More than 100 years ago, the Italian Pareto discovered a rule: 20 people in society control 80 percent of the wealth. So he created a theory, which is known as the "Twenty-Eight Law". Indeed, according to him, to engage in the economy, cities have to "pick up watermelons and throw sesame seeds", as long as they grasp the large enterprises, especially the state-owned platform companies, urban commercial banks and some large taxpayers, it is equivalent to holding eighty percent of the economic lifeline. In this way, there is no need to take into account the small ** who are self-employed, such as skewers, rings, takeaways, and odd jobs, so that they can survive the fittest and fend for themselves.
But the problem is that urban management not only has to calculate economic accounts, but also people's livelihood accounts, safety accounts, ecological accounts, etc. The first problem is complicated, and the "28 law" is inadequate. For example, the city sells a piece of land, may be greater than the tax contribution of a thousand small and micro enterprises, and the pull effect is very strong, but it's also a huge urban resource, you have to give it scarce land indicators, give it some replacement conditions, and have to bear the risk of demolition, etc., if necessary, convenient, green light, and even leave some hidden dangers, these costs, often need the whole city to pay. Therefore, cities should pay more attention to individual businesses in every corner.
In the 2024 book "City Matters in the People: Urban Governance and Reform Behind the Zibo Phenomenon" (referred to as "City Matters in the People"), jointly launched by CITIC Publishing Group and Qilu Economic Research Institute, the author Dr. Wei Tao devotes a lot of space to describing and supporting Zibo's practice of promoting the individual economy and releasing the "long-tail effect".
Big businesses often don't need much attention. Large enterprises grow up by eating hundreds of meals, and the fatter they eat, the less care they have, why? Because everyone is not giving it food for nothing, they are all investing and seeking returns. Therefore, just like Evergrande Real Estate in the past, everyone did not allow it to slim down and fall down.
Wei Tao said in "City Affairs in People" that large enterprises do not lack care, so the city should really free up its hands and give some inclusive policies to small and micro enterprises, individual industrial and commercial households, those small supporting roles, and extras in the market, so that the small people in the market feel that they have a head start and feel that the city is worth staying. The value created by the individual economy is not even included in the scope of economic statistics, but their contribution to stabilizing employment, stimulating consumption, and maintaining the vitality of the urban economy is far more important than its tax and fiscal contributions, and it continues to release its "long-tail dividend" in a stable manner.