Common prosperity

Illustration promoting the concept of Common Prosperity

Common Prosperity (Simplified Chinese: 共同富裕; Pinyin: gòng tóng fù yù) is a concept proposed by the Communist Party of China means that all people finally achieve a standard of living with sufficient food and clothing through hard work and mutual help , that is, universal prosperity based on the elimination of polarization and poverty. It is one of the core values of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Common prosperity allows some people and some regions get rich first, and those who get rich first help those who get rich later, so as to gradually realize common prosperity. Common prosperity is the essential requirement and goal of socialism, as well as the fundamental principle of Chinese socialism.

Basic definition

Common prosperity is a concept in the field of economics and should be defined with knowledge of economics. Wealth means having a lot of property, and being rich means owning a lot of money, materials, houses, land, etc. Poverty is having a small amount of money, materials, houses, land, etc. "Common prosperity" means that the people will eventually achieve prosperity, but it is by no means "simultaneous prosperity, simultaneous prosperity, or equal prosperity". It is necessary to allow some people and some regions to become rich first, and help those who get rich first to get rich later, so as to gradually realize common prosperity. Therefore, those who claim that common prosperity is simultaneous prosperity and absolute egalitarianism are wrong and one-sided.

"Egalitarianism" refers to the average consumption of subsistence materials, or the average ownership of subsistence materials, that is, the average ownership of social wealth. However, in historical cases, both Li Zicheng and Hong Xiuquan tried to implement egalitarianism, but the principle of egalitarianism they implemented was simultaneous prosperity, which excessively pursued subjective complete synchronization. It can be seen that "common prosperity" is obviously not synonymous with "egalitarianism", and "common prosperity" is obviously different from "simultaneous prosperity".

Marx's idea of ​​common prosperity has two elements, one is fair distribution and eliminating the distribution gap among members of society, and the other is the improvement of productivity development level is the premise. Marx believed that in the first stage of communist society, common prosperity refers to the state of equal possession of consumer goods achieved by laborers through distribution according to work based on the social ownership of means of production. In the advanced stage of communist society, common prosperity refers to the free development of individuals through distribution according to needs based on the social ownership of the means of production.

The tenth meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee conducted a special study on the issue of common prosperity, which must be grasped from several aspects.

What is Common Prosperity?

Building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way has allowed the Chinese people to live a good life, but the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development is still prominent. On this basis, the CPC must continue to "make the cake bigger" and divide it well, vigorously promote high-quality development, generally increase the income level of urban and rural residents, gradually narrow the distribution gap, and resolutely prevent polarization. Common prosperity is the prosperity of all the people, not the prosperity of a few people; it is the prosperity of both material life and spiritual life of the people.

How to Achieve Common Prosperity?

The CPC must persist in safeguarding and improving people's livelihood in the process of development, improve people's education level, enhance their development capabilities, create more inclusive and fair conditions, open channels for social upward mobility, and create opportunities for more people to become rich. Firmly promote the equalization of basic public services, insist on doing our best and doing what we can, and prevent falling into the trap of welfarism. Allowing some people to get rich first, however, using the more developed regions to assist in helping develop the underdeveloped regions and closing the income inequality gap.

It is necessary to establish a basic institutional arrangement for the coordination and matching of primary distribution, redistribution, and tertiary distribution, increase adjustments in taxation, social security, transfer payments, etc. expand the middle-income group, and form an olive-shaped distribution structure with a large middle and small ends. The third distribution is on a voluntary basis, not compulsory. The national tax policy should give appropriate incentives, and play a supplementary role in improving the distribution structure through wealth redistribution.

Recognize the long term, arduous and complex nature of realizing common prosperity

China is building a modern socialist country in an all-round way , moving from a well-off society in an all-round way to common prosperity, from a middle-income country to a high-income country . The realization of common prosperity is a dynamic process that cannot be achieved overnight or at the same time. China must persist in seeking progress while maintaining stability, proceed step by step, and work for a long time, year after year, so as to promote the all-round development of people in the new era and make substantial progress in making all people prosperous.

Basic Conotation

In the concept of common prosperity, "wealth" reflects the possession of wealth by the society and is a concentrated expression of the development level of social productive forces; "common" reflects the way members of society possess wealth and is a concentrated expression of the nature of social production relations. Common prosperity includes the characteristics of both productivity and production relations, and it determines the social ideal status of common prosperity in terms of qualitative regulations, making it the essential regulation and goal of socialism.

Common prosperity is differential prosperity based on universal prosperity. Common prosperity is the organic unity of commonality and prosperity. Commonly used to describe the scope of prosperity, it is relative to the polarization caused by private ownership; wealth is used to represent the degree of affluence of life, it is relative to poverty. Common prosperity is universal prosperity based on the elimination of polarization and poverty.

Deng Xiaoping repeatedly emphasized the need to eradicate poverty, eliminate polarization, and achieve prosperity for more than 90 percent of social members. The gist of it is to achieve universal prosperity,

"One of the features distinguishing socialism from capitalism is that socialism means common prosperity, not polarization of income. The wealth created belongs first to the state and second to the people; it is therefore impossible for a new bourgeoisie to emerge. The amount that goes to the state will be spent for the benefit of the people, a small portion being used to strengthen national defence and the rest to develop the economy, education and science and to raise the people’s living standards and cultural level."

Chinamust insist on the dominant position of public ownership. To ensure the equal rights of the people to possess, use and control the means of production, the principle of distribution according to work must be adhered to to ensure the people's fair right to obtain wealt and state macro-control must be strengthened to ensure that the people enjoy the right to common prosperity.

Negative reactions

The bourgeoisie, the imperialists and capitalists tend not to like this socialistic rhetoric, since their profits depend on the exploitation of labor (and thus, for prosperity to be centralized in their hands, instead of being spread to the commoners) Common prosperity has been demonized in Western press as a "Maoist" policy.

See also

• Every Man a King
• Share our Wealth