In ancient times, the value of land was based on its fertility and accessibility.
Therefore, most cities are built along waterways.
The size of a city is strongly correlated with these two indicators.
In modern society, the division of labor has become more defined, and the wave of globalization has swept across the world. Against this backdrop, the value of land depends on the population, population quality, industrial scale, and industrial quality that the land supports.
The virtual world, however, completely overturns this logic.
Both the real economy and the virtual economy have been decoupled from the value of land.
This phenomenon began to become increasingly common in the era of brain-computer interface VR, and became a consensus after the birth of the virtual world.
No one recognizes the intrinsic value of the land anymore.
The manufacturing industry is the sector in the real economy that needs land the most, and there are many factors to consider in manufacturing.
The location of manufacturing industries is definitely not determined by cheap labor alone.
It needs to consider factors such as the price and stability of hydropower, the convenience of transportation, the difficulty and cost of recruiting talent, and so on.
So even if America tries every means to move its manufacturing back to its homeland, or at the very least to Southeast Asia or neighboring countries, it will still be able to achieve its goals.
But they can't do it. Compared to China, the only advantage these countries have is that their labor force is cheaper.
By 2031, the extent to which artificial intelligence is used in industry, along with autonomous driving capabilities, will reduce the only factors to consider when choosing a manufacturing location to the price and stability of water and electricity.
Especially after Zheng Li released a brand-new set of artificial intelligence language and framework, the penetration rate of artificial intelligence in the manufacturing industry has further increased, and the overall unemployment situation on Blue Star has become more and more serious.
In contrast to the optimism of economists and financial professionals, a large number of unemployed people in the manufacturing sector are impacting the job market.
Urban white-collar workers who haven't yet been affected by this fire have a clear feeling: there are more deliverymen in yellow and blue vests on the streets, and food delivery times are much faster than before.
Some users who tried to take advantage of the "Zhunshibao" (a food delivery app) during heavy rain have repeatedly miscalculated.
This is because a large number of unemployed people are turning to the service industry, and the profession in the service industry that uses future security to obtain high income in the present is food delivery rider.
They have no welfare benefits and rely on long working hours to earn higher cash.
As for Didi drivers? By 2031, when autonomous driving is fully developed, all Didi drivers will be replaced by autonomous vehicles.
Even Didi drivers who own their own cars choose to let the cars run on the road rather than driving them themselves.
Taxi drivers and their variations have become professions in history.
The profession of designated driver is also about to become a thing of the past. If it weren't for the very few cars on the market that do not have autonomous driving capabilities, they could barely make a living from this.
However, the ride-hailing platforms know that this is a gradually dying industry, so they have chosen to reduce investment and barely maintain operations.
Therefore, food delivery riders are the most common group of people who have been unemployed in the manufacturing industry.
For investors, companies that keenly sensed this trend quickly lowered the price per order for delivery riders.
There are plenty of people, so if you don't send it, someone else will.
This has resulted in Meituan's financial reports over the past two years being among the second best compared to other internet companies.
The best performer is Pinduoduo. The large number of unemployed people has led to a surge in demand for shopping among the lower classes. Pinduoduo, which had been stagnant and declining for several years, has once again entered a high-growth phase.
Returning to the topic of land, manufacturing companies don't need to consider so many factors when selecting land.
Transportation is equipped with autonomous driving, the workforce is supported by artificial intelligence, and advancements in communication technology combined with industrial VR enable technicians to perform specialized operations remotely.
In the latter half of China's urbanization process, the new districts built by various second-tier cities to sell land came in handy.
These new districts, as satellite cities of the old city, can still rely on the transfer of industries and population when the economy is doing well.
However, after the logic of attracting investment changed, the land in the new area could only be guaranteed by urban investment companies and state-owned enterprises, which could not play a role in supporting local finances at all.
This has led to land prices in the new district not being able to be sold at a good price. The local government lacks funds to carry out infrastructure construction in the new district. The incomplete infrastructure has resulted in no population inflow, which in turn makes it even harder to sell land in the new district.
This is a vicious cycle.
Over the past decade, almost every second-tier city, and even some third-tier cities, has seen its new districts gradually become satellite cities in the true sense.
The intelligentization of manufacturing has made these new districts useful.
The inadequate infrastructure in the new district refers to the lack of adequate supporting facilities such as hospitals, large commercial areas, and schools, which are intended to serve the population influx.
However, it has all the elements that the manufacturing industry will need by 2030, such as hydropower, internet, industrial land, and commercial land.
This has resulted in no significant population inflow into the new districts, but the factories starting to operate in the new districts is a considerable benefit for China.
At least local governments can take this opportunity to alleviate their precarious financial situation.
However, things are not so good for developed cities.
High-income earners can work remotely, so they no longer need to bear the prohibitively high housing prices in first-tier cities.
For high-income individuals in first-tier cities, it is entirely possible to work remotely from various locations.
This phenomenon was already very common in large internet companies, and it is now becoming more prevalent in some private enterprises as well.
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