Chapter 349 - Planning Ten Steps Ahead
Chapter 349: Planning Ten Steps Ahead
It was now 20X8.
In this particular year, a total of four “Artificial Suns” were put into operation, each of them generating 15 thousand megawatts of power. Together with the previous two “Artificial Suns” with power of 10 thousand megawatts on the land of the Great Z, the number of “Artificial Suns” had increased to six. They had a combined power generation of 80 thousand megawatts which accounted for about 55% of the country’s total power generation capacity.
There was also the third-generation nuclear fission power generation which made up 15% of the comprehensive power generation and another 17% comprising of hydraulic, wind, solar, and geothermal power generation.
The total proportion of clean energy had increased to 87%.
Traditional thermal power generation was left with only a 13% share. It had not been completely eliminated because it was still essential in certain industrial production.
Correspondingly, the price of domestic electricity had also slumped by a significant margin. The tariff rate for ordinary residents was 25 cents per kilowatt-hour, and cheap industrial electricity was provided at 20 cents and 15 cents per kilowatt-hour. 15 cents was the lowest price available. The tariff rate for urban indoor agriculture was apparently at 20 cents per kilowatt-hour. The government was currently supporting this industry to save for traditional agricultural land.
In the northwestern desert, electricity would only cost 15 cents per kilowatt-hour. The intention here was to encourage individuals or enterprises to contribute to environmental protection.
Regardless of that, after April 20X8, the capitalists who had swarmed into the northwestern desert had almost all withdrawn as they were unable to stick it out any longer.
No future.
There was indeed no future at all.
Rather than investing billions of dollars in the desert, it was better to speculate in building land in first and second-tier cities in the eastern region. Once indoor agriculture had become widespread, a wide span of agricultural land had been cleared. With policies getting better and better, large numbers of houses could once again be built.
In recent years, the country was also frantically encouraging childbirth. In many places, authorities were not only giving out money, they even introduced a policy called “A free house along with a second child”. This was literally a free giveaway! One would only have to pay for the renovation.
Many areas truly went the whole nine yards to increase their population.
The policy was successful. The population which originally had a negative growth rate was now in a state of equilibrium, providing much relief to the upper levels of the population pyramid.
Population growth would directly translate into economic growth. The root cause of the stagnation of the economy of many countries was their insufficient population Once a country’s population stop growing, their economy would begin to stagnate.
If there was a negative growth in population, the economy would begin to shrink. As the number of consumers dwindled, no matter how fast the technology of a country was developing or how high their productivity was, with no one spending money, they would all be merely decorations.
Therefore, population would definitely be the most important issue that all countries would confront after reaching a certain stage in their development. Nothing could be achieved without having a high enough population!
“Giving free houses” was just the beginning and definitely not the end. In the future, there might even be “18 years free education”, “free medical care”, or even “free car”, “free money”—people would be offered anything to make them willing to have a child!
Was this really possible or was it all a pipe dream? Chen Jin, however, thumped his chest and guaranteed everything would be possible in the future.
Since the beginning of 20X2 six years ago, the number of deaths that occurred in the Z nation annually had begun to exceed the number of births. In the beginning, it was only a few hundred thousand. But in the past two years, there were more than one million… all these bring about a net loss in population!
With accordance to this trend, fifty years later, the total population of the Z nation was estimated to only be at half of the peak period, leaving only six to seven million people.
Indeed, the people at the bottom of the hierarchy were just lambs and leeks. There were many ways to harvest and use them. Ordinary people have no ability to decide their own destiny. They could only follow the trend, obey all kinds of arrangements, and resign themselves to adversity.
Only in the case of childbirth could make their own decisions.
To make or not to make.
To make one or two.
The decision was entirely in their own hands.
So, when lambs were going missing and leeks were not growing, who would be the ones panicking the most?
Therefore, this world would always be dynamically balanced. One’s generation may be classified as “inessential”, but after several generations, every child would truly be the future of a country.
But there was one rule in population: once it goes down, it would never rebound.
None of the countries that had fallen into stagnation or negative growth could pull back their population growth rate. It was almost irreversible.
No country had succeeded in getting out of this predicament for the time being. No matter how good the welfare benefits that a country may provide, their people would still choose to enjoy their own life.
After a few decades, with the development speed of science and technology on Earth, no technical problems would exist for earthlings to enter the era of the Star Colony. But the problem was that the planet’s population had been reduced by half. With more room for living and with each person having two suites on average, Earth alone would suffice for all of mankind. Why would interstellar colonization be necessary?
Except for a few adventurers, who would want to settle down and live in a strange alien planet? At most, people would travel to the moon and stay in space hotels for a few days. Most people would not consider immigration. What place would be more comfortable than Earth?
If the population issue was not tackled, even the meaning of advancing forward in science and technology would be lost. But in Chen Jin’s hands lay the key to undoing this deadlock!
Besides, it was not that difficult to solve it. He could take a two-pronged approach to this matter. One strategy would be to introduce life-prolonging medical procedures, which would increase human life expectancy to over 200 years old. This would greatly reduce the mortality rate. Secondly, technology for extracorporeal pregnancy would be introduced. This would imitate maternal conditions in a nutrition compartment, provide nutrition to the fetus, and let the baby be “born” from the artificial womb. This would eliminate women’s fear of having babies and avoid any forms of damage to their body. Moreover, by preserving egg cells in cold storage, one could have a child whenever they wanted to, even if one had been through the menopause. This would ensure an increase in the birth rate.
Once these two technologies become widespread, the population problem that was thought to be “irreversible” would be solved.
With the negative population growth issue resolved and the economy experiencing re-growth, it would become necessary for science and technology to continue moving forward.
Chen Jin’s act of investing huge sums of money in the desert would gradually not be seen as “being whole-heartedly for environmental protection” and “really doing it for the future of mankind”.
“Now, the desert area in the hands of Xing Hai Technologies has increased to 500 thousand square kilometers. The entire Taklimakan Desert, Gurbantunggut Desert and the other deserts in the western region are all controlled by Xing Hai Technologies.”
“After twenty years of transformation, these deserts will be flourishing with greenery and will have become an oasis that can accommodate humans.”
“By then, I will shift all of Xing Hai Technologies’s dozens of research centers and hundreds of laboratories there, transferring over more than 200,000 technical talents. We will build ten technological cities, each accommodating up to 100,000 high-quality citizens. A million people will live there in total.”
“We will then build another 20 immigrant cities, each with a population of 500,000. The number of immigrants will total 10 million.”
“I’ll also have to build a very large spaceport and a large electromagnetic orbital launch center in the Tianshan Mountains. In the northwestern deserts, I’ll have to create a technology center and private space activity center.”
“Then I’ll do begin to deal in real estate and attract people to buy houses there. Of course, it is okay if people are not interested in buying them. But if they want to enjoy the services of life-prolonging medical procedures, they can only come to the northwestern desert and receive treatment at Xing Hai Hospitals. People will have to come if they wish to extend their life. If the patient is a local immigrant, they will be prioritized for treatment with its price halved.”
“If I turn this desert into a ‘life charging station’, would you come?”
“In the later phases of the plan, I’ll develop space tourism and space medical services, and people shall walk into the sea of stars from this very desert.”
The perception that outsiders had of Xing Hai Technologies were all wrong. They could only perceive one or two small steps ahead of them and draw false judgments out of it. Chen Jin, however, had already planned out ten steps into the future.