Chapter 130: Chapter 126, Long Live the Governor!
Actually, not all the people in the inner city are wealthy.
With such poor productivity, it’s impossible to support that many rentier classes.
Most of the people in the inner city still have to rely on their own work to support themselves and their families. They just have a relatively more substantial family background, better education, and more plentiful opportunities.
They work as industrial workers, staff in factories and enterprises, clerical workers in trade associations, and officials under the Alliance Government… They have a stable and even somewhat respectable job, but that’s all they have for their livelihood.
In fact, under the new system designed by Gu Hang, if these people did their jobs well, their opportunities would still be much greater than those of the people outside the city. A more comprehensive education and a wealth of work experience were their advantages.
But this couldn’t merely be made credible through propaganda. For the moment, Gu Hang did not need to maintain stability through empty talk; his military could manage that in a short time.
As for the future, these inner city residents would come to experience this for themselves.
In reality, for the entire political and economic framework of the future, he already had some preliminary ideas, which he had discussed with Osenia.
The entire welfare system would be established on forty-five grades: a stratification of A-E, with nine levels in each category.
Each level would come with corresponding welfare benefits, including food rations, housing benefits, medical care, and determine the purchase rights for a small number of scarce goods.
Upon entering the workforce, every official employee would have at least an E6 level of benefits. Below E6, there would be apprentice workers, interns, some scholarship recipients, convict laborers, and relief for those unemployed through no fault of their own…
And specific levels would be determined according to the position and the individual’s work contribution.
Although there is a certain link between rank and position, they are not entirely equivalent. In the early stages, those at lower levels will be promoted year by year based on seniority and work contributions, which means an increase in basic benefits.
The pace of promotion will slow down at higher levels.
Those with outstanding performance will be eligible for leapfrog promotion.
The treatment for military soldiers does not follow this line, but it corresponds. Privates and corporals receive allowances similar to the E tier, with specific differences depending on the unit; after retirement, efforts would be made to arrange jobs at corresponding levels. Sergeants, senior NCOs, and some lower officers correspond to the D tier; middle and upper officers receive C tier treatment upon retirement; and senior officers and generals receive B tier or A tier, depending on the situation.
Rank and position would also be paid monthly wages, only it’s no longer the Alliance currency. It’s now work points, and there could be some sort of currency reform in the future. You can spend work points or currency to buy things in stores.
Most civilian goods, as long as they’re not scarce items, will be normally placed on the shelves.
Want to eat better side dishes beyond the regular food allocations, such as cake, ice cream, meat and dairy products? You can buy them;
Want high-quality electronics? You can buy them;
Want to buy a tricycle or even a car to use? You might not be able to buy it in the short term, but once production increases in the future, the military’s needs are met, and there is extra capacity, you can buy it. There might initially be level restrictions, which can be lifted later when capacity is more abundant.
When there are more materials available, personal hobbies, reading, entertainment, art pieces… all can be bought.
In other words, housing, food, and medical care, the three big mountains, will be secured once you’re part of this new system; wages will then satisfy higher-level, more personalized, and diverse needs.
Want something better? Well, work hard to get promoted and earn a raise.
The only exception is education.
That matter, Gu Hang plans to make it public, free, and solely dependent on performance.
And this whole system will include future civil servants, industrial workers, service industry workers, farmers… all of them.
Of course, for now, this whole system looks beautiful, with a somewhat utopian notion, but there will probably be quite a few problems in implementation.
Ensuring fairness, reasonable promotions, adequate supply of materials, satisfying individual diverse needs, fighting corruption, avoiding system rigidity, planning material distribution and production… the list of issues is long.
But this collectivized, planned system has a fundamental advantage: it’s easier to concentrate resources to accomplish big things.
On Rage Owl Star, there is a fundamental difference from the modern world: there is no problem of overproduction for a long time.
The meaning of market regulation is not that significant.
All excess productive capacity would be absorbed by the immense pressure of imperial taxation.
The only thing Gu Hang needed to do was to expand productive capacity as much as possible. Making more goods, whether they could be sold or used, didn’t matter; the empire’s vast system would consume it all.
And with this premise, what Gu Hang valued the most was how to fill the people within this system with motivation.
He would not tolerate widespread attitudes of idleness and dependency on welfare benefits.
These detestable ideas must be addressed by Gu Hang.
Incentives such as rank progression, salary increases, and active promotion of values are all forms of positive motivation.
Performance assessments, competitive promotion slots, and a demotion penalty system…
These kinds of relatively competitive incentives are also essential.
If the people don’t work hard, how can Gu Hang prosper?
Work hard, and next year, the governor can change to a sports car.