1, what is the "olive type" distribution pattern? The so-called "olive-shaped" distribution pattern, also known as "spindle-shaped" distribution pattern, refers to the income distribution structure of a social group with the middle class as the main body and a small proportion of rich and poor, which is "football-shaped" with two small ends and a big middle.
At present, after hundreds of years of economic and social development, developed countries with market economy have basically formed an "olive-shaped" distribution pattern in which the middle class is the majority and the rich and the relatively poor are the minority. Among them, the middle class in most countries accounts for more than 60%, and some countries even reach ngo%%. The "middle class" or "middle class" was first defined by Wright Mills, a famous American sociologist, in the book White-collar-American Middle Class published in 195 1. He pointed out that in industrialized western countries, a new group-"middle class" has emerged, including middle-level administrative officials in government departments, middle-level managers and staff in state-owned and private monopoly enterprises, and professional and technical personnel in other fields. This class has the following characteristics: ~ subordinate to a huge institution, engaged in administrative management and technical services; Second, there is no fixed private property and no right to distribute property to service organizations; Third, make a living by knowledge and technology, and get a relatively stable and generous annual salary or monthly salary; Fourth, conservative thinking, monotonous life machinery and lack of revolutionary enthusiasm, but in order to maintain the image commensurate with its status, it refuses vulgarity and vulgarity. Since then, with the social changes and development in western countries, the concept of the middle class has been further expanded and developed. Today, the middle class in western countries generally refers to a social group whose income and wealth are around the social average, whose income sources are stable and their lives are relatively rich. They are composed of skilled workers in gold collar, white collar, gray collar and blue collar, and have technical secondary school education or above. At the same time, they have mature values and behavioral norms, which are conducive to social harmony and stability.
2. The difference between "olive type" distribution mode and other distribution modes. "Olive-shaped" distribution pattern is gradually formed in developed countries with market economy after hundreds of years of development, government macro-control and laws and regulations, such as Sweden, Germany, Britain, the United States, Japan and other countries. However, before that, there were other distribution patterns. At present, many developing countries actually have other distribution patterns different from "olive type", mainly "pyramid type", "dumbbell type" and "inverted T type". To this end, we must first analyze the differences between these distribution patterns and the "olive-type" distribution pattern, as well as their respective influences and functions on economy, society and even politics and culture.
First of all, we look at the "pyramid" distribution pattern, which means that the distribution of residents' income and wealth in a country or region presents a "pyramid" shape with a huge base and a small pyramid. Among them, there are many low-and middle-income people whose income and wealth are lower than the social average, and some of them account for more than 70% or even higher of the total number of residents, while the proportion of middle-and high-income people and high-income people is gradually decreasing, especially high-income people and excessive income people.
Secondly, we look at the "dumbbell-shaped" distribution pattern, which means that a country, a region or a society presents a dumbbell shape, with many rich people, many poor people or people without money, and few middle-income people. Under this distribution pattern, the proportion of high, middle and low income groups is roughly 3: 2: 5. Among them, the poor are generally greater than the rich.
Thirdly, when we look at the "inverted T-shaped" distribution pattern, it refers to a country, a region and a society, which shows that poor or low-income groups account for the vast majority, and the number of middle-and high-income groups is small. Among them, there is almost no difference in the income level of the poor or low-income groups, which looks like a wide and long flat plate, while the high-income and ultra-high-income groups look like a stick with the same thickness. This distribution pattern is called "upside down" by economist Mr. Zhao Haijun in his book "What is Controlling China Economy", which is mainly manifested in the fact that a few people at the top have a lot of wealth. Usually, a few rich people have a lot of bad assets, and high-income people account for about 20% ~ 30% of the total residents. There is not much difference between low-income people and poor residents, which can be regarded as the same category, accounting for the vast majority of the total number of residents, about 70% ~ 80%. So its structure is shaped like an "inverted gyro", with an upper cone and a lower cylinder, which is divided into two stages.
The basic characteristics of the above distribution model are that a few people live in the upper class of society and occupy a lot of social wealth, while most people live in the lower class of society and have only a small amount of wealth; The middle-income class is small in number and wealth, and the whole society is polarized. These distribution structures are all unstable or very unstable distribution patterns and social class structures, which may lead to group or social conflicts due to serious social class differentiation and contradictions among various interest groups, and are easily bewitched and incited by some extreme social trends of thought, leading to social turmoil and social crisis and even the subversion of the whole society, thus causing the interruption of the social development process.
Judging from the historical development of human society, the development and changes of the basic pattern of modern national distribution have generally gone through the following processes, that is, from "inverted T" (such as slave society and feudal society) to "pyramid" (such as early and middle capitalist society) and then to "olive" (such as developed countries with modern market economy).
In slave society and feudal society, slave owners or landlords and nobles occupy the vast majority of social wealth, while slaves or peasants have barely survived or little means of subsistence. The contradiction between the two social classes is extremely acute, and there is no other social class or citizen class to cushion it. So slave riots or peasant uprisings occur periodically, and civil wars and regime changes occur again and again. History has proved that this "inverted T-shaped" social distribution pattern cannot maintain the normal operation and stability of society.
In the early and middle stages of the development of capitalist society, the bourgeoisie brutally exploited the working class and occupied a large amount of social wealth, while the huge working class had only a small amount of means of subsistence, which caused the resistance of the working class and led to class struggles between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and some even developed into civil wars. Under the unremitting struggle of the proletariat, the bourgeoisie was forced to adjust the distribution pattern, began to establish a social security system, gradually raised the wages of workers, and gradually formed a "pyramid-shaped" distribution pattern in which the lower class was the majority, the middle-income class was the minority, and the rich were the minority. "Pyramid" distribution pattern. Although the overall social stability has been basically maintained, various social contradictions and conflicts often occur and sometimes turn into violent social unrest. Therefore, when the capitalist countries entered the middle of the 20th century, they once again adjusted the "pyramid" distribution pattern and began to gradually build the "olive" distribution pattern.
It is generally believed that the economies of western developed countries are in a stable or nearly stable state. Its market mechanism, industrial structure, production and consumption are all in this state, so people's income is relatively stable. Due to the formation of different income levels and structures, all social classes have been formed. In this stable state, the social stratum structure divided by income is an "olive-shaped" structure with big middle and small two ends. It is a reasonable and scientific structure in a stable state. Usually it can be roughly divided into five layers: first, the ultra-high income class; Second, high-income or high-income class; Third, the middle-income class; The fourth is the low-income class or low-income class, and the fifth is the poor class. Among them, the broad middle-income class includes upper income class, middle income class and lower income class; The middle-income class in a narrow sense only refers to the middle-income class, but its number is large, accounting for a large proportion of the total population.
Sociological theory holds that the "olive" social structure is a stable and healthy social model, which is also fair and reasonable. It not only constitutes the economic structure of a country's society, but also affects its economic and political development. More importantly, it affects the ethos, mental state and value orientation of the whole society.
Most scholars believe that the distribution pattern of modern society or industrialized society should be an "olive type" with two small ends and a big middle, with a huge social middle class, that is, the middle class. In a society with a huge social middle layer, the allocation of social resources is generally reasonable, and the gap in economic distribution is relatively small. Most social members can obtain relatively rich economic income and fair development opportunities in the process of economic development. Life is relatively stable, and members of society generally benefit from the modernization process. Such a society is the most stable and sustainable. The social middle layer is usually called the "stabilizer" of society. The huge middle class has a powerful regulating function to the polarization between the rich and the poor and a powerful buffering function to the conflict of social interests. It can play the role of "buffer layer" between the top and bottom of society, can alleviate fierce social contradictions and conflicts, and is conducive to social stability and sustainable development. In a society where the social structure is dominated by the middle-income class, the social mainstream consciousness tends to be more stable, and it is not easy to be influenced and impacted by extreme ideological trends. At the same time, the middle-income class has a large amount of funds and property, and the consumption demand is large and can continue to grow, so it can promote and expand domestic demand and form a virtuous circle of high income, high welfare, high consumption and high output.
Therefore, the "olive" distribution model is a relatively fair, reasonable and open distribution model in modern society. This distribution pattern is naturally formed in the economic and social development, and many modern developed countries in the world have this distribution structure. A truly modern and stable country must be an "olive" structure with the middle-income class as the main body and low-income and high-income people accounting for a small proportion, rather than a "pyramid", "dumbbell" or "inverted T".
3. It is of great significance to build an "olive-shaped" distribution pattern in China.
Since the reform and opening up, with the development and gradual deepening of economic system reform, China's income distribution system has also undergone a series of reforms and achieved great results. The system of distribution according to work and contribution according to production factors has been basically established, which has greatly increased the income of workers and promoted economic development. According to the data of China statistical year, the per capita GNP of China is only 38 1 RMB. By 2008, China's per capita GNP has reached about 22,698 yuan s5, which is 59.6 times that of 1978. At the same time, the income of urban residents and rural residents continued to grow. In 2008, the annual per capita disposable income of urban residents in China reached 1578 1 yuan, 46 times that of 1978 (343 yuan), with an average annual increase of 7.2% after deducting the factors of urban price changes in the same period. In 2008, the per capita net income of rural residents was 476 1 yuan, which was 36 times that of 1.978( 1.34 yuan). After deducting the factors of rural price changes in the same period, the average annual increase was 7. 1%. However, there are also many problems in China's distribution field, some of which are quite serious, mainly unfair distribution and excessive income gap, which have caused the unreasonable distribution pattern in China. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attached great importance to this.
Regarding the current distribution pattern in China, some experts and scholars believe that the current income distribution pattern in China is not "olive-shaped" but "pyramid-shaped", and it is a pyramid with a very large base. Low-income people are a large group in the whole society. At the same time, some experts and scholars believe that China's income distribution structure is "inverted T", which is worse than the "pyramid" structure. In addition, a few experts and scholars believe that the current income distribution structure in China is "dumbbell-shaped". Obviously, the current distribution pattern of China, whether pyramid-shaped, inverted T-shaped or dumbbell-shaped, is quite different from the olive-shaped distribution pattern. With the tenth five-year plan for national economic and social development coming to an end and the twelfth five-year plan being formulated, China is entering a new stage of income distribution reform. Building an "olive-shaped" distribution pattern has become an important task to safeguard social fairness and justice and promote social harmony and stability, which is an inevitable requirement for the development of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.
4. To sum up, it is of great significance to construct an "olive type" distribution pattern:
First, there is an urgent need to implement the spirit of the CPC Central Committee on income distribution reform and the established major policies. "The purpose of socialism is to make the people of the whole country rich, not polarized", and the distribution structure in line with this instruction is "two small heads and a big middle". Since the reform and opening up, all the national congresses of our party have made a series of instructions and put forward a series of requirements for the reform of income distribution. In particular, the 16th and 17th National Congresses of our party have formulated a series of major policies on deepening the reform of income distribution. Among them, the report of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly requires "straightening out the distribution relationship" and "expanding the proportion of middle-income people with the goal of * * *"; The Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee explicitly demanded "strengthening the macro-adjustment of income distribution and paying more attention to social equity on the basis of economic development". By 2020, "a reasonable and orderly income distribution pattern will basically take shape". The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further clearly pointed out that "the relationship between efficiency and fairness should be properly handled in both primary distribution and redistribution, and redistribution should pay more attention to fairness". At the beginning of this year, it was instructed to adjust the distribution structure and form an "olive-shaped" pattern. It can be seen that realizing * * * common prosperity, pursuing fairness and justice in income distribution and building an "olive-shaped" distribution pattern are the major policies and goals that our party and government have long determined. Therefore, it has become a major political task for us to strive to accomplish this major policy.
Second, there is an urgent need to solve the outstanding problems in China's current income distribution field. At present, the prominent problems in the field of income distribution in China are the widening income gap and unfair distribution. From the perspective of urban and rural areas, the income ratio of urban and rural residents has increased from 1.86:I in 0985 to 333:1in 2009; Regionally, in 2008, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Shanghai (26,675 yuan) and Gansu Province (10969 yuan) was the highest, and the income difference was 15706 yuan. The ratio of the two is 2.43: 1, and the gap is bigger than before; In terms of industries, in 2008, the industry with the highest average wage of employees was the financial industry, which was 6 184 1 yuan, and the industry with the lowest was agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, which was 12958 yuan. The highest is 4.27 times the lowest, which is 2.42 times larger than the ratio of the highest wage level to the lowest wage level in the industry of 1998. From the perspective of different groups, according to the data calculated by Shi Li, a professor at Beijing Normal University, in 2007, the income ratio of the highest income group 10% residents to the lowest income group 10% residents was 23=|, which was higher than that in previous years. On the other hand, the wage income gap within the working class has also continued to widen. For example, in 2007, the salary gap between corporate executives and other positions widened. Among them, the highest annual salary of executives reached 66 million yuan, which was 2647 times the national average salary of that year. The average annual salary of senior executives of listed companies 18 financial enterprises is 35 1. 1 10,000 yuan, which is 7 1 times the average salary of employees in the financial industry and 1.8 times the average salary of employees in China. The above income gap does not meet the national conditions of China's primary development stage, nor does it meet the requirements of China's socialist countries. Compared with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan Province Province, China's treasure island, some existing income gaps in China, such as industry income gap and group income gap, have aroused people's dissatisfaction and become a hot issue of social concern. Therefore, it is urgent to solve these problems by deepening the reform of income distribution system, constructing olive distribution pattern and restraining the widening income gap.
The third is the urgent need to promote China's economic restructuring and expand domestic demand. In social and economic activities, production, exchange, distribution and consumption are closely linked. Under the "olive" distribution pattern, the middle income is medium.
The proportion of the population is the majority. Historical experience shows that the middle-income group is not only the main body of economic production, but also a stable consumer group. Its expansion is conducive to the increase of purchasing power, thus promoting the expansion of domestic demand. Middle-income groups are those who have mastered key basic knowledge and technology in the process of modernization. They are generally educated, master advanced knowledge and technology, and engage in a lot of knowledge-related technology and management work. They often become users and disseminators of advanced knowledge and technology, and are the new force to promote the rapid development of productive forces in the era of knowledge economy. Middle-income groups bear the role of inheriting, spreading and updating knowledge and technology in the development of productive forces, and promote the sound development of the economy. At the same time, in a society with a large number of middle-income groups, the allocation of social resources is generally reasonable, the gap in social income distribution is small, and middle-income groups ensure social and economic harmony. On the other hand, middle-income groups, as stable consumers and private investors with considerable strength, can effectively expand social demand and stimulate economic growth. As a pillar consumer group of society, middle-income groups have strong consumption will and ability. In addition to physical consumption, service consumption is also increasing day by day, which plays an increasingly obvious role in promoting social and economic development. At present, China's economic development is mainly driven by foreign trade and investment, which is unsustainable. We must accelerate the transformation of development mode and promote the coordinated development of domestic demand, foreign trade and investment. Therefore, building an "olive" distribution pattern is an urgent need to promote economic restructuring, change the economic development model and ensure the sustained and healthy development of the national economy.
Fourth, the urgent need to maintain social stability and build a harmonious society. The middle-income class is not a simple economic concept. The middle-income class is not only a social group with moderate income level and good quality of life, but also a social group with high personal quality and strong sense of social responsibility. As the old saying goes, "You only know honor and disgrace when you have enough to eat and wear warm clothes". After the improvement of living standards, especially when you improve your income level by improving your professional skills and enter the middle-income class, the ideological and moral quality, scientific and cultural quality of the middle-income class will also be improved accordingly. This group has reached a large proportion in the total population, which is undoubtedly conducive to driving and promoting the improvement of the quality of other groups. Moreover, the well-educated middle-income class has more democratic spirit and rational thinking, which is often the driving force for political democratization to dominate society. Those middle-income people with solid economic income and high ideological and cultural quality have high-quality human capital and great creativity. They mainly rely on knowledge and intelligence to create social wealth, become an important engine of economic development and the main source of social vitality, and increasingly become the backbone of building a well-off society in an all-round way and building a harmonious society. In addition, because the middle-income class is constrained and edified by the modern management system, it has an inherent demand for fame and fortune. Therefore, people in the middle-income class will generally seize all the learning and training opportunities that are conducive to improving their professional quality, constantly enrich and improve themselves, and give full play to their strengths and potentials in order to seek long-term development. They are well aware of the gap between themselves and the upper class of society and the difficulty of establishing their current status in today's mobile society. Therefore, they always try to exert their potential and expertise through subjective efforts, constantly improve their economic status and enhance their economic strength. Therefore, the enterprising spirit and good professional quality have created the personality characteristics and ideological mainstream of the middle-income class. Higher education level, income, status and quality of life make most middle-income classes have a conscious sense of modern citizenship. Their own value orientation, mental state and social behavior conform to the mainstream values and social orientation advocated by the party and the state, so they have a demonstration and guiding role for other social groups. Therefore, the construction of "olive" distribution pattern is conducive to promoting the construction of spiritual civilization and political civilization, and is the key to building a harmonious society and maintaining peace.
The urgent need to maintain social stability.
Fifth, it is urgent to complete the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way as scheduled and realize the common prosperity of both. According to China's development strategy, on the basis of optimizing the structure and improving the efficiency, by 2020, the gross domestic product will quadruple that of 2000, and the comprehensive national strength and international competitiveness will be significantly enhanced. Basically realize industrialization and establish a sound socialist market economic system and a more dynamic and open economic system. The proportion of urban population has greatly increased, and the gap between workers and peasants, between urban and rural areas and between regions has been gradually reversed. The social security system is relatively sound, social employment is relatively full, family property is generally increased, and people's lives are more affluent "; At the same time, it is necessary to achieve "a more sound socialist democracy and a more complete socialist legal system" and "a marked improvement in the ideological and moral quality, scientific and cultural quality and health quality of the whole nation", and so on. Judging from the connotation of the above-mentioned strategic objectives of China's development, they all fully reflect the essential requirements of pursuing prosperity and are closely related to the construction of an "olive-shaped" distribution pattern. Whether it is "eliminating the differences between workers and peasants, urban and rural areas, and regional differences, so that people can live a richer life" or "improving the ideological and moral quality, scientific and cultural quality, and health quality of the whole nation", it is inseparable from rationalizing the distribution relationship and building an "olive-shaped" distribution pattern with the middle-income class as the majority. Only when people in the society (1:3) can live a richer life can they be rich together. Only in this way can we provide a realistic basis for the general improvement of the quality of the whole nation and make new and greater achievements in China's economic, social, political and cultural construction. Now it is only 10 years away from 2020. It is time to speed up the rationalization of distribution relations and build an "olive-shaped" distribution pattern, which must be implemented quickly to ensure the sacred goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way as scheduled.