What is economic consumption?

Consumption economy ● An important content of the study of consumption economy is to dialectically treat consumption, investment and export as the three major factors that promote the development of national economy from a deeper and broader perspective, and to scientifically understand the interactive relationship between them. Macroeconomic policies should be conducive to the overall and long-term development of consumption. ● It is necessary to adapt to the increase of residents' income and the upgrading of consumption structure, optimize the supply structure, and constantly create new markets. To solve the problem of insufficient consumption demand, we must actively promote reform, get rid of various policies restricting consumption and institutional obstacles restricting consumption growth, and cultivate a good consumption environment. In view of the current slow growth of consumer demand and insufficient effective demand, the Central Economic Work Conference proposed to "improve the consumption capacity of urban and rural residents and enhance the pulling effect of consumption on economic growth". This actually puts forward the urgent task of studying and developing consumer economy. The study of consumption is inseparable from supply, and the study of consumption economy is also inseparable from the reality of consumer goods industry, that is, the development of light industry. Since the mid-1990s, great changes have taken place in China's economic life: from the shortage of products to the oversupply of products, from the inability of production to meet consumption to the restriction of production. The direct cause of this great change is the extraordinary development of light industry in China. Since the reform and opening up, China's light industrial enterprises have taken the lead in pushing to the market, and gradually established a market-oriented competition mechanism. The development speed is unprecedented, and the comprehensive production capacity has been significantly improved, ending the history of China's shortage of consumer goods. But at the same time, the relative surplus on the market at present is mostly consumer goods. Therefore, we should study the consumption economy by combining supply and optimizing supply structure, and study how to solve the problems of slow consumption growth and insufficient effective demand. Study on the Connotation of Consumer Economy In China, consumer economy is still in the early stage of development from theory to practice, its definition is not very clear, and its social influence is limited. In fact, the ultimate goal and fundamental driving force of economic development is consumption. "Consumption" has broad and narrow meanings, including individual and society, current and long-term, domestic consumption and export consumption. Consumption in a narrow sense refers to living consumption, while consumption in a broad sense includes both living consumption and production consumption. Understanding consumption in a broad sense may help us to re-understand the role of consumption and the relationship between investment and consumption, export and consumption. In order to survive and develop, human beings need means of subsistence such as food, clothing, housing and transportation, and obtaining means of subsistence requires production and investment. Investment is the consumption of means of production and belongs to the category of long-term social consumption. Investment in expanding reproduction and public facilities construction is to create conditions for improving people's material and cultural life and is conducive to improving consumption level and quality. Some infrastructure investment projects are carriers of consumer behavior after completion, such as the National Grand Theatre, stadiums, tourist facilities and hotels under construction. Investment in infrastructure is ultimately for the whole society or for long-term living consumption. The consumption of means of production will eventually be transformed into living consumption. If this transformation cannot be completed, it is a waste, and the economic growth brought by this investment that cannot be transformed into final consumption is not sustainable growth. This new perspective is helpful for us to fully understand macro-control. As long as it is conducive to expanding effective consumer demand in the long run and the financial resources can bear it, it should invest; On the contrary, if effective consumption cannot be expanded for a long time, or if the country's financial resources are within its reach, it should be curbed. Therefore, it is completely correct for the central authorities to put forward that macro-control should proceed from reality, with restraint and pressure. The target of export consumption is foreign consumers, and 80% of China's annual exports are consumer goods. China is rich in labor resources. Expanding exports will increase employment and promote domestic consumption growth through the increase of workers' income. We should properly handle the relationship between expanding domestic demand and expanding exports so that they can complement each other. An important content of the study of consumption economy is to dialectically treat consumption, investment and export as the three major factors driving the development of national economy from a deeper and broader perspective, and to scientifically understand their interactive relationship. Macroeconomic policies should be conducive to the overall and long-term development of consumption. Studying consumers is the main object of consumer economy research. Consumer's income, consumption capacity, consumption level and consumption structure are important indicators to measure the level of national economic and social development, and are also topics that consumer economy needs to focus on. First of all, pay attention to the development trend of consumption level. After more than 20 years' rapid development of reform and opening-up, the life of Chinese residents has generally reached a well-off level, and the consumer demand of residents and the product structure, scale and grade of the market have undergone profound changes, and this trend is still developing. By 2020, China's GDP will quadruple compared with that in 2000, and the per capita GDP will reach about $3,000. By then, what new demands will the increase of residents' income, especially rural residents' income, put on the market? How to meet the expanding and upgrading market demand, especially the rural market? These are all topics that need to be studied in advance. Second, pay attention to the upgrading of consumption structure. With the obvious decline of Engel's coefficient, the overall consumption structure in China has been upgraded rapidly, and new consumption highlights have emerged, and mass consumption has begun to transition from survival to development and enjoyment. It can be said that the consumption structure of urban and rural residents at different levels is upgrading, which will effectively promote the adjustment and upgrading of industrial and product structure and provide development opportunities for many enterprises. Third, pay attention to the potential demand of consumers and the optimization of supply structure. The buyer's market in China since the mid-1990s is an immature and underdeveloped market economy, and there is a structural contradiction between the supply structure and the demand structure. The outstanding manifestations of this structural contradiction are: on the one hand, ineffective oversupply, mainly a serious surplus of low-tech products in industrial consumer goods; On the other hand, the effective supply is insufficient, especially the scale, variety and quality of products and services with high performance, multi-function and high added value (tertiary industry) can not meet the needs of the improvement of social consumption level and the change of demand structure. China still has a considerable amount of high-end consumer goods and raw materials for producing high-end consumer goods to be imported. There are still many unmet needs in people's lives. Even if it is basically satisfied, the quality and grade of products and services are not high enough, and there are not enough patterns. To fill this demand gap, we need the support and cooperation of relevant policies, and more importantly, we need enterprises to have strong technological innovation capabilities. We should optimize the supply structure and constantly explore new markets. By adopting new technologies, new processes and new equipment, we can produce products that meet people's growing material and cultural needs, continuously improve quality, reduce costs, stimulate consumers' potential consumption desires, and turn them into realistic purchasing power. Studying the development law of consumer economy, the lack of effective demand is a reflection of many deep-seated contradictions in China's economic and social development, which determines that we should take the development of consumer economy as a breakthrough to solve the deep-seated contradictions in China's current economic and social development. Therefore, we should seriously study the development law of consumer economy and how to realize the virtuous circle of social production, circulation, distribution and consumption by developing consumer economy. The upgrading of consumption structure will expand market demand and promote industrial upgrading and the development of modern service industry. After the popularization of durable consumer goods such as household appliances, the hot spots of urban consumption in China are turning to new areas such as automobiles and housing. With the increasing efforts to reduce farmers' burden, increase farmers' income and improve rural consumption environment, the potential purchasing power of rural residents began to be gradually released, and the demand for durable consumer goods such as household appliances showed an accelerated growth trend. At present, another important feature of China's residents' consumption structure changes is the decline in the proportion of physical consumption, while the consumption of education, culture, catering, tourism and medical care services has increased rapidly, showing great development potential. This round of upgrading the consumption structure of urban and rural residents will strongly promote the adjustment and upgrading of industrial structure and provide development opportunities for many industries. Promote the supply structure to adapt to changes in consumer demand. To optimize supply, we should start with market innovation. Besides making big pies, we should also make a fuss about creating new pies. First, adapt to the changes in consumer demand during the consumption transition period and adjust production and management strategies. At present, the contradiction between supply and demand is no longer a shortage of quantity, but a diversification of quality. Enterprises should organize production and operation mainly according to the signal of market shortage, and gradually change to meet both the actual demand and the potential demand of the market. Second, promote the diversification of industrial structure and further broaden the consumption field. There are still many blank spots in the urban and rural markets of China, with great potential and unlimited business opportunities. Such as information, leasing, financial management, medical care, housekeeping and other forms of social services, is a very broad field of consumption. Third, optimize the supply structure and give play to the guiding and promoting role of production in consumption. We should identify the market, seize the opportunity, improve product quality and reduce product cost by adopting new technologies. We should not only share the market, but also create the market to stimulate and expand consumer demand by developing new products and services. Judging from the current situation of China's consumer economy, to solve the problem of insufficient consumer demand, we must actively promote reform, get rid of various policies restricting consumption and institutional obstacles restricting consumption growth, and cultivate a good consumption environment. Let consumption become the main engine of economic growth. Vigorously develop service industries, labor-intensive industries, small and medium-sized enterprises and non-public economy, and cultivate a solid foundation for consumption growth. Through the guidance and regulation of macroeconomic policies, residents' consumption is encouraged to become the main engine of economic growth, and the main driving force for economic growth gradually changes from investment expansion to equal emphasis on investment and consumption. Implement a proactive employment policy and a reasonable income distribution policy. Employment is the basis of increasing residents' income and expanding consumer demand. We should put the expansion of employment in a more prominent position in economic and social development, deepen the reform of the employment system and implement a proactive employment policy. Vigorously promote the reform of the income distribution system, expand the proportion of middle-income people, and increase the income of urban and rural residents, especially low-and middle-income groups. Improve the income redistribution policy, increase transfer payments to low-income groups and poor areas, and narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. The total social consumption increased by improving the life of low-and middle-income families is not only conducive to digesting the relative excess capacity in many fields, but also consistent with our goal of developing the economy. Stimulating rural consumption is an important focus of expanding domestic demand. Rural residents are the largest consumer group, and starting the rural consumer market is an effective way to solve the problem of insufficient effective demand. Increasing farmers' income steadily and improving rural consumption environment are fundamental to expanding rural consumption and improving farmers' living standards. Improve the agricultural structure, develop high-quality and efficient agriculture, adjust the regional distribution of agricultural production, further tap the income growth potential within agriculture, and increase the processing value of agricultural products by extending the agricultural industrial chain to create more income growth opportunities for farmers. At the same time, improve the environment of rural surplus labor transfer, transfer a large number of rural surplus labor through industrialization and urbanization, and increase residents' income. Eliminate institutional obstacles that restrict consumption and improve consumption expectations. On the premise of increasing residents' income, we will speed up the establishment and improvement of social security systems such as pension and unemployment to reduce consumers' worries. At the same time, increase investment in public goods such as compulsory education and public facilities, strengthen the construction of consumption infrastructure and supporting systems, and provide practical protection for residents to increase their immediate consumption. Improve the market system and improve the consumption environment. Deepen the system reform in the field of consumption, clean up various policies to curb consumption, formulate policies to encourage consumption, and cultivate and expand consumption hotspots. Vigorously rectify and standardize the market economic order and improve the consumption environment. Promote the upgrading of consumption structure and vigorously develop consumer credit. At present, the consumption structure of China is in an upgrading period from quantity expansion to quality pursuit. We should take active policies and measures to cultivate consumption hotspots such as housing, automobiles, tourism, education and culture, and promote the upgrading of consumption structure. Consumer credit is an important means to promote residents' spot consumption and credit consumption. It is necessary to combine the construction of social credit system with the improvement of banking services, promote the development of consumer credit business, continue to expand the scale of consumer credit, accelerate the establishment and improvement of loan guarantee system and personal credit information system, and realize information sharing.