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Geese laying golden eggs are not to be killed

By LI YANG | China Daily | Updated: 2021-09-16 07:46
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LI XIN/FOR CHINA DAILY

Now that the average per capita gross domestic product in China exceeds $10,000, common prosperity has become the country's next objective. While the Chinese economy has sustained high-speed growth over the past more than four decades, the wealth gaps in the country have widened to such degrees that they need to be addressed.

Eliminating rural extreme poverty should be seen as an indispensable part of the efforts to pursue common prosperity, but it will take far more than that to bridge the huge income gap between the rich and the poor, and even the high-income group and the middle-income group.

When the luxury lifestyles of the wealthy are revealed to the public, it pricks the nerves of the people who have heard talk of social fairness and justice for so long, fanning hatred against the rich and fermenting anger over the prioritizing of making the cake bigger over cutting it fair.

So now the central authorities have made public their resolve to realize common prosperity, it has understandably raised the low-income and middle-income groups' expectations for an overhaul of the wealth distribution system.

The series of moves the authorities are taking to address the overdue problems regarding the monopolies and unfair competition practices of some of the big IT companies that created billionaires, as well as the tax evasion and other illegal and unethical practices of some celebrities in the entertainment industry who have accumulated huge personal wealth, have prompted some of the beneficiaries of such practices to claim that the rich are being robbed to help the poor.

However, that is not the case. It simply does not make sense to kill the geese that lay golden eggs.

The crux of common prosperity lies in the reform of the wealth distribution system that should level the playing field for market competition, and make tax count, so as to ensure wealth is distributed according to individuals' contributions to the socioeconomic development of the country.

There are still many shortcomings in the country's secondary distribution system that need to be remedied. For instance, an inheritance tax and real estate tax, as well as the gradual improvement of the individual tax system, are all overdue.

The fundamental goal of common prosperity is to build an olive-shaped society, in which the middle-income group, enjoying a good life, is the biggest social group and to avoid a bipolar society that is starkly divided between the rich and the poor.

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