The economy has been up and down, but consumption has not dared to accelerate. Although China's economy has maintained a steady growth trend in recent years, the consumption level has not increased correspondingly, and even showed a downward trend. During the May Day and Dragon Boat Festival, although the number of tourists increased significantly, tourism income and per capita consumption did not grow simultaneously, which shows that the people did not consume boldly. In addition, there is an imbalance in the consumption structure, with relatively good consumption of travel and food, while consumption of durable goods and services has stagnated. In this case, if people are unwilling to consume, businesses in all walks of life will face greater difficulties, which in turn will affect economic growth. In this regard, some people believe that this is closely related to the two major concerns existing in society, and I will analyze them one by one below.
In the past few decades, the rapid development of the property market has led to the growth of the domestic economy and improved the living standards of residents. However, excessively fast house prices** have also brought a series of negative consequences. First of all, due to high housing prices, many people are left in debt when buying a house, and even need multiple people to repay the loan together for decades. According to statistics, the scale of domestic residential housing loans is close to 39 trillion yuan, and housing loans and liabilities jointly affect 200 million residents and 200 million families. These people have no extra money to spend on entertainment and consumption, except for basic living expenses. Second, while the purchase of housing has left many people emptying their savings and bankrupting their families, it is even worse for those who have been deceived by unscrupulous developers. Once the funds are misappropriated, resulting in the project being unfinished, the second half of these people's lives may be more difficult. According to some data, China Evergrande alone has built more than 1.6 million unfinished buildings, involving housing and repayment problems for 6 million people. For residents who have exhausted their wealth to buy their only home, this problem can be the "catastrophe" of their lives, not only will they not be able to own a suitable home, but they will also have to bear the pressure of a mortgage for decades, which will prevent them from other entertainment and consumption.
The rise of e-commerce has made shopping more convenient and affordable for ordinary people, which is a good thing for individual consumers. However, for the entire social economy, the disadvantages of the development of e-commerce outweigh the benefits. E-commerce not only intensifies competition between fields, but also exacerbates the gap between the rich and the poor in society. Because usually the e-commerce model will lead to the head enterprises to monopolize the market, and they can seize the business of the whole province or even the whole country with their own strength, while it is difficult for other small sellers to gain a place in the market. In addition, in order to stabilize their position in the industry, many leading e-commerce companies will also use some methods to engage in malicious competition, such as cashback reviews and order swiping, which not only makes many legitimate merchants have no way out, but also destroys the business order of the entire market, and eventually leads to the proliferation of fake goods and counterfeit products. The rise of e-commerce has also had a huge impact on brick-and-mortar stores, with many brick-and-mortar stores going bankrupt due to low customer traffic. The once bustling commercial street is now deserted, and merchants have had to change careers or withdraw from the market. This shows the far-reaching socio-economic impact of e-commerce.
In the final analysis, the key to consumption is that people have money in their hands. It is only when people's pockets are full that they will naturally choose to improve their quality of life, without stimulation and encouragement. However, when people are strapped for money and even feel stressed about their basic needs, no amount of stimulus will help to raise the level of consumption. Therefore, improving the business environment, reducing the burden on the people and increasing their income is the root cause of solving this problem. Only in this way can we effectively raise the level of consumption and promote sustainable economic development.
To sum up, with the continuous advancement of economic growth, the dilemma facing China's economy is sluggish consumption. High housing prices and the rise of e-commerce are considered to be the two major "cancers" in the current society, leading to the contradiction of consumption. The key to solving this problem is to improve the business environment, reduce the burden on the people and increase their income, so as to stimulate the growth of consumption and achieve sustainable economic development.