The role of rural areas as a stabilizer and reservoir in modernization

I.

In rural surveys, chatting with elderly people, the elderly show immense gratitude to the country. The reason is that farming no longer requires paying taxes, life is good, and the country's New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme and New Rural Pension Scheme, which were once unimaginable, have now become reality. Under the New Rural Pension Scheme, all elderly people over 60 years old receive a minimum national subsidy of 55 yuan per person per month, which truly makes the state better than a son.

The gratitude of rural elderly people stems not only from the fact that the current rural period is perhaps the most materially abundant in Chinese history, but also from a very realistic comparison they make. When rural elderly parents are still capable of farming the land, they generally support themselves, and their children do not bear the obligation of supporting their parents. When they grow older and no longer farm the land (though they generally still engage in some courtyard economy), they hand over their contracted land to their children, who then begin to bear the obligation of support, giving their elderly parents about 500 jin of grain each year and 20 to 30 yuan per month for pocket money. Twenty to 30 yuan per month is not even enough for oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, obviously too little, but our nationwide surveys found that the cash children give their parents is just about this much, so elderly people across the country all have “food to eat but no money to spend.” Now things are better: the national New Rural Pension Scheme actually pays all rural elderly people who have reached 60 years old a minimum of 55 yuan per month, 110 yuan per month for a couple, which is higher than the support money given by their children. How could rural elderly people not be grateful to the country!

The mere 55 yuan per person per month of the New Rural Pension Scheme actually makes rural elderly people feel the country is better than a son, and they are endlessly grateful. This stands in sharp contrast to the fact that many people believe the New Rural Pension Scheme provides too little protection for farmers, and the internet is filled with distrust of and even dissatisfaction with the country. Why has such a contrast formed? What does this contrast mean? This question deserves in-depth discussion.

II.

One reason the mere 55 yuan per month of the New Rural Pension Scheme makes rural elderly people immensely grateful is that in the past rural elderly people did not receive this kind of free old-age security provided by the state for them; their old-age support depended on the family. If their children were unfilial, the elderly were absolutely helpless and could even only end their lives. Now, although the New Rural Pension Scheme is not much, it can considerably alleviate their difficulty of lacking money to spend. In the past they had no vested interests and had not formed rigid interests. Now the state gives them money every month, which is like a pie falling from the sky, so of course they are very happy and grateful. Conversely, if 55 yuan were paid every month now, rural elderly people would have formed the expectation that the state pays money, and would expect the state to pay more and more, and if the state no longer paid money, the elderly would be extremely disappointed and would feel abandoned by the state.

Rural elderly people have not formed vested interests, and merely 55 yuan per month of the New Rural Pension Scheme makes them very satisfied. This shows that China's social structure still has great elasticity. It is precisely this elastic social structure that gives China enormous space for interest adjustment, enables China to respond to various crises and difficulties, and allows it to use its main resources for developing strategic industries and completing industrial upgrading, thereby escaping the middle-income trap.

III.

At present, the integration of urban and rural old-age security is being advanced, meaning old-age security is no longer divided between urban and rural areas, but is integrated and the same. In reality, however, there may still be some differences between urban and rural areas. Before the New Rural Pension Scheme policy was implemented, when rural elderly people could still farm, they farmed themselves and did not need their children to support them. By age 70, an elderly couple could farm two or three mu of land and do some side work raising chickens, earning several thousand yuan a year, with basically no expenses, because they grew their own vegetables, lived in their own houses, and were self-sufficient without spending money. They even had to support their children every year, especially by giving lucky money to their grandchildren. By their late 70s, when farming became difficult, they handed the land to their children, and their children gave them several hundred jin of grain each year and 20 to 30 yuan per month. Although not well-off, life was still manageable, because although they no longer farmed, they still grew vegetables, still raised pigs and chickens, and still engaged in side work within their ability, and even at 90 they still tended a vegetable garden and raised chickens, because they had land and because they wanted to gain meaning from labor and exercise their bodies through labor.

Urban elderly people differ from rural ones in that cities no longer have land that allows them to be self-sufficient, and in cities almost everything costs money. With only a few dozen yuan of old-age money per month, urban elderly people would only starve to death.

In this sense, with the same old-age security, rural elderly people would exclaim that the money is more than they can spend, while urban elderly people would complain that they would starve to death.

IV.

Migrant workers who enter the city go there when young, hoping through their own efforts and luck to settle down in the city with dignity. But China's current stage of economic development determines that the vast majority of farmers entering the city cannot obtain the employment and income conditions for dignified urban settlement. Fortunately, when migrant workers enter the city, their parents are still working in the countryside; farming income is not much, but it is enough to solve the problem of food and clothing. When young people enter the city, it is best if they earn money; it does not matter if they do not, as long as they can support themselves. Young people who have just entered the city are almost all “moonlight clan,” because their parents do not rely on them to earn money for support, and they also need to have a luxurious romance while young. When they have children and face pressure, they become frugal and consider the long term. If they are lucky, they gradually become part of the city and may even bring their elderly parents to the city.

——Of course, such examples are extremely few, accounting for less than 5% of migrant workers entering the city. If their luck is not good enough, they send their children to their rural parents to raise, and the couple wholeheartedly earn money in the city, placing their life hopes on their children, without the heavy economic pressure of supporting their parents. If by middle age they still cannot settle down with dignity in the city, they begin to consider returning to their hometown. Although being able to settle down with dignity in the city is best, if they cannot obtain at least a decent life in the city, they would rather choose to return to their hometown. This rural hometown at least has land to farm; it is the place where they were born, the place where generations of their ancestors lived, and the final destination of life. Only in their hometown do they have a sense of security physically and spiritually. Relatives and friends are all in their hometown, and the hometown is a society of acquaintances, which contains social capital. In short, if they cannot make it in the city, returning to their hometown is not a bad choice.