Chapter 262 Everyone is rich, but I am the only one who is poor
"Boss! Why don't you just agree to cooperate with them? This should be a good thing, right?" Moro asked in confusion.
Xiao Peng did not directly agree to Sergio's request, but said that he would go back and discuss with Fabian and Pascal to give him an answer.
After hearing Moro's words, Xiao Peng replied, "Moro, if a goal is too easy to achieve, people won't cherish it. Let's salvage it well this time, let him see the wealth here, and then he'll be even more eager to cooperate with us. The Mediterranean isn't just Italy. Greece has the largest territorial waters. Look, this time, the 'Mediterranean Support No. 1' is searching for a Greek shipwreck. And now we can also challenge the Strait of Gibraltar. Let me put it this way, the number of shipwrecks in the Strait of Gibraltar alone is enough for us to salvage for a lifetime! Sergio understands this! He hopes we salvage more in Italy so he can make money. He's more anxious than we are right now, so we have to see his sincerity."
Moro frowned and asked, "Then why does he want to cooperate with you?"
Xiao Peng spread his hands and said, "No one else can do it! The Mediterranean is rich, but salvaging is also difficult. There are probably no more than five companies in the world that can conduct deep-sea salvage here. After all, the investment scale is too large! Odyssey Company is now unable to save any more shipwrecks because of the Mercedes incident. They have more than enough shipwrecks in the North Atlantic, and we have successfully found two Italian shipwrecks, proving our ability. So... who else would he turn to if not us?"
Bruch said, "In the final analysis, our boss is awesome!"
After hearing this, Xiao Peng said, "Bruch, even though I know you're just flattering me, I love hearing it. You can flatter me a little longer!"
Bruch laughed. "The first Chinese word I learned was 'NiuX,' but I really don't understand why you Chinese people use 'NiuX' to mean awesome."
"Because it's big!" Xiao Peng said as a matter of course.
Moro disagreed after hearing this: "Whoever said that must not have met the woman I found last night. My God, she is simply a bottomless pit, and it's better that she is a petite oriental woman!"
Xiao Peng gave him the middle finger: "Brother, although I don't like to judge other people's lifestyles, I am not comfortable with what you said."
Moro coughed twice and said, "Sorry, boss, I won't talk about this topic again!"
Bruch said, "Boss, I've been to China. Even though you keep saying your hometown is a small village, I found there aren't many beggars there, and the people there all live well. At least they have enough food and clothing. How come so many women come out to do this?"
Xiao Peng held up two fingers and said, "This question requires two answers. First, our country's poverty alleviation efforts have only been effective in the past decade or so, so not everyone is wealthy now. Second, everyone chooses a different lifestyle. Many people here appear to be living well, but how do you know they aren't deeply in debt?"
"No way? I really think that you Chinese people live a much richer life than I imagined!" Bruch exclaimed.
Xiao Peng explained, "We Chinese have a saying, 'Food is the most important thing for the people.' We need to first solve the problem of food and clothing for the people before we worry about anything else! If we only talk about income, the Chinese people's income is actually very low."
Bruch shook his head and said, "Boss, I don't like what you're saying. You can't consider the exchange rate. For example, you earn 5,000 RMB in China and I earn 5,000 Euros in Marseille. If we were living in each other's countries, my quality of life on 5,000 Euros might not be as good as your quality of life on 5,000 RMB. You don't have such high taxes!"
Moro nodded and said, "Of course, if you consider the exchange rate, then the RMB won't work. In other words, the money you earn in China can allow you to live well in your own country, but it will be difficult if you leave China."
Bruch said, "Moro, you don't know because you haven't been to China. Don't believe the nonsense in our media! Before I went to China, I thought people there were living in dire straits. After I got there, I realized we were all idiots for believing the media's nonsense!"
Xiao Peng shook his head and said, "As a Chinese, I can tell you this: many of the reports in your media are wrong. Furthermore, China isn't as wealthy as you think. So, both of you are only half right."
"Boss, what do you mean?" asked Bruch.
Xiao Peng smiled and said, "I discussed this issue with my friend when I got back. My friend said something very good: shutting down the internet can protect your IQ."
"Ah?" Everyone looked at Xiao Peng, not understanding what he meant. The Internet is obviously a good thing to enlighten people, so how come it has become a matter of shutting down the Internet to protect IQ?
Xiao Peng continued, "Look online and you'll see no poor people! Everyone's a tycoon, and it feels like everyone's rich, and I'm the only one who's poor. But is that realistic? For example, this year, our country's labor force participation rate is 67.5%, which means 945 million people in China are employed. So, shouldn't we calculate the income levels of these 945 million people? You can't just look at average income. Even if I have zero income and average it out with Bill Gates, I'm still richer than 99.9999% of the people on the planet, right? Take our country's four major cities, for example. The average monthly salary is over 10,000 yuan! But I dare say that 80% of the people in those four cities earn less than that, because they're being averaged out by higher-income earners."
"If you want to investigate people's income, you can't look at the average, but the 'median', which is the middle of a set of data arranged in order in statistics! If you only look at the median salary, the city with the highest salary in our country is Beijing, which is less than 7,000 yuan. This is still our country's first-tier cities. Our country's three first-tier cities plus 15 new first-tier cities account for 30% of the country's population. However, among these 18 cities, only 11 have a median salary of over 4,000 yuan, only four have a median salary of over 5,000 yuan, and only two have a median salary of over 6,000 yuan! So how much do the remaining 70% of the urban and rural population earn? The average income is only 2,205 yuan. Why do so many people in our country take the civil service exam? Some people may look down on the meager income of civil servants in big cities, but in small cities and even towns, it's definitely high income! Bruch, didn't you say that our country is good? Let me tell you, the monthly salary of civil servants in our country is about 1,800 yuan after the first year of regularization. The 13th salary plus spiritual civilization awards and other things will bring the monthly income to more than 3,000 yuan. This is a high income in our country! The kind of marriage proposals will be knocking on the door. Our country is really too big to be judged by one person. Believe me, although our country is getting better and better, most people are still poor! "
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