25 January 2006

Liberation Daily: Correctly grasp the strategy for alleviating contradictions of social distribution

Recently, the special­ized research committee on the Socialist Market Economy of the Shanghai Economics Association held a theory seminar on "The socialist market economy and reasonable adjust­ment of income distribution." Twenty experts attended and deliberated, including Chen Bogeng, Tong Yuanshi, Huang Wenzhong, Yang Yu, Jiang Guoxiang, Tao Youzhi, Feng Ruijun, Shi Chenping and Chen Chengming.

The attendees believed that the suggestion of the Central Committee about the "11th Five Year Plan," that the problem of reasonably adjusting income distribution should "pay even more attention to social justice," has important guiding implications. It showed that the scientific approach to development is starting to be realized not only in realm of production, but also of distribution. The prominent emphasis on this principle can guarantee the healthy development of China's market economy system in a socialist direction, and is helpful in properly handling relations between reform, development, and stability, and promoting sustainable development of the national economy.

The question of how to properly handle relations between efficiency and justice was a key point considered by the participants. Some scholars argued that primary distribution of national income should prioritize efficiency; secondary distribution must prioritize justice; and tertiary distribution, morality. Only then would it be advantageous to the realistic develop­ment of productive forces and the enhancement of economic efficiency, to workers and to unity and cooperation between them and the community. Some scholars pointed out that "efficiency first, paying proper attention to justice" was for some time our directive in China's income assignment, but is not an invariable principle for the entire phase of developing the market economy.

China's present situation is that along with GDP growth, the question of economic efficiency was solved in relative terms, allowing the pressure to seek social justice to gradually rise in prominence. Therefore, we will have to pay more attention to questions of social justice from now on, adjust relations between efficiency and justice, and increase the element of social justice.

The attendees also put forward some concrete proposals about principles and policies for the reasonable adjustment of income disparities. Some scholars argued that to grasp this, we must be clearer and more explicit; apart from over­all quantitative standards, we should also have more detailed ones, i.e., we should formulate stand­ards, acceptable to all social classes, of relative justice under the basic economic and distribution systems of the present stage. Some scholars pointed out that the "Suggestions" stressed that the distribution system must take as its subject distribution according to work, but the realistic situation is, in certain domains, the proportional participation in the assignment according to contribution of capital was much higher than that of other elements of production. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust te injustices which appears in the primary allocation between the factors of capital and labour.

解放日报：准确把握缓解社会分配矛盾的策

23 January 2006


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment