Chapter 1232 The Population Explosion (First update, please subscribe)
Something should be said!
As a scholar, I accepted an invitation from Nanyang University at the beginning of the year. After coming to Nanyang to give lectures, I faced the miraculous development of Nanyang and the people's prosperous life, which even exceeded their imagination.
He was naturally very happy. After all, everything here, for him, only existed in dreams in the past, and he could not even imagine it in his dreams.
But after coming to Nanyang, in those community parks, I saw so many children running all over the ground, which made the middle-aged man fall into deep thought while being happy.
He even fell into some kind of worry, which stemmed from a kind of responsibility.
The responsibility in his heart drove him to say something for Nanyang.
“Poverty!”
In the classroom, as an economist, he wrote these two words on the blackboard.
Then, turning to face the students, he said:
"Perhaps, in your impression, the memory of poverty is vague. Most of you have immigrated to Nanyang when you were children. In your memory, you only have the wealth of Nanyang. Indeed, the wealth of the people of Nanyang is , It can be said to be rare in the world, at least in the imagination of all of us, and even in our imagination!”
When he said this, most of the students laughed. There is pride in his smile, and this pride comes from the heart, because this kind of prosperous life is indeed beyond imagination. According to the words of the fathers, it is - never imagined in dreams.
“However, we should be prepared for danger in times of peace. What I want to talk to you about today is poverty. We are all from the Tang Dynasty. Let’s take Tangshan as an example.”
He looked at the students and said :
“We used to say that Tangshan has a vast land and abundant resources. In fact, there is not much arable land in Tangshan. Tangshan has less land and many people. At that time, we said it had a population of 40 million, which was already the largest in the world. But I later learned that Tangshan’s population was already 580 million when the May 3rd census was announced. This was after years of war. The population was so large, and correspondingly, there was a relative lack of land and resources. This has also led to poverty in Tangshan. In fact... this is the main reason for poverty... If the population is not controlled and production cannot keep up, it will be impossible for the country to get rid of poverty in the short term, and it will be difficult for the country to become rich and strong. , it will be difficult for the people to get rich quickly.”
When he finished speaking, several students raised their hands and asked to speak. He pointed at one of the students and asked him to stand up and speak.
“Professor, there is a fundamental difference between Nanyang and Tangshan. The proportion of agricultural output value in Nanyang’s economy is very small, and it can even be said to be not worth mentioning. Compared with the land and resources Lack, the real lack in Nanyang should be said to be production power - well, insufficient labor force, which has always restricted Nanyang's development."
"Yes, Professor, you are saying that production cannot keep up, but Nanyang's. The scale of production is limited by the labor force.”
Although they are only students, these students pointed out the professor’s misunderstanding directly.
In fact, regarding population theory, Nanyang is contrary to the mainstream view of this era. In this era, many sociologists and economists in Europe and Asia attributed poverty to the large population and regarded the large population as a burden. For example, Tangshan, India, Japan, the Peninsula, etc., even the United Nations encourages population restrictions.
But unlike them, Nanyang regards population as wealth!
"Yes, you are all right, but..."
The professor wrote a number on the blackboard.
“70 million, this is the number of newborns in Nanyang in the past ten years. 80% of them were born in the past ten years. That is 56 million! This is simply a miraculous number, almost more than the population The United States has 200 million people.”
In fact, a baby boom also broke out in the United States. In the 18 years from 1946 to 1964, the number of people born in the United States reached 76 million. This “baby boom” is Unprecedented.
But it's only 1961, and the number of "baby boomers" in Southeast Asia has already exceeded that of the United States during the same period.
Then he wrote another number.
"Six million! This is to take care of 56 million infants and children, and those engaged in related industries in Nanyang, including nursery nurses, kindergarten teachers, primary school teachers, doctors..."
While talking about these industries one by one, he wrote "80%" on the blackboard.
“80% of Nanyang’s medical resources and medical insurance expenditures are used for childbirth and infant expenditures. Taking Chang’an Central Hospital as an example, its inpatient department has a total of 18 floors and 1,800 beds, including 1,000 beds are used by obstetrics and gynecology, and 400 beds are used by infants and children. ”
After listing the numbers one by one, he wrote on the blackboard the annual expenses incurred by public transportation such as buses, subways, and high-speed rails due to the exemption for minors.
After listing the figures and expenses one by one, he said:
“In fact, we can see that Nanyang’s annual fiscal revenue is equivalent to 46% of the gross national product. %, but the investment in minors accounts for more than 20% of fiscal expenditures. These expenditures are hidden in various aspects, such as education, medical care, labor and other aspects. They not only occupy a large amount of resources, but also, It has also caused a huge waste of manpower."
Looking at the students who just pointed out the labor shortage in Nanyang, the professor said:
"In order to take care of these infants and young children, there are 100,000 nurseries and kindergartens in Nanyang. , more than 1.5 million people work here. If the birth population decreases by 50%, then it is certain that other industries can obtain at least 1 million working people, and the labor shortage situation will also be alleviated.”
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Looking at the thoughtful students, the professor continued:
“What is certain is that in the next few years, tens of millions more people will be born in Nanyang until the 50th immigrants arrive in China. The birth rate in Nanyang will decline only after 50 years.”
The “50s immigrants” he refers to refer to the immigrants who came to Nanyang before the 1950s and were also the main force of Nanyang’s population. "Excluding the nearly two million single men among the 50-year-old immigrants, there are still about 11 million families, and this is also the main force of birth, and their descendants will be about 80 million people. According to the "brothers and sisters in one family, five children" "Six sticks, seven are just right." These people will form 40 million families in ten or twenty years, and they will give birth to at least 250 million children! Now..."
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Looking around the students, the professor said in a serious tone:
"The question is - by then, will Nanyang's resources be able to support a population of 350 million and continue to maintain the current living standards?"
Then the professor wrote a string of words on the blackboard: "Dynasty" Cycle,” he said to the students as he turned again.
“A few years ago, Tangshan scholars proposed that there was a historical phenomenon in ancient Tangshan. To put it simply, in the early days of the dynasty, the population dropped sharply due to wars, so land resources were sufficient, and everyone had land. Under the policy of low tax burden, society has regained stability, the economy has gradually recovered, farmers have enough to eat, they are willing to have children, national tax revenue has increased, and national strength continues to grow. This is the "prosperous age".
However, with the As time goes by, an inevitable and stubborn problem will gradually appear - the population will increase significantly and the land will become less and less. At the same time, as resources become scarce, land annexation will become more and more intense, eventually leading to the collapse of the dynasty, and the world will once again fall into chaos. War, population reduction, then chaos and chaos, and then prosperity."
Looking at the students in the audience, the professor asked in an extremely serious tone.
"What about Nanyang? Will something like this happen in Nanyang in the future? With the increase in population, by the end of the century, the population of Nanyang is likely to exceed 60 million. At that time, Nanyang people can still live as wealthy as now. Life? "
Facing the students, the professor continued to ask questions.
“Well, do you still think that population does not need to be controlled?”
Faced with such questions, they all fell into deep thought.
What the professor said seems to make some sense.
Just a few days later, an article appeared in the newspaper. The title of the article was "Hidden Concerns about the Population Explosion in Nanyang."
This article bluntly points out that the fertility rate in Nanyang is too high. brought about a series of social problems.
There are even some alarmists who point out that Nanyang's excessive fertility rate will definitely lead to Nanyang's economic recession in the future, because social resources are heavily occupied by newborns. This will inevitably affect the economic development of Nanyang.
This article caused an unprecedented controversy in Nanyang. After all, the data listed in the article are true.
And to a certain extent, it is not alarmist, but telling a fact.
As a result, this article naturally caused a great sensation in society. For a while, many economists and sociologists expressed their respective opinions.
Some people agree with and some oppose population control theory. Those who agree have reasons for agreeing, and those who oppose it have reasons for opposing.
In short, for a time, there was endless debate in various places. In the past, population was a restricted area in Nanyang - as we all know, Nanyang needed labor. But when the extraordinary fertility now brings a burden to the entire society, people always I will analyze and argue this issue from all angles.
Everyone stands for the interests of the Nanyang people. No one is motivated by their own selfish interests. They are just out of concern for the country.
While people were discussing this topic, everyone was stunned by the astonishing fertility rate in Nanyang.
70 million!
In less than 16 years, 70 million people were born in Nanyang.
Faced with such a fertility rate, some people are naturally frightened. After all, they have seen the poverty caused by tens of millions of people, and it is precisely because of this lesson that they agree with the population The idea that too much brings poverty.
It is even taken for granted that the prosperity of Nanyang is based on a small population.
For a while, people were discussing population control theory. After all, this is the mainstream of sociology at present.
And there are examples. Tangshan before liberation, India now, including Japan and South Korea, are not all examples of poverty caused by large population!
With these clear examples out there, everything else seems unconvincing.
It seems that population control is the only option for economic development in Nanyang.
The population explosion in Nanyang can definitely be regarded as a miracle of post-war population growth!
But is such a miracle really a good thing for Nanyang?
(End of this chapter)