Liu Jin had been standing by and silently listening to them discussing the housing prices in the capital.
Similar to later generations, housing prices in this capital have skyrocketed.
Prices in core areas range from several thousand taels of silver to three to four thousand taels in remote suburbs. The prices can be said to be very expensive.
Although the income of people in Ming Dynasty has been steadily increasing over the years, the average salary in Beijing and Tianjin has now reached more than ten taels of silver a month, which is already the lowest wage.
Calculated, a labor force can earn about 200 taels of silver a year, but compared with the high housing prices, this wage income is insignificant.
If you want to buy a house, you have to live without food or drink for at least 20 to 30 years. Moreover, the house you want to buy is in a remote suburban area, and it is even more expensive in a central location.
In later generations, the per capita income in the Imperial City was around 100,000 a year. House prices in the Imperial City were often several million higher, and good locations cost tens of millions. After all, it would take decades of work without food or drink.
Afford to buy a house.
In such a comparison, in just a few decades, housing prices in Beijing have been almost at the level of later generations.
It's just that relatively speaking, people in Daming have more choices. If they don't want to hang out in big cities, people in Daming can still live a good life in their hometown.
If you immigrate to other countries or overseas, your life will be relatively more comfortable.
People in later generations will not have so many choices. Only in big cities can there be jobs and make money, but it is difficult to buy a house and establish a foothold in the city.
If you go back to your hometown to live in the countryside, it is often difficult to make money, so you have no choice but to go to the city. Coupled with the huge population, the housing prices will naturally rise.
"Logically speaking, housing prices in Ming Dynasty shouldn't have risen so outrageously!"
Liu Jin made a careful comparison and immediately felt that the housing prices in the capital were indeed ridiculously high.
You must know that people in later generations have no choice, so they have to squeeze into big cities.
But now the people of the Ming Dynasty have choices. They have many choices. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty is vast and sparsely populated. There is plenty of land and resources, and the population is not large. The population is now only over 400 million, and they are still distributed over such a vast land.
Although this capital city is said to have many rich people, developed industry, and developed economy, the housing prices are still too high.
“It’s not a good thing if housing prices are too high!”
Liu Jin thought carefully.
Think about future generations, because housing prices are too high, ordinary people are under tremendous pressure and dare not consume, dare not have children, dare not start a business, dare not leave their jobs, etc.
Because of the huge pressure, I was very tired.
At the same time, all kinds of competition in the city are very fierce, especially the competition for public resources, many of which are linked to housing.
If this continues for a long time, society will become deformed and various problems will arise.
For example, if young people are under too much pressure and simply choose to lie down, not get married, buy a house, or have children, the entire society will lose its vitality and motivation to move forward.
"The current society is better. Although this house is very expensive and difficult to afford, at least now we have enough food and clothing. As long as we are willing to work hard, we don't have to worry about food and drink for the family."
"You can't afford to buy a house in the city, but if you go back to your hometown in the countryside, you can easily build a small building."
"You may not have experienced those years. You fled famine and came to the capital. During the tenth year of Hongzhi, there was a heavy snowfall and the weather was freezing. In winter, every household basically ran out of food. Everyone will get used to it.
To escape the famine, go to other places to beg for the winter or something like that.”
"You have never experienced those days. You were cold and hungry. Many people froze to death or starved to death on the road."
"What a wonderful time it is now!"
"You don't have to worry about food, drink, or clothing. If you can't afford a house, you can still rent a house. All in all, society is pretty good, and everything is pretty cheap."
"This fine grain costs a few cents per catty, and salt costs a few cents per catty. Do you know that in the past, those black-hearted grain merchants and salt merchants were dedicated to making money from the national calamity."
"During this year of famine, the price of food has skyrocketed. A young girl can only exchange for a small bag of food. It is difficult for those who sell their sons and daughters to survive."
"There is also this salt. The salt I used to eat costs tens of cents per pound. There is also a lot of sand in it. If you are not careful, your teeth will chip."
Among the people chatting next to them, the old man recalled the difficult years of his youth and kept sighing.
"Old sir, is this true or false?"
"Who would buy this salt-soaked sand?"
"That's right. This person can only exchange for one bag of grain? This is too evil."
When the young people next to him heard this, they immediately started talking.
"Of course it's true. You can just ask the elders in your family to find out."
"At that time, this salt was a specialty. Only those salt dealers were qualified to sell salt. If you didn't buy salt, you wouldn't have anything to eat. No matter how expensive it was, you had to buy it."
"And those grains, they are the most evil."
"When there was a severe famine in the three northern provinces, they not only hoarded food themselves, but also colluded with officials and businessmen to resell all the food in the imperial granary to drive up food prices."
"Hey, you, I don't know how many people starved to death that time. There were corpses on the road."
"Later, Liu Gong, the current chief minister of the cabinet, worked hard to provide disaster relief. He went to the sea to fish, went to North Korea to buy food, and then provided work in exchange for relief. As long as he built roads, he would have fish to eat."
"There was always a sea ban at that time, so there were a lot of fish in the sea. This fishing boat could bring back hundreds of thousands of kilograms of fish in just one trip."
"At the longest time, we ate fish for several months, so much so that we felt like vomiting when we saw the fish."
"The road between Beijing and Tianjin was still built by us back then, and I was also building the road at that time."
The old man nodded solemnly and recalled the past again.
"Aren't those grain merchants too evil-hearted?"
"This is simply a desperate attempt to make a fortune."
"Yes, such people should be exiled to the Golden Continent."
"Don't worry, everyone. Later, all these black-hearted grain merchants were punished. After the emperor found out everything, these profiteers were all arrested and beheaded in public. Their homes were also ransacked, and all their clansmen were exiled.
Went to places like Australia and the Golden Continent.”
"It's so beautiful!"
"What a joy!"
"Isn't that right? When the newspapers reported this incident, countless people cheered and celebrated."
"However, the one who needs to be most grateful is Liu Gong. It is precisely because of Liu Gong that the Ming Dynasty gradually reached its current situation. If it were not for Liu Gong, I would have starved to death."
The old man said solemnly.
His words also made Liu Jin on the side couldn't help but smile proudly.
This feels very good. I have traveled through time and can do some practical things to benefit the people. This is enough.
"You young people, you still have to work harder and work harder!"
"This is a good era, and you are lucky to live in such an era."
"When I was a child, it was really hard. People basically relied on farming to make a living. From the end of the year, I worked exhaustingly on just one-third of an acre of land."
"Half of the food that we worked so hard to grow has to be handed over to the landlords. The rest is not enough to eat. We can only eat two meals a day, and we basically drink gruel, so we don't have enough to eat at all."
"In this way, at the beginning of the year, we basically have no food and starve."
"Every family here was extremely poor, had little to eat and no warmth, and the houses were in dilapidated condition. At that time, all they wanted to do was to have enough to eat. Meat was only available during the holidays.
.”
"It's not like today's children. They don't eat this or that. They are very picky eaters."
"When I was a kid, when I was hungry, there were so many brothers, so I had to fight for food, otherwise you wouldn't get any."
"You can catch and eat mice, snakes, and frogs in the fields. They are rare delicacies. Locusts are very fragrant when roasted. Have you young people ever eaten these?"
The old man was reminiscing as he spoke, as if he was suddenly transported back to the difficult years in the past.
"Can you eat these mice and locusts even if you know they're cicadas?"
"Yeah, it makes me feel sick just thinking about it."
When the young people around him heard this, they all looked disgusted.
"Haha, you haven't experienced the hard times, so of course you don't know. If you are always hungry, you will know that these things are not only edible, but also taste very good."
The old man immediately laughed.
"During the famine, the bark of the trees was chewed up, and even the Guanyin soil could be eaten."
"After eating these things, because they are nutritious and difficult to digest, each of them has a very big belly and cannot poop out at all."
"You guys, you don't know how blessed you are when you're in the midst of blessings!"
"We are in such a good era, so we should cherish it!"
