Chapter 473 The Significance of Technological Progress

“I don’t think there is much need to worry, as every region will be involved in the transformation of the power grid and the construction of controlled nuclear fusion power stations.

The economic driving effect of such infrastructure will be very obvious.

In addition, everyone may be worried. For example, I am a staff member responsible for investment promotion in the Pearl River Delta. Since the Yangtze River Delta region is close to Guangjia Aerospace, they can get priority in obtaining equipment supply for controlled nuclear fusion power stations.

They can advance the construction related to controlled nuclear fusion by building demonstration areas.

Once they complete the construction, they will have a leading advantage and can attract large-scale investment through cheap energy, thereby attracting companies that originally came here to invest.

There is no need to worry about this. Even if the Yangtze River Delta is completed first, the regulation of electricity prices will have to wait until the national adjustment is completed.

It won’t happen that prices will be lowered first after the Yangtze River Delta is completed.

There will definitely be a complete regulatory plan at the national level.”

Those who watched Lin Jia’s interview video actually included people in charge of investment promotion in different provinces and cities, ranging from clerks to responsible comrades and even city leaders in charge.

After watching it, everyone felt that Lin Jia was too cunning. It seemed like there was no impact, but how could there be no impact in reality?

As a first-tier city in China, on par with Pengcheng and Yanjing, Shenhai has been far ahead in tourism in recent years, even surpassing famous cities like Yanjing. Although it cannot be said that it is completely related to Guangjia Aerospace, Guangjia Aerospace has at least played a key role.

Shenhai’s outstanding performance in attracting investment in recent years is also closely related to Guangjia Aerospace.

Even if the electricity price in Shenhai does not decrease, the fact that Shenhai’s electricity is supplied by controlled nuclear fusion will play a vital role in attracting investment in Shenhai.

In addition to the simple price, if Shenhai takes the lead in deploying controlled nuclear fusion, without discussing the political significance, and simply discussing it from the economic logic, it means that the promise of unlimited energy supply will subvert the production logic and risk management model of the enterprise.

For data centers that require a large amount of electricity supply, Shenhai can give you a zero power outage promise, which can siphon investment in computing infrastructure construction across China.

For semiconductor manufacturing, the tolerance of power interruptions for processes below 28 nanometers is less than 0.1 seconds. The weight of stable energy in the site selection of chip giants is even higher than tax rate preferences. The semiconductor manufacturing industry, which is already in Shenhai, will be further siphoned.

The hard constraints of international capital on green energy certification will bring about a reconfiguration of the supply chain of multinational companies. With the label of “direct supply of nuclear fusion green electricity”, the Shenhai factory can attract additional investment from giants such as Apple and Tesla that need to hedge ESG risks, thus forming a certification monopoly in the zero-carbon industrial park.

These are just the obvious benefits.

If Shenhai can emulate the Jurong Island model in Singapore, demarcate a nuclear fusion bonded energy zone, and implement an electricity futures hedging mechanism for companies in the zone (locking in a 20-year electricity price), it can hedge the impact of global energy price fluctuations on corporate finances.

This approach will be extremely attractive to asset-heavy multinational companies. BASF previously placed its 10 billion euro investment in Zhanjiang in China. If Shenhai has nuclear fusion energy, they will reconsider without hesitation.

The clerk may not be able to think of the logic behind this, but the responsible leader will definitely be able to think of it.

Because similar things have happened countless times in the past during the competition with Shenhai.

Why don’t multinational giants come to Shenzhen instead of Shenzhen? Because Shenzhen has the only space shuttle flight in China.

This logic alone has resulted in a large number of Latin American companies’ offices and branches in China moving from Pengcheng to Shenhai.

Take Hong Kong as an example. Hong Kong has been calling on Laos and China to arrange space shuttle flights for Hong Kong, an “international financial center.”

After this news reached the mainland, netizens on the Simplified Chinese Internet were all cursing, saying that the service attitude of the staff at Hong Kong Airport towards Mandarin-speaking customers was rare in the world, and with such a poor service attitude, they still wanted a space plane?
Pengcheng netizens took the opportunity to appeal, saying that Pengcheng wants an aerospace plane, which will make Hong Kong very angry. If you want to ride an aerospace plane, come to Pengcheng.

Netizens from Shenhai said that it was unnecessary, that having Shenhai was enough, and the demonstration effect was already strong enough.

The effect of the space plane is so strong, let alone controlled nuclear fusion.

“Mr. Lin, what do you think about the unemployment problem caused by technological changes? The God of Light also mentioned the advice for ordinary people earlier. In the technical deduction of controlled nuclear fusion, combined with AI, more jobs will be replaced in the future.

The most direct ones should be farmers. Artificial light sources will replace the sun to participate in plant photosynthesis, seawater desalination will provide water resources, and grain factories will replace traditional arable land.

At present, China still has nearly 8 million rural population and more than 5 million farmers, which will have a huge impact on them.”

Technological progress will certainly bring about improvements in productivity, but it will also give rise to a series of problems.

The peasant group is the most troublesome problem after the large-scale deployment of controlled nuclear fusion.

There is obviously a more efficient production method. Once it is used, what will happen to these people?
It is impossible to create jobs out of thin air to provide jobs to 5 million unemployed farmers.

This is also a topic that is particularly hotly discussed on the Chinese Internet.

What should we do if farmers become unemployed due to grain factories derived from controlled nuclear fusion?
There are currently several mainstream views on the simplified Chinese Internet.

The first is called returning farmland to forest, which is equivalent to farmers being responsible for returning all their land to forest, and the government will provide financial subsidies based on the area of ​​the converted land. Even if the conversion is completed, subsidies will still be provided.

It is equivalent to a financial guarantee, a targeted subsidy for farmers.

The second is for enterprises to provide a guarantee and allow private capital to enter this market. Regardless of whether it is a private enterprise or a state-owned enterprise, anyone responsible for the construction of a super grain factory must be responsible for taking out a portion of the profits to give to farmers as cash subsidies.

For example, the original cost of one pound of grain was 10 yuan, but now the cost of production through a super factory is 5 yuan. 5 yuan of the saved 3 yuan will be set aside as targeted subsidies for farmers.

The third option is to let the peasants destroy themselves; they will always find a way to survive.

On the simplified Chinese Internet, options one and two are mainstream, and option two is strongly opposed by economists, who believe that it will affect the competitiveness of enterprises. They then proposed a third option, believing that it should be thrown into the market and ultimately resolved by Hayek.

The reason why this question appeared in Li Xiyin’s interview list is that someone hoped that Lin Jia would come out in a semi-official capacity in a less formal setting to set the tone:
“I think there will definitely be a safety net for this group of people.

Over the past five years, we have seen the welfare security system pioneered by Yudu become popular across the country.

All middle- and low-income groups can receive corresponding consumption funds every month according to the local minimum wage standard.

Our welfare is constantly being improved. At this time, it is impossible to let the unemployed destroy themselves while technology advances.

If in the future agricultural complexes are built across the country with fusion energy as the core, which in turn affects the farmers, there must be a complete set of safety net plans.

Whether it is creating jobs for them at the national level by returning farmland to forests, or the investors in the agricultural complex taking part of the cost savings to subsidize the farmers.

I can only say that the state will ensure that farmers’ income will not be lower than before.”

As soon as these words were spoken, netizens on the Chinese Internet knew what was going on.

“The elders have already set the tone, so you can rest assured. I said that it is impossible for the farmers to suffer losses!”

“For someone as cautious as Lin Jia to make such a statement speaks volumes. If she hadn’t heard the rumors, she wouldn’t have said such a thing, okay?”

“Hear the rumors? Isn’t it obvious that someone asked her to say that? This should give everyone peace of mind.”

“I would like to ask, if technological progress cannot increase residents’ income and improve their quality of life, then what is the meaning of technological progress?”

(End of this chapter)