I want to be emperor

Chapter 1187 The Empire is Too Big

In the fifty-fourth year of Chengshun, it was early winter in October.

Jiao Tiancheng from the Xicheng District of Songjiang City was driving a second-hand Tangshan brand car all the way. As a person in the car repair industry, Jiao Tiancheng naturally had the opportunity to come into contact with some second-hand cars, and he also had enough skills and experience to judge the condition of this second-hand car.

In this case, when he made some money and wanted to buy a car for himself, he naturally bought a second-hand car. After all, it was much cheaper. He only spent 300 Chu Yuan on a Tangshan brand A3 series car that was 80% new and had been on the market for only two years and originally sold for more than 450 Chu Yuan.

With this car, not only myself but also my family members’ travel becomes much more convenient. I can often take my family on outings or other places to play, instead of limiting the living circle of the whole family to a few kilometers locally.

Today, Jiao Tiancheng asked someone to buy two movie tickets for City Tour with great difficulty. He was planning to go home to pick up his wife and go to the theater together.

This movie is very popular recently, and Jiao Tiancheng hears people talking about it every other day.

Under such circumstances, he naturally wanted to take his wife to have a look, at least to broaden their horizons.

Jiao Tiancheng's home is not in the city, but like many middle-income families in Songjiang City today, he lives in the suburbs.

Strictly speaking, this place is a small town, but with the development of the economy, there are more and more residents here, so various shops have appeared, but they are still mainly service industries, and there are no factories or anything like that.

This is also a typical situation in suburban towns, that is, there are no factories, and the buildings are mainly low-rise apartments and townhouses. In addition, there are also some communities composed mainly of single-family buildings. Surrounding these communities are some commercial centers with various stores and even some mid- to high-end shopping malls, providing various products and services.

The model of large cities plus satellite towns in the Great Chu Empire is an urban model gradually formed based on industrial development over the past few decades.

Because of industrial development, factories in cities need a large number of workers and staff from various other fields.

The huge influx of people into cities has led to a very dense population. At the same time, due to poor construction technology, there are no high-rise, high-density buildings to accommodate a large population, which forces the population to live in low-rise houses.

The number of people that can be stationed on the lower floors is limited.

This also leads to the fact that cities are generally large in area. When you can no longer demand living space from the sky, you can only expand outward.

At the same time, due to environmental pollution from early industrialization and the large-scale coal burning in industry and life, the air quality in cities was very poor, which prompted a large number of middle- and high-income people to flee the cities for their health. However, work is still in the city after all, and you can't leave too far, so you can only choose to settle down in the suburbs of the city.

As the population of these suburban communities gradually increased, small towns were formed.

This series of factors ultimately led to the fact that in megacities like Songjiang City, in addition to the core urban area, there are also a large number of suburban towns around it, forming a model of a core city plus a large number of satellite towns.

This model led to the emergence of urban trains in cities, which are urban rail systems consisting of subways and ground rails.

Not to mention the public horse-drawn coaches and today's public trams and cars.

After decades of evolution, a relatively unique megacity like Songjiang City finally emerged. In addition to Songjiang City, many large cities are actually like this.

After all, environmental problems and living space problems are similar. It’s just that they are more serious in Songjiang City and not as serious in other big cities.

But basically, all the big cities in the Great Chu Empire with a population of over one million have similar urban models.

This is a characteristic brought about by the particularity of early industrialization. It is not a question of whether people are willing or not, nor is it something that the government specifically chose when conducting urban planning.

  Beidao Town, where Jiao Tiancheng's family lives, is a small town that emerged against the backdrop of this era!

The entire town is centered around more than 20 medium-to-large residential communities, with a permanent population of about 100,000, mostly middle- and high-income families. In the middle of the many communities is the town's commercial center, with large shopping malls, restaurants, and various consumer industries, as well as hospitals, financial accounting firms, law firms, various schools, and so on.

In addition, there are some factories in the town, but these factories are non-polluting and are mainly powered by electricity rather than coal.

After all, this is a town mainly for living and residence, with relatively high land prices and relatively high incomes for the permanent population. Local residents have very high requirements for their living environment... If you dare to introduce a heavily polluting factory, people will sell their houses and move away.

As more people sell their houses, the price of real estate will naturally fall. When the price of real estate falls and a large number of properties lose their owners, the property tax will also fall.

In places like Beidao Town, property tax accounts for a considerable portion of the tax revenue.

In a big city like Songjiang City, property tax is a relatively important tax for local fiscal revenue. This is also why many small towns, although without much industry or commerce, still have very good local infrastructure, with wide and beautiful roads, well-built schools and hospitals, and a large number of patrol police to maintain public order.

It is because although these places have no industry or commerce, the industrial and commercial taxes are not very low, but their real estate taxes are high!

However, in order to maintain relatively good property taxes, the local living environment must be improved, especially the natural environment and public security.

Otherwise, many middle- and high-income groups will move away... If more middle- and high-income groups move away, local community housing prices will plummet, and at that time, property taxes will also plummet.

After all, for those middle- and high-income groups, no matter what jobs are available locally, they don’t work locally, but in the city. They choose to buy a house and settle down here in order to provide a comfortable living environment for their wives and children and a good growth environment for their children.

Therefore, these people have very high requirements for their community and surrounding living environment.

Jiao Tian’s own family is a typical example. Jiao Tiancheng runs a car repair shop in the suburbs of Xicheng District, but when he saved enough money to buy a house, he never considered moving to the city or some low- to mid-end communities.

Instead, he went to Beidao Town specifically to buy a property and settle down, even though the housing prices here were significantly higher than those in the surrounding towns.

It is because the living environment here is better and the schools here are also very good. The local Beidao Primary School provides a complete six-year primary education. The hardware facilities and teachers are very good. After graduating from primary school, you can seamlessly continue to the junior high school department of Beidao Middle School and then continue to study in the high school department.

Here, children can be provided with a very good educational environment, and the park environment in and around the community is also very good.

Therefore, even though the housing prices here are more expensive, and even though it is seven or eight kilometers away from Jiao Tiancheng's usual workplace, he still chooses to settle down here. As for him, driving to and from get off work every day is not a big problem.

Although Jiao Tiancheng's Tangshan brand A3 sedan is a second-hand car, its condition is still very good and is no different from a 90% new car.

He drove all the way to Beidao Town, then turned onto a two-lane tarmac road and finally entered the community where his home was.

Continue driving along the internal roads of the community. There are single-family buildings on both sides of the road. These buildings are not big, basically two or three-story buildings. The distance between them is not wide, only a few meters. The small courtyard in front of the house is also not big.

Such a small single-family house cannot be considered a high-end property, not to mention in Songjiang City, even in Beidao Town. It can only be said to be a mid- to high-end property.

Some real high-end properties often have more than a dozen rooms, large courtyards, and the distance between houses is at least ten meters or more. However, even such small-sized mid-to-high-end properties are not affordable for ordinary middle-class families in Songjiang City.

In fact, most middle-class families live in suburban apartments, which are four or five stories high, with two or three-bedroom apartments with two or even four households on each floor.

Families with better financial conditions live in townhouses, which have independent doors and units, front and back yards, but there are no partitions between them and many units are connected together.

The above two types are the common residences of middle-class families with decent income in Songjiang City today.

As for single-family houses, even those with a relatively small area and small partitions are actually quite expensive. One unit costs several thousand Chu Yuan, which is unaffordable for ordinary families.

Jiao Tiancheng bought the house here only after his auto repair shop business became successful and his children were about to start school in a few years.

Even so, he couldn't pay the full amount. He only gave a small down payment, and the rest was borrowed from the bank. This was because his auto repair shop was doing well and making huge profits every month, otherwise the bank would not have given him a loan.

You should know that in the contemporary Chu Empire, there are actually no special government-guided housing loan policies. There are only credit mortgage loans for home purchases launched by the financial industry.

The review is often very strict, requiring you to have a high and stable source of income, and the property must be used as collateral. The loan period is also not long, generally within ten years. It is not impossible to get a loan for more than fifteen years, but the conditions are more stringent, and often only government employees with good and highly stable incomes can obtain it.

Of course, the government has also established a number of restrictions in response to the increasingly frequent housing loan problems in recent years... This restriction is the interest rate limit. In order to prevent home buyers from going bankrupt due to home purchase loans, the government has imposed a mandatory interest cap on housing loans. This interest cap is lower than that of ordinary commercial loans.

Because the interest rate is low, but the risk is also high. The most important thing is that you don’t have any credit checks or other good debt collection methods these days. Moreover, the empire is too large, and information on population and residence cannot be exchanged... For example, there is the Pacific Ocean between America and East Asia.

Not to mention that you can’t find someone who owes money and runs away. Even if someone commits a crime and runs away from East Asia to America, even if the person doesn’t change his name, you probably won’t be able to find him…

The Chu Empire was too large. As an empire spanning the globe, it was technologically incapable of information exchange, so its control over population information was very limited.

For banks, once the person who borrowed money to buy a house goes bankrupt, or feels that he can no longer survive and runs to overseas colonies, you have no way to do anything. The most you can do is auction the mortgaged property to recover the loss. If the money from the auction is not enough to pay back the money, then there is nothing you can do.

  After all, banks are not tax authorities, and there is no way to pursue debt collection in the colonies!

This is the limitation of the times and technology.

This also makes banks more cautious when issuing housing loans. They must confirm that you have sufficient stable income to repay the loan in the next ten years.

Jiao Tiancheng's business was good and his cash flow was considerable, so the bank approved his loan application.

I heard that the top leaders of the empire are trying to promote a mutual aid fund mechanism for buying houses in order to solve the problem of some people having no housing and having difficulty buying houses. That is, a certain percentage of people's salary will be deducted from their wages after they start working, and this money will be used to buy a house when the time comes. The shortfall will be loaned from the mutual aid fund for buying houses, which is the mutual aid fund deducted by other people.

But it can't be done in a short time, because nothing is easy when it comes to money.

Furthermore, in fact, many Chu people do not necessarily have to sell their houses... renting a house is also fine.

After all, in the Great Chu Empire, there is no rule that you have to buy a house to live in the local school... The main reason is that the government does not sell land, they collect property taxes, and the former is a one-time deal, while the latter is a long-term deal, so the government is not very interested in a one-time land sale. Well, the land in many cities is not owned by the government, most of it is private... The government has no interest in raising housing prices to make money for private property holders.

The government is trying hard to raise real estate prices and let the landlords make a lot of money. Isn't that stupid?

On the contrary, the government is very interested in attracting a large number of high-net-worth residents, stimulating local employment and economic development.

In addition, the corresponding education system of the Great Chu Empire stipulates that one can unconditionally attend local government-run schools in the place of household registration.

If you are in another place, you can also rent a house locally, provide local tax records, and then apply for a degree in a local government-run school after obtaining a local residence permit. As long as you have a residence permit, you can enroll in a local government-run school.

This is still referring to government-run schools. If it is a private school, it will be much simpler. You just need to pay the money... Well, this simple thing is actually not that simple. After all, private schools are expensive.

In addition, some famous private schools cannot be attended by people with money. They require you to own property in the local community and have certain requirements for your family.

Education has always been a big issue, and many families attach great importance to it. Most middle- and high-income families will still buy or rent a house in a good community and then solve the problem of their children’s schooling.

Don’t think that renting a house is cheap, it’s actually not cheap.

When a landlord rents a house to you, he will take into account the purchase cost, expected income, and property tax, and then rent it to you at a high price. It is not possible for you to get an advantage... The rent for properties in good school districts is also very expensive.

If you rent for a long time, it is better to take out a loan and buy one yourself!

In the two major areas of education and housing, the government of the Great Chu Empire mainly adopted the approach of guidance and ensuring the lower limit.

For example, houses. Everyone in the country has houses to live in, right? You may not have one in a big city, but you must have one in your hometown. If not, the local government will have to build a small shabby house for you.

The government will also arrange for low-income people in the city who have no land or house to live in very simple dormitory-like houses temporarily. Don't like it? You can emigrate directly by boat to overseas, where you can have everything.

Haven’t you seen the overseas territories in Europe, all of them are crying and begging for immigration? As long as you are willing to go, they will arrange a house and a job for you, and even give you several blonde maids... You will live a life of luxury.

In short, when it comes to housing, the empire gives you a lower limit so that you have a place to live, but if you want to live well and meet various needs, you have to work hard on your own. The government doesn't care about you that much.

As for education, the government only guarantees that your children will go to government-run schools. The government-run schools in the villages and towns where your children are registered will accept your children unconditionally and will never let your children drop out of school.

As for wanting to send your children to school elsewhere or to a better school district, that is your own business. The government will not get involved. You can handle it on your own.

is this okay?

This question is too broad and different people will have different opinions.

However, there will never be a system that can meet the needs of everyone, never, and it will always have flaws of one kind or another.

Not to mention the typical elitist education system of the Great Chu Empire!