At the "Economic Globalization and China's Economic Scientific Development Summit Forum" cum

China Economic Law Research Association No.21Important speech at the annual meeting

Liu Guoguang, special consultant and academic member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

（2011Year9month17日）

Dear experts and scholars,

Comrades:

Some people say that in the past, we have long implemented the policy orientation of "prioritizing the wealth of the country" rather than "prioritizing the wealth of the people", which has resulted in the phenomenon of "the country is rich and the people are poor" or "the country is rich and the people are not rich".

I think that some scholars and media put "national wealth" and "people's wealth" in parallel or in opposition, which is not accurate. As far as "national wealth" is concerned, after reform and opening up, my country's economic strength, that is, "national wealth", has indeed been greatly enhanced. Its economic aggregate has surpassed Japan's and has become the top two in the world. But per capitaGDPNot in Japan1/10, still ranked first in the world100After the name, w88 online live casino cannot be said that the country is already very rich. As far as "the people are poor", we cannot simply say that "the people are not rich" or "the people are poor". The living standards of our people have generally improved greatly compared with the past, and some people are already very wealthy. w88 online live casino is estimated that2009The number of millionaires in my country has reached 11904_119216710,000 households, ranking third in the world; assets exceeding10billion US dollars, ranking second in the world after the United States. But most citizens are indeed not rich enough, or even very poor. Therefore, on the one hand, domestic demand is insufficient and the consumption rate is low; on the other hand, the luxury goods market is booming, ranking second in the world. Therefore, we cannot generalize whether the people are rich or poor, saying "the people are poor" or "the people are not rich".

Let’s talk about the reasons for low consumption rate and insufficient domestic demand. This is not the result of "prioritizing national wealth" and "lag behind people's wealth". Instead, w88 online live casino “let some people get rich first”, while the majority of the people failed to follow suit and became “rich later”, and instead fell into relative poverty or absolute poverty. According to United Nations standards, absolute poverty is defined as an income of less than one dollar a day, and low income is defined as a person with a daily income of less than two dollars. Now w88 online live casino is estimated that China has1.5100 million people have a daily income of less than one dollar. A professor from Renmin University of China estimated that the total urban and rural population has a daily income of less than two dollars10Billion. These groups of people have low incomes and cannot afford to buy things. They are the main contributors to low consumption rates and insufficient domestic demand. As for the particularly wealthy residents, w88 online live casino seems that they are not the target of increasing consumption rates and expanding domestic demand.

In the past, the policy of “giving priority to national wealth” has never been clearly announced or implemented. Instead, the policy of “let some people get rich first” has been clearly announced and implemented. If this can be regarded as "people's wealth first," w88 online live casino is only a policy that allows some people to get rich first. w88 online live casino should be said that this policy has been implemented very successfully. w88 online live casino has led to huge changes in China's economic structure. In terms of macroeconomics, the state has retreated and the people have advanced, and the public has promoted private advancement. As a result, the proportion of the non-public economy in the national economy has increased from almost zero before the reform and opening up to more than 10% now65%. The fact that the growth of the private economy has greatly exceeded that of the state-owned and public-owned economies proves that what our country has actually implemented in recent years is not a policy of "giving priority to national wealth," but to "prioritizing the wealth of the people (of course, part of the "people")." When we first announced the policy of letting some people get rich first, we put forward the slogan of "get rich first, lead others to get richer, and achieve common prosperity." However, many years of practice have proven that although the goal of "making some people rich first" was quickly achieved in a short historical period, "getting rich first and then leading others to get rich, and achieving common prosperity" has not been realized automatically. Under the waves of marketization and privatization, this is unlikely to be realized. On the contrary, with the development of marketization and privatization, the gap between rich and poor is getting wider and wider, and the trend of polarization "naturally appears".

The actual process of China's economic development shows that due to the particularity of the source of wealth in China's primitive accumulation of capital, the time for China's rich to accumulate wealth is extremely short. Hurun, who is engaged in wealth research, once said that in foreign countries, w88 online live casino takes 100 million yuan to earn a fortune of 100 million yuan.15Year, turning a fortune of 100 million into10One hundred million wants10years, and China only needs3years, much shorter than in foreign countries. In China, w88 online live casino takes a very short time to complete the task of some people getting rich first, but the task of getting rich first and then getting richer, and achieving common prosperity is far away. Some elites who defend wealth and capital often use the excuse that the distribution issue is very complicated, predicting that w88 online live casino will take a long, long time to resolve the issue of fair distribution, and asking everyone to be patient and patient. This is really strange logic. You must know that Deng Xiaoping repeatedly called for a timely solution to the problem of the widening gap between rich and poor, and warned that the trend of polarization would lead to the dangerous consequences of failed reforms.

At present, the core issue in the field of income distribution in our country is the sharp expansion of the gap between rich and poor, and the obvious trend of polarization. The central issue is not the contradiction between "wealth of the country" and "wealth of the people", but the contradiction between some citizens getting rich first and getting rich suddenly and the majority of citizens not being rich or poor. To overcome and reverse the trend of widening gaps and polarization between the rich and the poor, the required policy shift is not from "promoting national wealth first" to "prioritizing people's wealth", but clearly announcing that the policy of "let some people get rich first" has successfully completed the task. In the future, this policy must be transformed into a policy of gradually "achieving common prosperity" and completing the transition from "getting rich first" to "common prosperity".

w88 online live casino should be said that there is no scientific basis for comparing "national wealth" and "people's wealth" against each other. The relationship between "wealth of the country" and "wealth of the people" is not completely mutually exclusive, but contradictory and unified. What is "national wealth"? Yan Fu was the first to translate Adam Smith'sThe Wealth of NationA book, the Chinese translation is "The Wealth of Nations". In this book, Adam Smith not only discusses the income and wealth issues of the monarch or government (equivalent to the country), but also discusses the income and wealth issues of workers, farmers, and business people (equivalent to the nation). Later, Guo Dali and Wang Yanan re-translated this book, and the title was changed to "A Study on the Nature and Causes of National Wealth", so that the meaning of "national wealth" was extended to "national wealth". VisibleThe Wealth of Nationscan mean the wealth of the country or the wealth of the people.

When talking about the income of the monarch or the country in the fifth chapter of Smith's book, the pros and cons of various tax burdens are discussed, indicating that the income of the monarch (government) and the national income are not always contradictory. More income is given to the country, but w88 online live casino does not mean that the national income is reduced. Because the monarch and the government need necessary expenses to protect and increase national wealth. "The Wealth of Nations" spends a lot of space to demonstrate the three basic functions of the country, namely protecting society, protecting everyone in society, and building public utilities and public welfare facilities. If we ignore for the time being the interests of the ruling class represented by the country and the government and the profligacy and waste of officials, we can say that this is generally a portrayal of the relationship between wealth and income between the modern country and its citizens, and between the government and the people.

Government revenue isGDP18718_18818IMFStandard calculation of China’s full-scale government revenue shareGDPratio,2007-2009approximately31%About. PressIMF2007year calculation,24The average actual macro tax burden of industrialized countries is45.3%，29The actual average tax burden of developing countries35.5%. Compared with these actual figures, my country's average macro tax burden is much lower than the average level of industrialized developed countries, and is not too high compared with developing countries. According to international experience, as productivity develops towards developed countries, and the government assumes more and more important tasks such as social people's livelihood, public welfare and income redistribution, my country's government revenue accounts forGDPratio or the so-called macro tax burden level, there is still need and room for further improvement.

Therefore, the current macro-tax burden problem in our country does not mainly lie in the proportion of government revenue, but in whether the fiscal revenue and expenditure structure is reasonable and whether w88 online live casino can be operated through government fiscal revenue and expenditure. On the one hand, w88 online live casino is necessary to achieve a healthy integration of "national wealth" and "people's wealth", and on the other hand, w88 online live casino is necessary to promote the transformation of "people's wealth" from "rich first" to "shared wealth". One of the main problems in my country's current fiscal revenue and expenditure structure is that the burden of fiscal revenue is disproportionately borne by low- and middle-income people or the working class, while when w88 online live casino comes to the use of fiscal expenditures, expenditures on social livelihood and public welfare are relatively low.

If, as some people say, my country's macro-tax burden is too high, w88 online live casino only places a heavy burden on the middle- and low-income working class, but the compensation they deserve or the social benefits they deserve are insufficient; the wealth income of the wealthy class, which is mainly based on capital and property income, is mostly outside the national income redistribution process regulated by national fiscal and taxation. This reverse adjustment mechanism can only contribute to the widening gap between the rich and the poor and needs to be reversed urgently. In terms of fiscal revenue, w88 online live casino is necessary to increase the proportion of direct taxes and reduce the proportion of indirect taxes; in terms of direct taxes, w88 online live casino is necessary to increase the tax burden on capital property and unearned income, consider family burdens, and reduce the income tax burden on low- and middle-income people; w88 online live casino is necessary to levy inheritance tax, gift tax and other property taxes. In terms of fiscal expenditures, we must practice economy, vigorously reduce the proportion of administrative expenses, and increase the proportion of social livelihood, public welfare, redistribution transfer payments, etc. These propositions collectively call for the national finance to return to its responsibilities of “regulating income distribution and promoting social equity.” The problem lies in the decision-making determination and implementation steps, which need to be carried out as quickly as possible.

w88 online live casino should be pointed out that narrowing the gap between rich and poor and reversing the trend of polarization cannot rely solely on state fiscal adjustment measures. There are many reasons for the widening gap between rich and poor, such as urban-rural gap, regional imbalance, industry monopoly, corruption, uneven supply of public goods, lagging redistribution adjustment, etc., which must be dealt with one by one. But these are not the most important. According to the Marxist point of view, ownership determines the distribution system; property relations determine distribution relations. Differences in property ownership are the biggest factor influencing income differences.30In recent years, the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the formation of polarization trends are due to the above-mentioned reasons. In addition to the above-mentioned reasons, the most fundamental reason is the downgrading of "public" and the promotion of "private" in the ownership structure and property relations, and the transformation of public into private. The rapid concentration of wealth accumulation in a small number of private individuals is the most fundamental reason.

When adjusting the income distribution relationship and narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, people often start from the distribution field itself, especially from the redistribution fields such as fiscal taxation and transfer payments, improve social security and public welfare, and change the livelihood conditions of low-income people. These measures are completely necessary and need to be intensified and continued to be implemented. However, w88 online live casino is not enough to just talk about distribution and start from the field of distribution and redistribution. w88 online live casino cannot fundamentally reverse the problem of the widening income gap between the rich and the poor. This problem also needs to be faced directly from the ownership structure. w88 online live casino is necessary to strengthen the public economy as the main body and the state-owned economy as the leader to solve this problem. This is also an important aspect in our adjustment of the relationship between "wealth of the country" and "wealth of the people." Comrade Xiaoping emphasized that “as long as public ownership occupies the dominant position in our economy, polarization can be avoided. ”[1]Also said, "If the basic means of production are owned by the state and are collectively owned, that means they must be publicly owned", then "a new bourgeoisie will not be created"[2]. This is a very profound conclusion. This shows that the primary stage of socialism allows the development of private property rights and allows non-labor factors (mainly capital) to participate in distribution, but all this must be based on public ownership and distribution according to work. As long as public ownership and distribution according to work are the mainstay, the gap between the rich and the poor will not viciously develop to the point of polarization. w88 online live casino can be controlled within reasonable limits and ultimately move towards the goal of common prosperity. Otherwise, polarization and social division are inevitable.