Chapter 24 11. Nine of the Top 10 Surveys: Ethics in China

The middle class not only has the social function of buffering the gap between the rich and the poor, but also has the economic function of stimulating consumption and promoting the sustainable and stable development of the economy.In China, which is overly dependent on investment and exports and lacks domestic demand, this function is even more precious.In addition, the ethics and morals upheld by the middle class are established based on balanced social conditions. The main keynote is to maintain social stability, ensure affluent life, and promote a positive and progressive social culture.

Topic Introduction: Model of Ideal Society - Unbalanced Society - Demonstration of a Class In the past ten years, the development of the Internet industry has brought about the extreme prosperity of Internet culture. In addition to brewing countless symbols of popular culture, discussions about social phenomena and social issues have also constituted the foundation of Internet culture. A big feature. In some forums on the Internet, we can see this kind of problem everywhere, and finally formed a debate between two factions or even several factions. If we summarize these seemingly chaotic problems, then there is only one focus of debate.

What kind of society is the most reasonable society. For this proposition, everyone has a different understanding, but this is not the source of the controversy, because for any proposition, the conclusion is always unique, and the difference only exists between the process of proof, and if If a proposition does not have a unique conclusion, then the proposition must be a false proposition. Unfortunately, the proposition about social rationality is precisely a false proposition with many conclusions. However, regarding these inconclusive conclusions, one thing is certain, that is, no matter what the final social form is, if it is reasonable, then it must be recognized by the vast majority of people. A society recognized by the vast majority of people means its rationality.

Does such a society exist? The answer is yes, in the system of Western economics, the form of its ideal society is just like this. In the theory of Western economics, the state of an ideal society should be like this: the relevant variables in all things are in a relatively static state.The reason for this state is that the forces of all aspects can restrict and cancel each other out, and the wishes of all aspects can be satisfied. Because of the balance of this social form, it also has a formal name - balanced society. When we understand the above concepts, a new problem comes to us again.

Does the current Chinese society meet the standard of a balanced society? We really want to give an affirmative answer to this question, but the cruelty of reality predestined that this affirmative answer can only become our beautiful vision. For a society, it is easy to determine whether it has reached an equilibrium state. For example, under the conditions of a balanced society, the national taxation standard can not only ensure that the country's necessary fiscal expenditures will not run into deficit, but also maintain it at a low level, so as not to harm the income of the people.

Another example is the distribution plan of natural resources. Under the conditions of a balanced society, it can not only ensure that the country's natural resources will not be excessively lost, ensure that the country has enough strategic resources in the game between countries, but also ensure that the people can enjoy these resources. The benefits of natural resources. There is also macroeconomic growth. Under a balanced society, a country’s economic growth should have two internal and external circulation systems at the same time, with the internal circulation as the driving force for growth and the external circulation as the fuel for growth. Take the healthy national economy as the leading role, and the foreign trade economy as the supplement.

In addition to the above categories, there are many subjects that the equilibrium state can be applied to, and no matter which one of these subjects it is, it all embodies the core of the equilibrium state: to satisfy the wishes of all aspects. When everyone's wishes are met, it means that the needs are reduced to the lowest level, and naturally there will be no social fluctuations. After the previous discussions, we learned that the reality is that we can rarely meet the standard of a balanced society. An important reason why there is no balanced society in China is that our social system structure is seriously unreasonable.

In China, a large number of low-income and low-educated people constitute the bottom of the social system, while a very small number of elites reside at the top of the social system.The former possesses the least social wealth with the largest population base, while the latter possesses most of the social wealth with a small number of people. When this unbalanced state is combined with the needs of the people at the bottom, This constitutes a lot of unfair and unreasonable social phenomena in China today. Obviously, for China's current social system, the monopoly from the superstructure and the needs from the people at the bottom constitute a strong conflict.

And there is only one solution to this problem—to expand the number of middle classes. The middle class not only has the social function of buffering the gap between the rich and the poor, but also has the economic function of stimulating consumption and promoting the sustainable and stable development of the economy.In China, which is overly dependent on investment and exports and lacks domestic demand, this function is even more precious. In addition, the ethics and morals upheld by the middle class are established based on balanced social conditions. The main keynote is to maintain social stability, ensure affluent life, and promote a positive and progressive social culture.

However, we must admit that in China today, the number of the middle class is far from reaching the level to fulfill its functions. The growth of the middle class is based on income. It can be said that the so-called middle class will be formed in a real sense only when the income of some people exceeds the social average standard by a large margin. To ensure that people’s income surpasses, at least two conditions are needed as guarantees. One is the improvement of social security systems such as medical care, housing, and pensions; the other is effective protection of private property rights.

And these two points, we have not done enough. Based on the above research, we have learned this fact. In a balanced social system, it is necessary to ensure the existence of a sufficiently large middle class. As far as the current situation is concerned, although in the past 10 years, the number of the middle class in Chinese society has been increasing, but compared with the huge base of the Chinese population , this rate of increase is too slow. In addition, compared with the middle class in Western developed countries, our middle class has not yet formed an independent force, which is reflected not only in economic strength, but also in the concept of this class. As far as China is concerned at present, all social groups whose income meets the standard of the middle class all yearn for a higher level of material life, and such requirements conflict with the purpose of a balanced society. An obvious fact is that in society After the total wealth reaches a certain amount, it becomes difficult to create a new round of wealth. At this time, as long as someone asks for it, someone must lose it. This means that the middle class further improves the requirements of material life. Being above means plundering the people at the bottom. Secondly, the middle class in China does not have any clear interest demands. Apart from admiring the super-economic plunder of the powerful class, the middle class has failed to show due debate and confrontation. From this, we have come to the shortcomings of Chinese social ethics and morality in the past ten years. Faced with this reality, we cannot improve it in the short term. We can only look forward to the further formation of the Chinese middle class as time goes by. , looking forward to the formation of channels for the expression of the interests of the middle class. Once this expectation becomes a reality, it will profoundly affect the future pattern of the country.Because in terms of the ethics and morality of an era, its essence is the entire consciousness of the middle class in this era.