The Further Exploitation of Human Resources
-- The Sunshine Regeneration Project
翻译：北京外国语大学北戴河外语培训基地副校长 张宝丹
Growing old is unavoidable. Everyone must face and experience old age. China has a population of 1.3 billion which will become 1.3 billion aged people, and the population of the whole world is 6.5 billion which means 6.5 million aged people. The phenomenon will remain unchanged for a long time to come, so the river of the aged will never run dry.
Since ancient times, people throughout the world have been longing for an old age in peace and security. This seems to be the ideal lifestyle for the aged. Society is doing a GREat deal to guarantee a peaceful and secure life for the aged, granting pensions, and ensuring a minimum income to the poor. However, it has been proved that most aged people find their great happiness in doing something for society and in enjoying the sense of accomplishment. Life signifies action and creation. Being supported by others is not as good as earning one's own living. The older one becomes, the more energetic, hard-working and open-minded one should be. Our entire life should be filled with passion, and creation is as much a highlight of the life of the aged as it is of younger people. Peaceful and secure old age is a concept shaped in ancient patriarchal society, a thing that should be rejected in modern times. What the aged aspire to is the further exploitation of their latent forces.
The fast-growing aging population has become a global issue, which may lead to social turmoil and hold back economic growth. What the developed countries in Europe and America are doing is no more than postponing the retirement age or offering higher pensions. However, the retirement systems in the West are more or less outdated. The Spanish newspaper “ World Journal ” published on September 23, 2004 an article entitled “ The American Pension System Is in the Red ”. The article says that the American retirement system is incurring a deficit of up to 3 billion U.S. dollars, and the bankruptcy of this system will affect 32,500 American enterprises and 44 million employees. China , the most populous country in the world, is facing an aging society before it becomes a developed country. This has presented a grave social issue to the government. Merely paying attention to the length of time and amount of pensions is too passive on the part of the relevant government agencies. Sooner or later the burden of pensions may become unbearable. It is beyond imagination how heavy the burden will be when one third of the population will have to support the remaining two thirds. So we must do our best to rearrange the life of those who have been laid off or retired, but are still capable of work.
In human nature there are various kinds of weaknesses, of which the biggest is the fear of loneliness. The older one grows, the more one is in fear of loneliness. Losing one's job, one would feel driven out of society, and without the loving care of children, one would feel abandoned by his or her family. Even though one could live on till one's nineties, one would feel miserably lonely due to lack of care and passion. There is no joy waiting passively for the night screen to come down. It is reported that a fairly high percentage of the aged in China and the rest of the world lead lonely lives. About ten thousand old people die of loneliness in Britain annually. Surprisingly, not until two or three years after death were some of them spotted. Following the enactment of the euthanasia law in the Netherlands , quite a few senior Dutch citizens fled to Germany to avoid the law. The aged in the developed countries may enjoy higher pensions, but they suffer loneliness and idleness all the same.
Here are some Chinese proverbs about the aged: “An old horse knows the twists and turns of the way”, “Ginger is hottest when it is old”, and “When a veteran fighter goes into action, he can do the job of two”. The aged not only have a strong desire for living, but their youthful dispositions remain. Most of them are rich in knowledge and experiences, and some of them even possess unique skills. When getting organized, these scattered individuals in society could become massive productive forces and might even be able to tackle knotty hi-tech problems. As we can see when one gets old, one can not only be full of vigor still, but can achieve fruitful results and even put forth again brilliant rays. China has the Hope Project to solve the drop-out problem. China needs the Sunshine Regenerating Project to solve the problem of the aged or the soon-to-be-aged. With the Sunshine Regenerating Project, we can reorganize and rearrange the retirees in line with their wishes. As a result, those who wish to relax and become carefree can enjoy themselves to their heart's content while those who wish to work can be provided with an opportunity to do so. Since what is proposed would be on a voluntary basis, people can do whatever they wish to do and realize their dreams of life that have not yet come true.
The value of life cannot be simply differentiated by age, but by its quality which comes from one's wisdom and passion for creation. This can be compared with the coal in the furnace. Fine-quality coal burns fully with almost nothing left in the furnace. The longer it burns, the more heat it will generate. Conversely, poor-quality coal can barely produce heat together with the heat from fine-quality coal and may soon turn into gangue to block the furnace chamber. A Chinese saying goes: “One should become independent at the age of 30, not be perplexed by the complexity of the world at the age of 40 and be clear about one's destiny at the age of 50.” Many GREat talents mature slowly. Since they have wisdom and experience in their possession, naturally they have unlimited strength and energy, especially mentally. How can youngsters compare with them! A great deal of social wealth can be gained if the human resources of this group of people are tapped. Passion is where the significance of life lies, and passion is the source of happiness. We should try every means to kindle old people's passion and enthusiasm for creation, thus making the Sunshine Regenerating Project full of vitality.
No matter how capable a person is, it is difficult for him or her to create something individually. However, if such people are organized collectively, they can work wonders. The Sunshine Regenerating Project is going to do such work. The organized people will embody their values by demonstrating their kindness and making contributions. They will repay society with their care and love. If this project could help solve the reemployment problem of the aged and offer them opportunities to make contributions to society, and at the same time, provide for the elderly and the sick properly, wouldn't it be a fundamental social liberation? Persons laid off and retirees will again be able to enjoy and treasure the opportunities for reemployment and working for others instead of being idling, getting tired and being bored, because they will finally find a way to fulfill their responsibility and show their love to society again. The nurseries, kindergartens, schools, farms, ranches, factories they run will surely be trustworthy ones, because these elders will no longer think too much of money, they'll just want to show their worth. They will also set good examples for social morality since they will not regard money as important. Meanwhile, the sense of social security will be beefed up since most people will be engaged in work.
This is a long-term scheme since no organization has the capability to carry the heavy burden of the whole society completely and immediately. Moreover, it will take time for more people to understand and accept the concept of the project. So the following two steps have to be taken:
First, organize those who have no chance to put their talents to use or attain their cherished ambitions, and those who want to live a vigorous life in later years, so as to fire their zeal and tap their potentials, and then organize them to forge a burning furnace to cultivate and train highly talented people for society. All members under this project will be looked after for the rest of their life on the condition that they work in this organization for more than 10 years, including those who have lost their capability to work.
Second, as it grows bigger and stronger, the organization will take in those who have lost their ability to work and subsequently provide for them. The government does not need to put much money into this scheme and simply needs to work out and implement preferential policies and lend support for this plan. As a result, an ideal society can be attained — all young people will go to school and all the elderly will be provided for.
To support this project, the government needs to provide a piece of experimental land, regard it as a public welfare project, support both the project's internal programs and programs opened to the public and exempt all taxes for at least 5-10 years (except personal income tax). Based on the experimental results in different stages, the government can decide on the nature of the project – whether it should be completely welfare or a partly taxed project. As an alternative, a project could be established by the state to raise funds from domestic and international enterprises. In addition, a “Sunshine Lottery” could be held to make use of the idle capital in society as a long-term fund for development. The project could be named “China International Sunshine Regenerating Institute”. (refer to the paper attached)
The Institute would first operate in China and finally grow into an international organization. This magnanimous and good undertaking will benefit all mankind. Affiliated institutes will be established overseas once domestic institutes are accomplished. We also hope that the United Nations might create an appropriate body to study and solve the global aging population issue.
We appeal enthusiastically to the whole society to join us and support us, and especially to those who have the desire to create, who are willing to take social responsibilities, who cherish GREat ambitions and beautiful dreams, who long for a happy future, who believe that one should keep on fighting as long as one lives and that one should exert every bit of one's energy, who would not acknowledge that they are too old, who refuse to accept defeat, and who never turn their head when running up against a stone wall. Join us! Support us! Give aid to us! This represents a great reform of social relationships and a great emancipation of social productive forces. It has an epoch-making significance which leaps over borders. This is an unprecedented great cause and may be called the second social revolution.
Song Yuanli ( Chairman ) EMAIL:SongYuanLI52@yahoo.com.cn
Zhang Baodan ( General Secretary ) EMAIL:ZhongBaoDan66@sohu.com
of Beidaihe Research Center of the Sunshine Regeneration Project
July 17, 2005
