The ringgit has been falling for three full weeks. In various parts of the country, 90,000 people expressed mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.
Many citizens believed in the persuasion offensive of the monarch Zhu Youdong and the big capitalist Gu Kun from the beginning, and converted all the cash and deposits on hand into RMB, thus escaping the disaster.
At this moment, the mentality of this group of people is very stable, and some even have a sense of intellectual superiority.
When they look at their neighbors who are stubborn and refuse to believe or listen to advice, their mentality is the same as that of smart people who take pleasure in their misfortune when they look at those ignorant old people who were deceived by health product sales.
And those holding ringgits still hold on to a glimmer of hope.
Use words such as "Anyway, I earn my own money at home and spend my own money, and I don't go abroad. It doesn't matter to me that the value is temporarily depreciated. Anyway, I will be untouchable in this life and do nothing. The less I move, the less chance I have of being cheated."
"Thoughts like this are self-paralyzing and comforting.
On the other hand, they also imagine that the depreciation of the ringgit is temporary, and as long as the Malaysian authorities take it seriously and launch a counterattack, they will be relieved.
Unfortunately, this kind of self-paralysis did not last long. People in Lanzhou felt the pain of exchange rate changes even faster than people in other countries.
Because Lanfang is different from any surrounding countries. Lanfang is a country that uses dual local currencies!
Even after the ringgit devalued in Sarawak, Kuching and the other coast, prices did not rise because everything there was priced in ringgit. Devaluation would only increase the price of imported goods and have no impact on self-produced and sold products.
But what about Lan Fang? Usually, if an item sells for 10 yuan, the price in the store will be "10 ringgit/24 yuan", so the double price will be marked together.
After the sudden depreciation of the ringgit, merchants generally learned the lesson. For a 10 yuan item, the "24 yuan" price tag still hung there, but the "10 ringgit" tag was secretly removed.
In this way, the merchant does not need to say explicitly that he has increased the price, he only needs to say that he is buying and selling in RMB.
If there is a person who staunchly believes in the ringgit and insists on using the ringgit to buy things, the merchants will not refuse to accept it. However, they will take out a calculator and calculate it according to the current exchange rate, and then tell you that 10 ringgit is only equivalent to
It’s already 18 RMB. To buy something priced at 24 RMB, now you have to pay 13 RMB 5.00.
Like to buy or not.
Therefore, those who did not believe in Gu Kun quickly felt the changes in warmth and coldness within a week or two.
Just when people's hearts were in a state of excitement, there was finally some good news in that day's "Lanfang Daily" and on the public broadcast of Lanfang Radio, which made people feel at ease.
As mentioned before, because Lanfang was too small, there was no TV station, only one newspaper and one radio station. Although radio was already too backward in 1997, it also had a wonderful effect, that is, the communication rate of this thing was relatively high.
Efficient:
In Lanfang, which has only one core main city, hang some super-powerful loudspeakers outside several high-rise buildings, which are as powerful as air defense sirens. When the monarch wants to announce a big event, they can directly broadcast it to all the citizens.
There is no need for the audience to be idle or turn on the machine at home, they can hear it while walking on the road.
"...In order to respond to the recent financial crisis in Southeast Asia and save the people, His Highness has issued the following decree:..."
On the radio, blabla talked about a bunch of outlines of subsidy policies to benefit the people, which were roughly the same as what Gu Kun suggested to Zhu Youdong, so I won’t repeat them again.
Anyway, at the end of the broadcast, everyone was asked to see the detailed manuscript in that day's "Lanfang Daily".
All the citizens were immediately shocked.
"His Royal Highness and Boss Gu are so kind? They actually give subsidies to those idiots who refuse to abandon the ringgit? It's really an unprecedented benevolent government. It's a pity that it's a bit unfair to good people."
"It's not necessarily true that you abuse a good person, you should look at the details."
Teahouses and restaurants, as well as various entertainment and leisure venues where people gather together, started discussing it as soon as the announcement was announced.
These places usually sell newspapers, or there are newsstands at the door, and ordinary people pay to buy them: "Boss, a copy of "Lanfang Daily"."
"I want two."
After a while, the Lanfang Daily sold a total of 30,000 copies that day, four times more than the usual few thousand copies, and more than one copy per household.
Everyone is eager to understand the details of the subsidy policy.
…
There is a small fishing village not far to the west of Lanfang Port, not far from where Gu Kun's former residence was at the beginning of his rebirth.
Liu Min's family, the boatmen and sailors employed by their family, and the sailors' relatives are also gathered together at this moment, listening to the radio, watching the news, and understanding the policies.
This Liu Min is, of course, Gu Kun's neighbor a few years ago. Under normal circumstances, his men would not have gathered together like this, mainly because today is the day when the ship returns to sea after half a month at sea. The sailors'
The family members were all worried, so they gathered at the ship owner to pick up the ship.
In the past few years, Liu Min had not been able to get on Gu Kun's ladder, so he could only snowball on his own, so his development was not fast. After three or four years of hard work and exploitation, his family property barely increased to one million ringgit, and he bought another boat.
With one, at least two boats can be used to cooperate with the trawling operation.
As usual, Liu Min would treat all the sailors' families to a simple meal on the day of return, which is considered a courtesy for fishermen.
After they landed, they happened to hear the radio and bought a newspaper to find out more about it.
Among these families of sailors, some of them did not convert their ringgit into RMB because their young people had gone to sea for the past half month, and their families only had uneducated old people. They were closed and conservative and did not trust the government. So they have lost a lot of money now.
So of course I am particularly concerned about these policies.
"Ada, look at what this newspaper says about pension subsidies. What exactly is it? We are uneducated and can't understand it. When you were away, your father and I were afraid that the government was a liar. The country repeatedly
They called for ringgits to be exchanged for renminbi, but we didn’t dare to change them. What should we do now? When we use ringgits to buy things on the street, the prices have increased by 30%! The money is worthless!”
The person who asked this question was the mother of one of Liu Min's sailors.
This kind of situation is actually quite common in Lanzhou. The main reason is that there is only one child in the family, and if you are a little educated, you usually have to make decisions. However, it is normal to have no news for half a month and a month after going to sea. If there are only old people at home, everyone will be confused.
If you think you are a liar, you will not respond to the government’s call, and you will miss the redemption period.
If there are two children at home, the work will usually be staggered, and there will be no young people at home for half a month, so this problem will not be obvious.
The sailor had a junior high school education and was proficient in writing. After hearing about his parents' troubles, he quickly checked the relevant terms, and then he breathed a sigh of relief:
"It is said in the newspaper that considering that a large number of victims who have not exchanged RMB are middle-aged and elderly people with limited information, and a considerable part of the losses are the pensions accumulated by the people throughout their lives. Therefore, the Gu Kun Protection Fund is willing to pay 50-year-olds
The above middle-aged and elderly citizens who have suffered losses will receive unified subsidies.
However, because there are currently no commercial insurance companies in Lanzhou that provide pension services, the Gu Kun Protection Fund is willing to provide these citizens with a one-time payment of Malay commercial pension insurance equivalent to 10 years of premiums. The remaining 5 years need to be paid by the policy holders themselves... However,
This kind of insurance requires Malay nationality to be used. People from Lanzhou cannot use it. If you want to enjoy it, you must become a Malay citizen."
Those people immediately made a sad face: "Go to Malay? It would be best to have pension for the elderly, but Malay doesn't want useless people like us to immigrate."
Lanfang has only been a country for 14 years, so most of its citizens do not have pension security and mainly rely on their children to make money to support the elderly.
The citizens do not feel that the country owes them, because pensions are originally only available to workers and employees. This country was originally dominated by fishery and agriculture, and farmers and fishermen have felt that it is natural that they do not have pensions since ancient times.
Moreover, when we were colonized as a "protected country", the colonial dogs even sucked out the bones and marrow, and there was never any mention of providing for the elderly. The older generation was used to being enslaved by the colonial dogs. They felt that the welfare in the more than ten years after Zhu Youdong took office was already worse than before the colonial rule.
Times are much better and I am very satisfied.
Now the country actually buys commercial insurance from neighboring countries to hedge risks because everyone's pension savings have depreciated. It's so kind.
Liu Min was the most well-read and knowledgeable among the group, so he explained to everyone: "If you really want to immigrate, it's easy to go to Kuching. You just need to pay an insurance and buy a house. Now with the financial crisis,
Malay is also facing a shortage of hot money. Many of their commercial insurances also have the risk of breaking the capital chain. Therefore, if you take over Malay's Ponzi business now, you will get special discounts.
As for house prices, the subsidies given by His Highness are all denominated in US dollars or RMB. The house prices in Kuching are ringgits, which is equivalent to a direct drop of 25% in house prices. In addition, I think the current house prices in Kuching have already fallen sharply. According to the newspaper
It is said that by the end of the Spring Festival early next year, house prices will drop by 30%. Considering the exchange rate, you can buy them at half price at most, and maybe they will drop even more."
In the past, housing prices in nearly developed countries in Southeast Asia were quite exorbitant. The house Gu Kun bought for his sister when she was a high school student in Kuching at the end of 1994 cost nearly 5,010 square meters in RMB in urban Kuching.
In 1994, the house Gu Kun bought in the Nanhai Port District of Guangdong Province only cost one or two thousand, and the price of the house in the city center was only four thousand. It can be seen that at that time, N-tier cities like Kuching were more valuable than first-tier cities in China like Guangdong.
However, after the Southeast Asian financial crisis, the dollar/renminbi denominated prices of those houses have more than halved.
Nowadays, if you go to Kuching to buy a house in the core urban area, it only costs more than 2,000 yuan per square meter. If you don't care about children's education and are willing to buy a house in the suburbs, there are also houses that cost more than 1,000 yuan per square meter, which is only 200 yuan per square meter in U.S. dollars.
Calculated in this way, the Lanfang Charitable Foundation's subsidy of US$5,000 per household is enough to exchange for a 25-square-meter one-bedroom, one-living mini apartment in the suburbs of Kuching during this trough period. Although it is very cramped to live in, it can
Reach the minimum investment limit of the immigration policy.
Who asked the Malays to desperately look for hot money during the crisis? If you immigrate, you will have consumption and labor in the future.
Those who had suffered a loss due to their stubbornness and isolation in the past breathed a sigh of relief.
However, there were also a few other sailors who did not have elderly people at home and who had always listened to the calls of the government and big capitalists. They were unhappy after hearing this: "Then isn't this bullying honest people? Those who refuse to listen will be subsidized. People like us are
You keep responding to the call, but you get nothing?"
Liu Min was afraid of causing a split among his sailors, so he quickly dissuaded him: "You can't say that. You changed the RMB in advance, so there was no loss in the first place! Besides, can you read the policy in the newspaper? I will make it clear later, for other citizens
, there is always the benefit of taking into account fairness, but it is just for the sake of being famous, and it is not called a subsidy."
After hearing these words, those young sailors who had no elders alive regained their balance slightly: "What are the benefits? Let me see."
Liu Min glanced at it, pointed at one and said: "Isn't this written like this? Since the beneficiaries of preferential a will no longer retain the nationality of Lanzhou, preferential b is specially provided. Pratt & Whitney insists on holding Lanzhou nationality.
national citizen.
Since January 1, 1998, the threshold for personal income tax has been increased from the fixed amount of RM300 in US dollars on January 1, 1984 to RM1,000 per month. You still have to pay income tax now, but after the increase, you will not have to pay it.
!Isn’t this just a discount?
Besides, there’s more to come, it’s not over yet…”