jdhmnovel Chapter 942 I was indeed too kind-hearted.
Chapter 942 I was indeed too kind-hearted.
Yang Shaofeng simply rolled his eyes at Li Shanchang's question.
High construction costs?
What an international joke.
"The steel is smelted from iron ore in Liaodong, the cement is made in local cement workshops in Liaodong, and the river sand and stones are directly dug from the river."
"Overall, the cost of building a house is actually not high, and is even quite low."
Yang Shaofeng said with a smile, "Comparatively speaking, the highest cost of this type of building is actually the coal used for heating in winter."
"However, the coal is also mined from coal mines in Liaodong, so the cost is not much higher."
Li Shanchang rolled his eyes and snorted, "Although the cost of steel and cement is low, it doesn't come from thin air, does it? Besides, there are labor costs and land costs. If you factor all of these in, the construction cost probably won't be too low, will it?"
Yang Shaofeng nodded. "If you factor everything in, the cost will definitely not be low. But Prime Minister Li can't just look at the construction cost and not see the benefits behind it."
Shouldn't an empty building have a window installed?
Since we're going to install windows, shouldn't we install double-glazed, double-aperture windows?
After the windows are installed, do I need to buy curtains or something?
Next, should we do a full coat of white paint and buy some furniture?
Glass workshops, textile workshops, cement and lime workshops, woodworking workshops, and a whole host of other workshops will benefit from this.
Besides, the building has centralized heating, so charging a heating fee isn't unreasonable, is it?
Since heating fees have already been collected, shouldn't property management fees also be put on the agenda?
Perhaps we could consider the shared area?
Li Shanchang was completely numb.
What the hell is this called?
This is blatant exploitation of the people!
Li Shanchang stared at Yang Shaofeng with an inscrutable expression. "Your Highness, are you trying to squeeze the last drop of profit from the people?"
Yang Shaofeng rolled his eyes again and snorted coldly, "Who said this thing is for ordinary people?"
Li Shanchang was slightly taken aback and asked, "Isn't it for the common people?"
Yang Shaofeng gave a soft snort: "Of course it's not for the common people."
What kind of international joke is this?
Are these steel and cement buildings meant for the people of the Ming Dynasty to live in?
Putting aside the construction cost of this thing, the lifespan alone is enough to give people a headache.
Judging from the current level of steel smelting in the Ming Dynasty, a large number of buildings will become dilapidated in a hundred or even a few decades.
How will the residents who have moved into apartment buildings be resettled?
Should the imperial court spend more money to buy them new houses?
Or should we drive them out of the dangerous building and let them fend for themselves?
Yang Shaofeng snorted again and said, "Although I, Yang, am crazy, I would never do something as heartless as forcing people to live in buildings and leaving them homeless decades later."
“No matter how sturdy a house built with reinforced concrete is, it still has a lifespan issue. But a house built with bricks, tiles, and wood, if properly maintained and repaired, can last for hundreds or even thousands of years.”
"So, these houses were actually prepared for laborers."
"After all, there are hundreds of thousands of laborers in Liaodong who are mining and reclaiming wasteland. The imperial court can't just stand by and watch them live among snakes, insects, and rodents, can it?"
"Letting workers live closer to their work sites saves them time on the road, allowing them to do more work. It's also more convenient to manage them if they live together. Isn't that reasonable?"
Li Shanchang, Zhu Biao, Hu Weiyong, and others nodded unconsciously.
reasonable.
That's perfectly reasonable.
You can do whatever you want to harm workers, it's all perfectly reasonable.
As long as you don't harm the people of the Ming Dynasty, it's fine.
Yang Shaofeng walked to the windowsill and patted it: "If we simply calculate the construction cost, the cost of such a room is about twenty guan."
“A building has five units, each with three households, and is three stories high. The total cost of each building is around 900 guan.”
“Each room was sold to the laborers for one hundred strings of cash.”
Li Shanchang frowned slightly and asked, "One hundred strings of cash? May I ask, Your Highness, out of the hundreds of thousands of laborers in Liaodong, how many can afford one hundred strings of cash?"
Those who worked in coal mines and iron mines were a little better off. With a minimum wage of sixty coins a day, if they saved one string a month, they could save up about one hundred strings in ten years.
People with skills like carpentry or blacksmithing can occasionally take on other jobs, earning more and saving money faster.
But how much do laborers earn per day?
Those gentry and their relatives from Jiangnan were essentially working for free. If they were lucky, they could regain their freedom after five, ten, twenty, or even thirty years. If they were unlucky, they would be buried in Liaodong.
Laborers from various vassal states, such as those from the Korean peninsula, the short and ugly, and the monkeys, only received ten coins a day, and even that money didn't reach their own hands.
Yang Shaofeng rolled his eyes again, glanced at Zhu Biao, and said sarcastically, "If the laborers can't come up with the money, does that mean the coal mine and the iron mine can't either?"
"Among the workers, some perform well and some perform poorly. Isn't it reasonable to provide housing for those who perform well?"
"Deduct it gradually from their wages."
"If that's really not enough, let the mine subsidize them half, and let the workers only pay half the cost."
"Let them repay this money slowly over thirty years."
"If you can't pay it off yourself, your son will pay it off; if your son can't pay it off, your grandson will pay it off."
"There will be a day when it's all paid off."
"If you're unlucky and don't even have a son or grandson, then the house will be taken back by the mine."
“You can lower your standards a bit, don’t be like those bald…those monks, you can lower them a little bit.”
"..."
As Yang Shaofeng continued talking, Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong's faces grew increasingly dark, while Zhu Biao's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
To extract marrow from bones?
No.
This is my brother-in-law artificially creating a class system among laborers.
Or to put it more bluntly, the brother-in-law is shifting the blame—when all the laborers are exploited, the conflict will be concentrated between the laborers and the Ming Dynasty.
Those laborers, seeing the common people of the Ming Dynasty enjoying a daily wage of sixty copper coins, would inevitably become psychologically twisted sooner or later.
However, when some laborers receive houses because of their good performance, even if it requires them to work hard for thirty years, and even if their descendants continue to work hard for them, the conflict between the laborers and the Ming Dynasty will transform into a conflict between laborers themselves.
It's like what my brother-in-law said: he's afraid his brother is suffering too much, but he's also afraid his brother is living too well.
Thinking of this, Zhu Biao said with a smile, "Later, we will release a few more places and allow some laborers to become citizens of the Ming Dynasty. Laborers will receive ten coins a day, and citizens of the Ming Dynasty will receive sixty coins a day. In this way, they can pay off their mortgages sooner."
Hmm, I guess I'm still too kind-hearted.