Earth Era

There was still more than half an hour before the meeting started, and all the participants had already come to sit in the conference room. The meeting was attended by more than 300 people, including all high-level government officials, and no one was absent.

People know very well what the topic of this meeting is and what the head of state Shen Qingyuan wants to do. Different people have different views. This meeting is a battlefield where different views clash. There are no swords, bombs and artillery fire here, but people know that the intensity of this battle will not be worse than any other battle. Including the participants present, the fate of almost everyone will be changed in this meeting.

Some people were sitting upright with serious expressions on their faces, some were nervous and looking around, and some were constantly talking in low voices with the people around them. Almost everyone's expressions were different, but the only thing that remained unchanged was the heavy atmosphere in the venue. It is like a huge stone pressing on everyone's heart, making people feel a little difficult to breathe.

Suddenly, the discussion in the venue disappeared at the same time. Almost everyone raised their heads and looked towards the front of the venue. Under people's gaze, Shen Qingyuan looked indifferent and walked steadily from behind the scenes to the rostrum.

Without any nonsense, Shen Qingyuan directly pointed out the theme of this meeting: "Everyone should have read the information and know what kind of situation our civilization is facing now. Dr. Huang Yuan suggested that we increase investment in scientific research and gather The whole civilization can seek breakthroughs in basic science and find ways to save civilization. I personally think this is necessary, but we still need to discuss the specifics. If anyone has different opinions, you can put them forward. Let’s discuss it together.”

After Shen Qingyuan's words, silence remained in the venue, with no one speaking. Shen Qingyuan slowly scanned the entire venue, waited for two minutes, and then said with a faint smile: "It seems that everyone has no opinions, so let's go directly to the voting session."

Shen Qingyuan tapped twice on the conference table, and a huge screen appeared behind him. There are three options on it, namely agree, oppose and abstain. After the voting began, the number of yes votes increased rapidly, and the number of abstentions also increased, but at a much slower rate than the yes votes. Only the number of negative votes is always zero.

Voting ends in five minutes.

"Very good, there are two hundred and fifty-seven votes in favor, forty-nine abstentions, and zero votes against. Then this matter has been decided."

The confidential secretary quickly recorded the result and added the government key. From this moment on, this decision has legal effect and no one can violate it. After that, he distributed the results to each participant's personal computer.

"Let's start the next agenda, which is how to specifically implement the resource tilting plan. Wu Wei, you are the chairman of the Economic Reform Committee, please tell me your views."

Wu Wei took out the documents he had prepared long ago - these documents had been reviewed by Shen Qingyuan and received Shen Qingyuan's approval, and said: "As we all know, breakthroughs in basic science are not easy and require continuous and large investment of resources. And The reality requires that we must obtain these breakthroughs as quickly as possible. During this period, I have discussed with many scientists, economists, sociologists, etc., and we all agreed that resources should be invested in basic scientific research. It is more appropriate to set the ratio at about 40% of the total annual economic output. If it is higher than this ratio, the people's right to survive will be threatened, and deaths due to insufficient resources may occur in the civilization. If Below this ratio, the goal of obtaining a breakthrough in the shortest time cannot be achieved.

Of course, we cannot achieve this ratio overnight, as that would cause social unrest. In the planning, we plan to slowly implement the following steps, starting with the collection of residence tax..."

Wu Wei looked around the venue, his vision full of high-spirited fighting desire: "In the past, the right to live was provided to the public free of charge as a public welfare. Whether it was the transformation of the planet's environment, the construction of large-scale closed ground cities, or The construction of large-scale space bases will consume a huge amount of government finances, but under the current policy, people only need to pay very small public fees-such as energy fees, water fees, garbage transfer and processing fees, etc. Right of residence. These fees are not even enough to maintain the daily operations of a space base or city. Now that the situation has changed, we believe that this policy is no longer appropriate.

We plan to collect residence tax from people based on their living environment. All residential locations, whether ground cities or space bases, will be divided into five levels from one to five according to the level of human settlements. Among them, fifth-level cities only provide the most basic living conditions, but have the lowest taxes and fees. The urban environment is the best, but taxes and fees are the highest. People can choose the city to live in based on their income level. "

Having said this, Wu Wei stopped temporarily. Shen Qingyuan gestured: "Do you have any questions?"

Minister of Industry and Science Han Luochang asked coldly: "Excuse me, what are the standards for first-class cities? How to tax them? What about fifth-class cities?"

Wu Wei replied: "A first-class city can be compared to a capital city. There are complete security guarantees in the city, and there are large-scale man-made landscapes and infrastructure. As for taxes and fees, it is initially planned to collect 10 million human coins per person per year. Fifth-class cities The city is analogous to the living environment of heavy cargo ship crews. There are no or very few public activity places. The residences are collective dormitories or small single rooms. Residents need to take turns to provide labor for urban public welfare work. It is initially planned to collect 3,000 human currency per person per year. . It should be noted that this is only the most basic residence tax, which does not include house rental fees, energy usage fees, etc."

Nowadays, one can become a middle-class person with an income of 500,000 human coins per year. This tax amount is not considered low, but it is probably still within the range of people's tolerance.

Han Luochang sneered: "With this charging standard, I should consider moving from Capital City now."

“Officials with a certain level, staff with special permission from the government, artists, scientists, workers with certain honors, etc., will have certain exemptions in the collection of residence tax.”

The rest just took notes quickly and did not ask questions. Shen Qingyuan waited for a moment and signaled to Wu Wei: "You continue."

"The second is the adjustment of taxes such as commodity tax, business tax, personal and corporate income tax. After analysis and research, we decided to divide it into several steps, and ultimately increase the existing tax rate by at least three times."

“Strictly control luxury goods that waste a lot of public resources but are in demand by only a few people. On the basis of limiting their total production, we will increase the existing tax rate to more than ten times.”

"As well as adjustments to social public insurance and public welfare, we initially believe that..."

"After research on people's entertainment and leisure needs, we believe that we should use various means to encourage them when necessary, and gradually guide people's needs from reality to the virtual world. We have contacted several computer technology companies And negotiated to develop a super online game with a simulation level of up to 85%. All leisure and entertainment needs that were originally in reality can be transferred to the game. In this way, we will be able to save days. A huge amount of infrastructure costs and unnecessary waste of resources. After all, a ten kilogram king crab produced in a simulated wild environment will consume resources equivalent to tens of thousands of human coins. In an online game, its cost is only a piece of code. . But the pleasure they can provide is almost the same."

Wu Wei spoke slowly, and it took him more than an hour to outline the entire economic reform plan. But this is only the main categories, and the details have not been expanded.

During this process, people kept asking questions, and Wu Wei answered them immediately. But no one raised any objection or agreement. Because this is not a discussion period.

It wasn't until Wu Wei finished speaking that Shen Qingyuan said: "Now let's enter the discussion session. Everyone can put forward any opinions they have."

Han Luochang was the first to apply to speak. After obtaining Shen Qingyuan's consent, Han Luochang said: "Head of State, I agree with economic reforms and allocating resources to basic scientific research. But I don't agree with such a strong effort. This will almost certainly trigger social turmoil and cause problems that cannot be suppressed. Strong opposition and protests. If a large-scale wave of protests does occur, we will have to spend more resources to control it, which is not worth the gain."

Shen Qingyuan didn't speak, as if he didn't hear him. The light in Wu Wei's eyes burst out instantly, and his high-spirited desire to fight finally found a breakthrough at this moment: "Minister Han, although I respect your personality and abilities, I have to say that your views on this matter are really Not very clever. First of all, the real conditions do not leave us too long. Regardless of the Phoenix Star or the idiotization of our descendants, we must do our best. Secondly, how do you think this will definitely trigger a large-scale wave of protests, and Will we have to spend more resources to suppress it? I once formed an investigation team composed of experts from the Academy of Social Sciences to conduct a special investigation on this matter. The data they gave me was..."

Obviously, Wu Wei had long expected that there would be a battle above today's meeting. But whether it is various detailed data, theoretical and logical support, he is confident that he has made complete preparations.

Wu Wei talked with great enthusiasm, while Shen Qingyuan lowered his eyes, as if all these things had nothing to do with him.