Li Xuan walked slowly while continuing: "You have been doing it to expand domestic demand, but the intensity is still not enough. We need to increase our intensity!"
Hearing what Li Xuan said, Chen Lifu raised his head and glanced at Li Xuan. From his current angle, he could only see Li Xuan's side face.
Today, Li Xuan is no longer young, but he is healthy and well-maintained, but his hair is starting to turn gray.
After a brief glance, Chen Lifu quickly lowered his head, and after some deliberation he said: "To expand domestic demand, I am afraid it will have to significantly increase the income of ordinary people. However, farmers still account for the vast majority of our population structure. At present, the majority
The income growth of some farmers has not kept pace with the development of our industrial and commercial economy."
"Because we have been committed to the food price protection policy, we have kept food prices and the speed of economic development initially stable. However, with the rapid economic development in recent years, it is also to stimulate the development of industry and commerce and reduce the price of a large number of workers and other low-income urban groups.
proportion of food expenditure, so although food prices have increased slightly in recent years, the increase is not large."
"If food prices increase too high, the proportion of food expenditures of ordinary urban residents will increase significantly!"
Li Xuan also nodded slightly to Chen Lifu's question!
Although contemporary Daheng has been industrialized, has made great achievements in various aspects of industry, and accounts for an increasing proportion of the economy, more than 80% of the population of the Tang Empire is still agricultural.
There is nothing that can be done about it. The empire has a large population. Even if it is industrialized, the current level of industry and commerce cannot absorb such a huge population. What's more, so many people have to eat, and the current agricultural production technology is still relatively poor.
It is backward and the per capita grain output is relatively limited.
Without so many people farming, if they all went to work in factories, people would starve to death, and many people would starve to death.
Food prices are a very contradictory thing.
Especially now that most of the population of the empire is still an agricultural population, food prices are very sensitive. Too high food prices will greatly increase the pressure on urban residents, but too low food prices will lead to too low incomes for farmers.
Nowadays, the price of food in the empire is not too high. Otherwise, the proportion of urban residents’ food expenditure cannot be controlled at around 60%.
But now, in Li Xuan's view, food prices are already low, farmers' incomes are too low, and farmers account for more than 80% of the empire's population.
As for how to ensure the living standards of the urban population after raising food prices, and how else to ensure it, the natural solution is to increase wage income.
What the empire needs to do now is not only to increase the income of farmers, but also to increase the income of workers. Where does this income come from?
Either to improve production efficiency or to squeeze corporate profits.
The former is very difficult. The improvement of production technology cannot be achieved in a day or two, especially since the current level of industrial technology in Datang is not low. The tonnage of ships is several million tons larger, and the coal output has exceeded 100 million tons. In the factory
The production technology has improved dozens of times compared to the past. Although the technology can be continuously improved in the future, it will be difficult if there is no major technological breakthrough.
If we want to continue to make significant improvements, we must comprehensively promote electrification, which is the second industrial revolution and the electrical revolution in future generations.
But it's hard!
And squeezing corporate profits is not easy either.
On the one hand, in fact, the profits of many companies are not as high as imagined, because everyone's competitiveness is about the same, and if your price increases, you will be beaten to death by your competitors.
On the other hand, who owns the company's profits? Shareholders and top management, and these people are at the top of society, or vested interests, and they will not be willing to give up high profits.
but!
In Li Xuan's opinion, this is not a big problem.
In the original time and space, it was difficult to raise wage levels in various countries and reduce workers' incomes. In addition to the greed of capitalists, another very important factor was market competition.
In addition to competition among domestic enterprises, there is also international competition.
If country a increases the income of workers, it will cause the cost of enterprises to rise. However, if country b does not increase the income of workers, then the cost of enterprises will be low. What will happen in the end?
The products produced by companies in country B can overwhelm all the products produced by companies in country A, causing the company to go bankrupt.
When a country's industries go bankrupt, workers will naturally have no jobs, which will lead to more intense conflicts.
But in Datang, this problem did not exist.
Because Datang's industry and commerce was global and had no competitors.
The Tang Empire is the only industrial country on earth today.
The competition between enterprises in Datang is the competition between enterprises within Datang. This is very important. If under the guidance of the official imperial policy, all enterprises increase wages for their employees, which will lead to rising costs, then the competition between them will
The force will not change, but will remain the same.
Just as the Tang Empire set minimum wages and limited maximum working hours, everyone's wages and costs increased, but their competitiveness did not decline and remained the same.
Therefore, the cost issue is not a problem in Li Xuan's opinion.
As for lowering corporate profits, this can better stimulate healthy competition between companies and further curb the gap between the rich and the poor.
With the advent of the industrial age, the gap between the rich and the poor in the Tang Empire has not narrowed much, and has even tended to widen.
This situation makes Li Xuan dissatisfied. Li Xuan has always wanted to curb the gap between the rich and the poor and expand the proportion of the middle class as much as possible.
But it is a pity that this has not been possible for decades.
Now, Li Xuan feels that it is time. If he does not do this, or even fails to do it successfully, then his heir and even subsequent heirs will probably not be able to do it.
Chen Lifu didn't know that when he was talking with Emperor Sheng about overcapacity, domestic demand, and the income of the people at the bottom, Emperor Sheng in front of him was already thinking about the gap between the rich and the poor.
The next day, Li Xuan convened many cabinet ministers for a cabinet meeting. During the meeting, Li Xuan proposed a new population income structure, which was an oval structure.
"In the current population structure, there are too many low-income groups, too few middle-income groups, and too many high-income groups!"
"This situation is unhealthy and will have a serious impact on the foundation of the empire!"
"In order to maintain the empire's long-term stability and ten thousand-year foundation, the empire's population income structure must be an oval structure!"
"In other words, most of the population of the empire should be middle-income earners, instead of the vast majority of people being low-income earners like now!"
Upon hearing the oval structure thrown by the Holy Emperor, a group of ministers were stunned!
It is difficult, very difficult, super difficult to do this with the current status of the empire!