Chapter 546: The Sea Turtle Is Floating, Let Her Mix with the Earth Turtle?

This kind of gathering at Zhang Qiyan's house wasn't just a meal for free food; it was also a place for mutual exchange. Li Ye's fellow disciples often argued until their faces were red over some economic issue,

and Zhang Qiyan, as an economic bigwig, would act as a commentator, pointing out and helping these favorite disciples as much as possible.

You must know that in the early eighties, the wind in the mainland blew east and west. Once excellent reserve cadres like Yu Xiufen and Zou Mengcheng made a wrong judgment, it would affect their entire future.

And in every discussion, Li Ye was always the "gentlest" among the fellow disciples.

He never liked to engage in meaningless arguments with others, but today, as soon as Cai Minying showed her head, Li Ye went head-to-head.

Just now, Cai Minying only expressed her views on the "Plaza Accord," and Li Ye felt the taste wasn't quite right.

She was too worshipful of Western economic policies.

The "Plaza Accord" was clearly a war of the West harvesting Japan, but Cai Minying still felt the Lighthouse people were doing the right thing. Did we also have to listen to their opinions, fatten ourselves up, and wait for them to harvest us later?

However, based on just a few words, Li Ye couldn't be sure of Cai Minying's thoughts, so he threw out the "protect the poor" lead to test her.

Of course, this was also Li Ye's consistent view—to do things beneficial to the ordinary masses to the best of his ability.

Even if it was like Dong Ge giving grassroots employees five insurances and one fund! It was also a contribution.

The result of the test made Li Ye quite disappointed.

"Protect the poor? How could you have such an idea?"

Cai Minying looked at Li Ye in surprise, then asked at a very fast speed, "Classmate Li Ye, are you a person living thirty years ago?

Don't you know that we need to let some people get rich first now? Do you think it's still the era where whoever is poor is glorious..."

"Although the Lighthouse has a relief system for the poor, that's not a reason for the poor to be taken care of. In the Lighthouse, homeless people are also despised..."

"Senior Sister Cai, first of all, I very much agree with the policy of letting some people get rich first, but what about after getting rich? Is it to let the rich help the poor, or let the system help the poor?"

Li Ye interrupted Cai Minying's words, then said in a calm tone, "Poverty and wealth are relative and cannot be balanced. The rich will always be the minority.

The wealth ultimately plundered by the agreement signed by the Lighthouse and the other four countries this time will mostly belong to the rich.

Senior Sister Cai, you said you want to study and learn Western economics; I think that's good, otherwise I wouldn't have chosen the Western Economics major in the first place.

But if we completely copy Western free economics to the mainland, it's definitely inappropriate, because Western free economics is still too biased toward the rich."

When Cai Minying expressed surprise at "protecting the poor," Li Ye knew she had completely substituted herself into capital economics and forgotten the nature of the institution she served.

After returning to the country, Cai Minying entered the mainland's Economic Planning Committee!

If you are poor, it's because you didn't work hard enough, and you deserve to be poor.

Perhaps Cai Minying's thoughts were the same as the vast majority of pioneers now, wanting to change the mainland's situation as soon as possible and take off the hat of poverty and backwardness.

And the prosperity overseas just happened to prove the advancement of free economics over the mainland's planned economy, so Cai Minying firmly believed she was right.

But Li Ye knew that if Western free economics were allowed to run rampant in the mainland, then many years later, true oligarchs would appear in the mainland, and the increasingly rare homeless people on the streets would eventually reappear.

Although many people in later generations would curse for the wealth gap, and many rich people did indeed act like tyrants, everything is relative. The mainland's investment in the grassroots people is greater than any other country in the world, and the restrictions on the rich have never been relaxed.

No matter how poor the poor are, the basic needs of clothing, food, housing, and transportation must be met.

Decades later, how many homeless people are left on the streets? How many people are starving to death?

No matter how rich the rich are, they cannot be lawless. It's fine if you have private jets, clubs, and models; it's fine if you have eighteen illegitimate children. But if you dare to be greedy and insatiable, always thinking about emptying the last coin in the poor's pockets, and even dare to touch the country's interests...

One finger can crush you. If you don't believe it, just try it.

But Li Ye's "conservative" thinking was a minority in this era, especially among young people who hadn't experienced storms; he was definitely an "alien."

Cai Minying, who had been interrupted, waited until Li Ye finished speaking and immediately said angrily, "Classmate Li Ye, don't you know that interrupting others' speech is a very impolite behavior?"

Li Ye answered in a second, "Sorry, couldn't help it."

Cai Minying: "..."

What Li Ye was showing now was the so-called politeness of the West—moving one's lips without any effort. Many things in the West were just this hypocritical. For example, the so-called free economics was only free for themselves; as for others being free... are you dreaming?

Cai Minying stared at Li Ye for a long time, then asked, "You've studied with the teacher for three years; what exactly have you learned? Do you want to continue being poor? Do you want the people around you to be like you, poor forever?"

Li Ye shook his head lightly, "Actually, I am wealthier than the vast majority of people. If the economy were completely liberalized, I would make more money.

But I still think we should combine it with our national conditions and walk our own path; we cannot blindly trust Western economic policies."

"Heh."

Cai Minying finally laughed.

She asked Li Ye with a smile, "You don't think that just because you earned a large sum of manuscript fees, you are really wealthy, do you? You should actually go abroad to see what true wealth looks like."

Li Ye glanced at Cai Minying and didn't speak to her again.

In this world, there were some people who could discuss the question of "whether one is wealthy" with Li Ye, but Cai Minying was definitely not included.

Because someone who could earn one billion US dollars would definitely not be blinded by the performance of Western free economics.

They had been playing free economics for so many years, and now they expressed that they wanted to "take you along," and then you followed their baton. Could you really beat them?

Therefore, you cannot be led by the nose, even if there is a carrot in front of the nose.

It's best to eat the carrot and still walk your own path.

But Cai Minying was obviously not satisfied with Li Ye's "lowering the flag and stopping the drums." After all, even someone with a sharp tongue like Yu Xiufen said the little junior sister had a bad temper, and clearly, she hadn't been able to suppress her.

However, before Cai Minying could speak again, Professor Zhang took the lead and said, "Alright, you two are both smart people. Minying studied abroad for three years, broadened her horizons, and learned knowledge.

Li Ye has his own unique understanding of the mainland's economy. You two should communicate more in the future; you can benefit from each other."

Yu Xiufen, Zou Mengcheng, and the others looked at Li Ye and Cai Minying, and all couldn't help but purse their lips and laugh lightly, especially Yu Xiufen, whose face was full of schadenfreude.

But Cai Minying just froze for a moment, then immediately said, "Teacher, did you call me here today just to have him persuade me of some viewpoints? Then you might have wasted your effort; I have no interest in communicating with him."

Everyone stopped laughing and looked at Zhang Qiyan in surprise.

Professor Zhang looked at Cai Minying silently for a few seconds, then stood up and took a document from the bookshelf.

"Minying, you've been floating a bit lately. You didn't listen to the things I told you a few days ago at all.

Not only did you not listen, but you also wrote it into a proposal and submitted it. Yesterday, someone forwarded the report to me and asked me if the suggestions inside were my intention."

Zhang Qiyan looked at Cai Minying and said gently, "I was thinking yesterday, if I hadn't criticized you so loudly that day, would you have been so reckless?"

"Although Li Ye hasn't studied abroad, his horizons are very broad, he is not unfamiliar with the situation overseas, and he has his own insights into the mainland's wind direction."

"So I hope you can communicate with Li Ye. You think some of my old man's thoughts are backward, so you young people should have a common language, right?

I remember you used to argue with your senior brothers and sisters, but now, how long has it been since you discussed with them? They are on the front line, and many things are more thorough than what you see."

Everyone was stunned again, and Li Ye finally understood that the teacher wanted himself, this earth turtle raised in fresh water, to teach the sea turtle who returned from salt water how to learn "mixed farming"?

But why? Just because both the earth turtle and the sea turtle belong to the order Testudines and the family Trionychidae?

Li Ye reached out and took the proposal impolitely, flipping through it quickly.

Anyway, there were only a few types of Eastern and Western theories these days. Li Ye, who was familiar with history, understood it at a glance and didn't need to pick at words with a magnifying glass.

A few minutes later, Li Ye exhaled and threw the proposal back onto the table.

Zhang Qiyan asked in surprise, "Li Ye, you've finished reading it already?"

Li Ye nodded and didn't speak.

Zhang Qiyan asked again, "Then what is your opinion?"

Li Ye shook his head and said very simply, "I don't understand it, no opinion."

Zhang Qiyan was choked.

Even Wang Zhizhang, the most honest person present, could see Li Ye's insincerity and even a little bit of "disdain."

That's right, Li Ye was indeed disdainful.

Studied abroad for three years, spent at least twenty thousand US dollars, and ended up learning this?

In her proposal, Cai Minying hinted at the extremely sensitive issue of "privatization," and the examples she relied on were developed countries like the Lighthouse.

Li Ye didn't oppose privatization either; after all, the private economy was an important supplement to the state-owned economy, and he was now one of the beneficiaries of the mainland's privatization.

But Cai Minying, unfortunately, expanded the privatization target too much, even vaguely including railways and electricity.

Looking at it from the eighties, overseas railways and electricity were of course more advanced than the mainland's, because the mainland had power outages all day long, and even hospitals couldn't fully guarantee electricity.

As for trains, don't even mention it; you couldn't get on them, and you couldn't even get on by climbing through the windows.

So Cai Minying's suggestion seemed very correct.

But unfortunately, Li Ye happened to know the future development level of these very backward projects of railway and electricity in the mainland.

However, Cai Minying was an elite who returned from overseas, a master's degree holder, and a senior sister, so Li Ye couldn't spray her immediately.

Anyway, with her ability, it was impossible to change such an important national policy and the historical trajectory of these two world-class achievements. After all, those who had walked through the hail of bullets hadn't all died yet! They would brake at critical moments.

So it was better to just say he didn't understand.

But Cai Minying understood Li Ye's eyes.

"You don't not understand, you look down on it, right?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 547 =====