wealthy, but all groups of people will reach a certain level of wealth, which is called a common wealth society.

　　The central government still encourages and allows some people to get rich first, and by getting rich first, they will get rich later, and they will help them get rich first, so as to achieve common prosperity.

Common prosperity is the prosperity of all the people. It requires the joint efforts of all the people to achieve it. It does not mean that some people work hard, while others are watching and waiting.

Common prosperity is not egalitarianism or welfarism.

　　The principle of common prosperity is to build and share together.

Through everyone building prosperity together, and then sharing the fruits of development, we can achieve common prosperity.

Common prosperity cannot wait, nor can it be called, it must be spelled out and done.

We can't "absolutely average" and "eat a big pot of rice", and we can't "raise lazy people" or engage in welfareism.

A scene of Shaoxing water town, Zhejiang.

Photo by Fang Kun

To focus on handling three pairs of relationships

China News Service: How to correctly understand and grasp the strategic goals and practical ways to achieve common prosperity?

What relationships should be handled well?

Li Shi:

There are many problems and challenges to achieve common prosperity. At present, China's society is not rich enough, and it is not a high-income country. There is still a long way to go compared with developed countries in terms of per capita GDP, income level, and public service level.

The degree of sharing is not high, and there are many problems of unbalanced development, including income gaps, urban-rural gaps, and regional differences.

　　To pursue the dual goals of development and sharing, on the one hand, we must make the "cake" bigger through high-quality development, vigorously encourage innovation, further improve labor productivity, further promote reform, and improve economic development and prosperity.

On the other hand, we must divide the "cake" well, further promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas, narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, narrow the differences between the eastern, central and western regions, and narrow the income gap.

　　To promote common prosperity, we must deal with three pairs of relationships. One is the relationship between development and sharing. We must achieve sharing through development and promote development through sharing. The two must promote each other instead of running against each other. Excessive sharing affects the intrinsic motivation and motivation for development in order to achieve so-called egalitarianism.

　　The second is the relationship between urban and rural development.

It is necessary to further narrow the development gap between urban and rural areas, realize the integrated development of urban and rural areas, and make urban and rural areas form a whole development.

　　The third is the relationship between development and people's livelihood.

It is necessary to further improve the level of basic public services, and the government must invest more in people's livelihood expenditure, which will cause a certain contradiction with productive investment. It is necessary to maintain a balance between productive investment and people's livelihood expenditure.

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