#长文创作激励计划#
Sources: All information stated in this article is based on reliable information, and is summarized at the end of this article
The slowdown in economic growth in recent years has given rise to a pair of contradictions: on the one hand, there are thousands of troops vying for the establishment of examinations, and on the other hand, the country needs to downsize its personnel due to huge financial pressures.
This phenomenon means that the reform of the staffing of teachers, doctors, civil servants, etc. is imminent, but the difference is who will be prioritized?
A large team of financial supporters
According to data published by the media, in 2022, China's financial support personnel have exceeded 80 million.
Among them, there are about 7.1 million civil servants, including about 1.8 million police officers, and about 13 million staff members of public service units, party and masses, trade unions, and women's federations.
There are about 31 million people in other careers, such as about 19 million teachers and more than 11 million medical staff.
Plus more than 8 million supernumerary personnel, including about 4 million auxiliary police officers. The number of financially supported workers in the country is close to 60 million.
If we add in the more than 20 million retirees, the total number of people supported by the government reaches more than 80 million. Corresponding to such a large financial support team is naturally an increasingly overburdened financial expenditure.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the average salary of various types of employees in urban units in 2023 ranges from a maximum of 198,000 yuan to a minimum of 75,000 yuan.
Taking the median number of 108,000 yuan as the average annual salary of the financial supporters, the total expenditure is about 8.6 trillion yuan.
The general public budget revenue for the whole of 2023 is rounded to 21.7 trillion yuan, that is, the expenditure on financial support personnel accounts for nearly 40% of the total fiscal revenue.
It is no wonder that the largest daily expenditure of the vast majority of local government finances is basically to pay teachers' salaries and pensions.
The most immediate consequence of this situation is the shortfall of other general public budget expenditures. In short, all the money is used to pay salaries, and there is less money for reproduction and construction.
Without input in reproduction and construction, fiscal and tax revenues in the second year will be negatively affected, and the proportion of expenditures for financial support personnel in total fiscal revenues will be increased again.
Such a vicious circle will lead to a decline in the overall social and economic efficiency, and the pressure on the country's finances will also increase.
While the government can alleviate this problem by widening the budget deficit and issuing bonds, it is not a long-term solution. For example, in the past decade, the fiscal deficit has widened from 1.1 trillion yuan in 2013 to 5.8 trillion yuan in 2023.
However, the proportion of expenditure on financial support has not decreased, but has continued to expand in line with the adjustment of wages and pension income.
It seems that it is necessary to start from both sources of income and reduce expenditure at the same time in order to effectively control this growing expenditure and deficit. Some people have even made an interesting comparison for this, listing the ratio of government and people in different periods.
In the Han Dynasty, the ratio of officials to people was 1 to 8,000, in the Tang Dynasty it was 1 to 4,000, in the Ming Dynasty it was more than 1 to 2,000, and in the Qing Dynasty it became less than 1 to 1,000.
Even after the founding of the People's Republic of China, this change is striking. In the original 1949, the ratio was 1:294, but by 1987 it had become 1:67.
At the beginning of this century, in 2000, the ratio fell again to 1:28. In 2022, the ratio reached a maximum of 1:7.
Of course, the public-private ratio for 2022 is the result after deducting the elderly above retirement age, children and adolescents under working age, and people with disabilities who are not included in the labor force.
It is conceivable that such a high burden is extremely heavy for both the country and the people. Therefore, it has become a top priority to streamline the financial support personnel.
Streamlining is not about downsizing, it's about redundancy
Now that streamlining is a necessity and an inevitable trend, where is the right place to start?
Some people feel that we should start with the largest number of teachers and medical staff. In fact, it is not, because as long as every profession and position is a social need, there is no superfluity.
Teachers are responsible for teaching and educating people, and as long as there are enough students, they must have a corresponding number of teachers. On the contrary, once the number of students declines, the teachers will naturally reduce in the optimization process, and there is no need to deliberately cut them.
Medical staff are also responsible for treating diseases and saving lives, and no one will be more useful than doctors when people's health needs to be maintained.
On the contrary, many people who do not take care of medical care but can act as managers and give instructions to professionals are the objects that must be optimized.
The vast number of grassroots civil servants are responsible for public order and services, and are also an indispensable part of the normal operation of society.
From the above perspective, teachers and medical staff do not need and cannot deliberately lay off employees, but only need to wait for the natural optimization of the market.
All the government can do with teachers and health care workers is to guarantee enough jobs and allow the market economy jobs to absorb the outflow of teachers and health care workers.
In fact, the government is well aware of this, so they have also focused on streamlining institutions and civil servants.
It is inevitable that there will be a phenomenon in the ranks of civil servants in the administrative system that "there are many people who are pampered and those who are excellent, but there are few people who do specific things."
In the setup of certain organs and units, it is inevitable that there will be redundancy of departments and a serious imbalance in the ratio of officers and men.
It has been reported by the media that the total number of people in a science and technology department in a certain province is only 82, of which 61 are cadres of all sizes, and only 21 are ordinary civil servants.
In addition, at the local government level, it is normal for municipal leaders to have five or six deputy positions, and in many places, there will even be more than ten deputy positions, and this phenomenon is not unique.
These civil servants, who have caused waste of public service management costs and inefficient administrative services, are the targets that must be discovered and eliminated in a timely manner.
Of course, some local governments have also taken active action, using some counties with small populations as pilot institutions for institutional reform, and have begun to gradually streamline civil servants.
Perhaps with the slow roll-out of some successful pilots, China's economy will soon have an opportunity to travel lightly!
Although there is a consensus on streamlining the financial support staff, there is a consensus from top to bottom. However, the streamlined staff also needs a healthy operation.
And how to build a good future, this point also requires the joint efforts of all Chinese! After all, after all, it will take a long time, and all parties will work together!
Resources:
Luohe and Jiaozuo completed the reshaping reform of municipal institutions - Henan People's Congress
Annual average wages of employed persons in urban units in 2023 - National Bureau of Statistics
Why are civil servants "too many officials and few soldiers" - The Beijing News