Commentary: Also On The Drawbacks Of The Great Fire

A few days ago, Chinese Light Industry Import and Export Chamber of Commerce issued information, 1 to August this year, China's footwear exports 6 billion pairs of $17 billion, an average unit price of 2.85 US dollars.

If you can reduce the number of infants who can't wear shoes, there will be about two pairs of people around the world.

When we marvel at the high output, we also marvel at the low price: the price of each pair of shoes is less than 20 yuan.

If there is freight, it will be cheaper.

The next question is how cheap shoes are made.

In Putian, Fujian, "10. 21" particularly serious fire accident, Feida shoes plus workshops 37 people were killed and 19 people were injured.

The cause of the accident is being investigated. It is now known that the small workshop with fire is a typical "three in one" enterprise, and the materials, workshop and staff dormitories are mixed together.

The report also said, "this accident has exposed the backward development mode of the footwear industry in Putian.

The footwear industry is the largest industry in Putian, with an annual output value of 15 billion yuan.

However, there are not many scale enterprises in the shoemaking enterprises of the whole city, only 190 of them are relatively standardized, while more than 200 are small ones.

In the Xiuyu District, where Feida's shoe upper and workshops were located, 64 "three in one" two in one processing factories and small workshops were cleared up within 3 days after the accident.

"This particularly serious fire accident shows that scattered and poorly managed workshop production has become a typical example of backward productivity, endangering industrial health and social harmony."

Whether workshop production is backward productivity or not is doubtful.

From the perspective of the output and price of shoes, our shoes are highly competitive all over the world.

There is no doubt that this competitiveness comes from low cost.

Low cost to workers without separate dormitories, materials, workshops, staff dormitories "three in one".

It is said that the town government issued two rectification instructions this year.

There is a common feature of all kinds of accidents that happen now, that is, the competent departments have "checked" and "banned" and issued several "rectification instructions".

If it doesn't happen, go ahead.

Within 3 days after the accident, 64 "three in one" and "two in one" workshops were found.

The way to change this situation is to put the responsibility system into practice, for example, to what extent the accident occurred and what kind of treatment should be given to the responsible person at that level.

Or back to the dormitory problem.

In order to "cut profits and profit", the boss is sure how to save money and do it.

If you hadn't saved the cost to such a degree, it would be hard to imagine that you could produce 6 billion pairs of shoes with an average price of $2.85.

There are 64 "three in one" and "two in one" workshops in one district. This is not an isolated phenomenon in some developed areas where private economy is relatively developed.

Whether or not the big fire is coming out is the malpractice of the backward development mode, or the malpractice of the government's management and service is not in place, so it is worth exploring.

It is a way to turn off all enterprises that do not provide dormitories to employees.

There is another way. The government in the 50s and 60s of last century did all the work to build dormitories for workers, and some places were called "workers' New Villages".

When I joined the countryside in 70s, the country was so poor that there was no foreign exchange at all. The government also allocated special funds to cover the dormitory of the educated youth in 1 trillion and 400 billion.

The local government takes people as the basis, takes out some money and gives some money to the migrant workers to build a group of dormitories, which are also cheaper to rent to these migrant workers. This can not only minimize the casualties caused by the fire, but also make the workshop enterprises have the space to survive and develop.

It is not difficult to build some employees' collective dormitories with the annual output value of 15 billion of the shoemaking market.