The current urban-rural dual structure is the protection of farmers.

I.

In rural surveys, chatting with the elderly, the elderly showed great gratitude to the country. The reason is that now farming does not pay taxes, life is good, and the state's new rural cooperative medical system and new agricultural insurance did not dare to think about it in the past, but now it has become a reality. According to the new agricultural insurance, for people over the age of 60, the state subsidy is at least 55 yuan per person per month, which is really better than the son.

The gratitude of the rural elderly not only stems from the fact that the current rural area is perhaps the richest period of material life in Chinese history, but also that they have a very realistic comparison. When the elderly parents in rural areas have the ability to cultivate the land, they generally support themselves, and their children do not bear the obligation to support their parents. When they are old and no longer cultivate the land (but usually engage in a courtyard economy), they hand over the contracted land to their children, who begin to undertake the obligation of support, giving their elderly parents about 500 jin of grain a year and pocket money of 20 to 30 yuan a month. The monthly allowance of 20 or 30 yuan is not enough for oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar, which is obviously too little, but our national survey found that children only give so much cash to their parents, so the elderly across the country "have food to eat, but no money to spend." Now, the new national agricultural insurance pays at least 55 yuan a month for all rural elderly people aged 60 or above, and 110 yuan a month for husband and wife, which is higher than the alimony paid by their children. How could the rural elderly not be grateful to the country?

The new agricultural insurance, which is only 55 yuan per person per month, has unexpectedly made the elderly in rural areas feel that the country is better than their sons, which is very grateful. This is because many people think that the new agricultural insurance gives too little security to farmers, and the Internet is filled with mistrust and even dissatisfaction with the country. It can be described as a clear distinction. Why is there such a contrast? What does this contrast mean? This problem deserves in-depth discussion.

2.

The new agricultural insurance of only 55 yuan per month makes the rural elderly extremely grateful, one of the reasons is that in the past, the rural elderly did not get this kind of free old-age security provided by the state, and their old-age support depends on their families. If their children are unfilial, the elderly will be absolutely helpless and even have to die. At present, although there is not much new agricultural insurance, it can alleviate their plight of lack of money to a certain extent. In the past, they did not have vested interests or formed rigid interests. Now that the state gives them money every month, it is pie in the sky. Of course, they will be very happy and grateful. On the other hand, if 55 yuan a month is paid out now, the elderly in rural areas have formed the expectation that the state will hand out more and more money, and it is expected that the state will send more and more money, but the state will no longer give out money, the elderly will be very disappointed and will feel abandoned by the state.

The elderly in rural areas have not formed vested interests, and they are very satisfied with the new agricultural insurance of 55 yuan per month, which shows that there is still a lot of flexibility in China's social structure. It is the flexible social structure that makes China have a huge room for interest adjustment, so that China can deal with various crises and difficulties, spend its main resources on developing strategic industries and complete industrial upgrading, so as to get out of the middle-income trap.

3.

At present, the integration of urban and rural old-age security is being promoted, which means that old-age security is no longer divided into urban and rural areas, but the integration of urban and rural areas, the same. In fact, there may be some differences between urban and rural areas. Before the implementation of the new agricultural insurance policy, when the elderly in rural areas were still able to farm land, they did not need to be supported by their children. By the age of 70, the elderly couple grow two or three mu of land and start a sideline business to raise some chickens. They earn a few thousand yuan a year, but there is basically no expenditure, because they grow their own vegetables, live in their own house, and are self-sufficient and do not spend money. They also support their children every year, especially those who give lucky money to their grandchildren. When they are in their 70s and the land is poor, they hand over the land to their children, who give them hundreds of jin of grain a year and 20 to 30 yuan a month. Although they are not rich, they can still get by because they still grow vegetables and still raise pigs and chickens. They are still engaged in sideline business as far as they can, and even when they are 90 years old, they have to grow vegetable gardens and raise chickens, because they have land, and because they want to get meaning from their labor. Exercise through labor.

The urban elderly are different from the rural areas in that there is no land for them to be self-sufficient, and almost everything in the city costs money. With tens of yuan of pension money every month, the urban elderly can only starve to death.

In this sense, the urban and rural elderly have the same old-age security, the rural elderly will say that the money can not be used up, and the urban elderly will starve to death.

4.

Migrant workers go to the city when they are young, they hope to live in a decent place in the city through their own efforts and luck. However, the current stage of China's economic development determines that the vast majority of urban farmers are unable to obtain decent employment and income conditions to live in the city. Fortunately, when migrant workers go to the city, their parents are still working in the countryside, and their income from farming is small, but it is enough to solve the problem of food and clothing. When young people go to the city, it's best to make money. It doesn't matter if they can't make money, as long as they can support themselves. Almost all the young people who have just entered the city are "moonlight clans", because their parents do not rely on them to earn a living, and they also need to fall in love with luxury when they are young. When they have children and are under pressure, they become frugal and think about the long term. If you are lucky, you will gradually become a member of the city, and even bring your elderly parents to the city.

Of course, such examples are rare, accounting for less than 5% of migrant workers in cities. If they are not lucky enough, they send their children to their parents in rural areas to raise them. the couple are bent on making money in the city and pin their life hopes on their children. they have no heavy financial pressure to support their parents. When they were still unable to live respectfully in the city in middle age, they began to consider returning to their hometown. Although it is best to live honorably and comfortably in the city, if they cannot get a decent life in the city, they would rather return to their hometown. The rural hometown at least has land to grow. It is the place where they are born, the place where they have lived for generations, and the destination of life. When you get to your hometown, you will have sense of security both physically and mentally. Relatives and friends are in their hometown, the hometown is an acquaintance society, this acquaintance society has social capital. In short, the city can not survive, returning home is a good choice.

5.

In other words, it is the existence of the countryside and the land in the hands of farmers, who have obtained the free space to advance and retreat between urban and rural areas through the "half-work and half-farming structure based on intergenerational division of labor". Even in the same financial crisis as in 2008, 20 million migrant workers lost their jobs, and these migrant workers can return home smoothly. If the unemployed migrant workers have no home to return, the state must provide them with unemployment insurance. If the state cannot provide unemployment insurance for such a large number of people, these people will not be able to survive. Social disorder and even social unrest may lead to the economic collapse expected by some Westerners.

Obviously, the existence of the system that can accommodate farmers who cannot enter the city and allow them to return to their hometown makes China's social structure have great flexibility and can cope with the impact of various crises. The countryside has become the stabilizer and reservoir of China's modernization.

Almost all developing countries are faced with such a dilemma: with economic growth, the interest demands of all kinds of people, social strata and classes are also rising rapidly, and the surplus of economic growth is distributed among various groups and social strata and classes. all the distributed interests become vested interests and form an irreversible rigid interest structure. The growth rate of economic surplus can not catch up with the growth rate of interest demands of all kinds of people and various strata and classes, resulting in fierce competition and hard collision of interests among different groups, strata and classes, resulting in serious social division and political struggle. Development leads to instability, economic growth is affected by political conflicts, and the middle-income trap is formed.

There is a protective structure for farmers between urban and rural areas in China, which makes China's social structure flexible and enables the country to relatively independently distribute economic growth surplus, so that China may get out of the middle-income trap.

The current urban-rural dual structure does not restrict farmers to enter the city, whether farmers can go to the city and live in the city is no longer a question of system, but whether they can find opportunities in the market economy. In other words, at present, the only obstacle to whether farmers can enter the city is whether they have the employment and income conditions that they can live in a decent and comfortable life in the city. However, the urban-rural dual structure still restricts urban people's access to the countryside and capital to the countryside, for example, urban people cannot go to the countryside to buy farmers' houses.

Some people say that not allowing urban people to go to the countryside limits the effective allocation of resources, which is not a market economy behavior, and will reduce the efficiency of social resource allocation. The question is, are the current farmers' housing, homestead and land contractual management rights the factors of production in the market economy, or are they both the basic security and social insurance of farmers? If it is the basic security and social insurance of farmers, can the basic security trade freely? Obviously, the basic guarantee cannot be traded freely, because this is the bottom line of survival. Urban people go to rural areas to buy houses because they need to find a means to store value for excess capital, or to have more leisure places in rural areas. For farmers, once they lose their rural housing, they will no longer be able to return to their hometown if they fail to enter the city. They have lost the foundation to settle down. Not a farmer, but in the current stage of China's economic development, the vast majority of 900 million farmers can not live respectfully in cities, farmers lose the way to return home, China's current flexible social structure does not exist. In the narrow and cramped space of the city, fierce conflicts between different people, different classes and classes will be taken for granted. At that time, because of the loss of the stabilizer and reservoir of China's modernization, it was impossible to get out of the middle-income trap.

We must realize that the current urban-rural dual structure is no longer the structure of depriving farmers of their interests, but the protection of the largest vulnerable groups of farmers in China. This protective structure is the key to the great flexibility of China's social structure.

VI.

At present, there is a serious misunderstanding of the relationship between urban and rural areas in Chinese academic and policy departments, and the most typical manifestation of this misunderstanding is the so-called Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient is calculated on the basis of income. In a modern market economy country, all elements can be calculated as income, so the income level of different people in this country can be calculated more accurately and the Gini coefficient can be calculated. However, at present, there is not only a huge self-sufficient economy in China's rural areas, but also rural housing, homestead and land contractual management rights that fail to enter the market, which do not enter the market and thus fail to take into account the interests of farmers' income. of course, it is not the original interest, but actually improves the farmers' quality of life and happiness index. If such a benefit is calculated in terms of purchasing power parity, I am afraid that the current grass-roots coefficient in China will be very different. If we simply use the Gini coefficient of market economy countries to compare China, of course, it will lead to the confusion of why China has not collapsed, which is constantly asked by the Western media.

Starting with the misunderstanding of the life of rural farmers, this paper tries to break the current urban-rural dual structure which is actually protecting farmers through the policy practice of urban-rural integration. the result must be to destroy the "institutional dividend", which is the most important thing to maintain the flexibility of social structure in China. Once there is no longer a guaranteed urban-rural dual structure, once the rural homestead, housing and land contractual management rights, as rural basic security and social insurance, are regarded as property and can be traded on the market, in order to "effectively realize" farmers' property rights, then the farmers who fail to enter the city will lose their way back, and any crisis will occur again in the process of development in China. There will be a huge inflexible structural force to strengthen its intensity, and as a result, Chinese society will fall into the middle-income trap of violent conflicts between different groups and different classes and the iron law of instability caused by development.