222: Chapter 222 Basic Security Account: Ushering in an Era of Great Welfare

Lu Li did not speak.

He simply grew increasingly silent.

He certainly knew that the points everyone was criticizing this time were exactly the crux of the problem.

Technological development is not a mistake.

It is a mistake to let people lose their dignity because of technological development.

If productivity has reached such a high level, yet ordinary people are instead more panicked, more afraid, and finding it harder to survive, then it signifies that the direction in which the dividends are flowing is fundamentally wrong.

He leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers lightly on the desk.

What flashed through his mind was not how to suppress public opinion.

Nor was it how to handle public relations.

It was something else—something larger, heavier, and more dangerous.

Urban feedback.

Basic Security Account.

Dynamic unemployment security.

Job transfer subsidies.

Community service and urban points.

These ideas were not something he had come up with overnight.

It was just that, before, the timing had not been right.

But now...

Nuclear Fusion was about to be implemented, Robots were replacing most jobs, and Doubao AI was taking over countless professions.

It was about time.

Returning to the villa in the evening, it was already pitch black outside.

Su Qingxue had just logged out of the virtual office system. As she removed the sensor patches, she saw Lu Li sitting in the living room, staring motionless out the window.

The lights were not turned on very brightly, and his profile was submerged in the half-light and shadow, possessing a rare, chilling sense of stillness.

She walked over and sat down beside him.

"Still thinking about those things on the internet?"

Lu Li gave a hum of acknowledgement.

After two seconds, he finally spoke.

"It's about time."

Su Qingxue tilted her head to look at him.

"What is about time?"

Lu Li looked at the city lights outside that were being rewritten bit by bit, his voice very flat.

"It is time to do that thing."

"Which thing?"

Lu Li paused before spitting out four words.

"Urban feedback."

Su Qingxue's gaze sharpened.

She suddenly had a premonition.

This time, what Lu Li was going to move was likely not some product, nor some industry.

It was something much more fundamental.

The next morning, Lu Li placed a new proposal in front of Su Qingxue.

It was not thick.

But when Su Qingxue opened the first page, her expression visibly changed.

Because this was not a corporate proposal.

It was not a product plan.

Nor was it some kind of business model.

This was a draft framework for the pilot welfare feedback program in Chengbei District.

Looking further down, several core terms were clearly visible—

Resident Basic Security Account.

Su Qingxue flipped through the proposal, growing quieter the more she read.

Every pilot resident would have a Basic Security Account.

The account funds were not called "handouts," but rather an automatic backflow from the operating dividends of the smart city.

It covered the minimum requirements for living.

It was not to let people lie flat.

But to first ensure a decent baseline.

If one lost their job due to intelligent replacement, the security level would automatically increase.

It was not to support them permanently.

But to provide a buffer period.

To give people a chance to catch their breath.

To give people a chance to turn things around.

Further on, there was support for job transfer training.

Those who entered the operations and maintenance system, learned new skills, or accepted professional restructuring would receive additional subsidies.

And those who were not suited for high-tech positions would not simply be discarded.

Community care, urban services, grassroots assistance, elderly and childcare support, and participation in public environmental affairs would all be incorporated into the urban points system.

Letting ineffective labor disappear.

But ensuring that valuable people are not cast aside by the era.

Su Qingxue closed the proposal and remained silent for a long time before asking softly:

"Are you trying to make the smart city capable of supporting people first?"

Lu Li looked at her and shook his head.

"It is not supporting."

"It is returning to people what should have belonged to them in the first place."

The words were spoken very softly.

But the weight was shockingly heavy.

Su Qingxue certainly knew that what Lu Li wanted to do was never "charity."

It was changing the logic of distribution.

The dividends of technological development cannot remain only with platforms, capital, giants, and the upper echelons.

If the money does not return to the hands of the general public, the stronger the technology becomes, the wider the cracks will grow.

She looked at Lu Li and said in a low voice:

"Do you know what this means?"

"I do."

"This is not something a company can decide."

"That is why I have to go and negotiate."

Lu Li's tone was very flat.

But precisely because it was flat, it seemed more like he had already thought it through completely.

He stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, watched the flowing car lights on the overpass in the distance, and remained silent for a few seconds before speaking again.

"If money isn't fed back to the people, should it be used to launch a few more rockets?"

"Even if the sky is bustling, if people on the ground cannot live well, what is the point?"

Su Qingxue's heart gave a violent jolt.

She knew that this time, Lu Li was truly playing for keeps.

He was not making a product, not investing in a project, and not just pushing some technology forward.

He was going to strike directly at the heart of the old rules.

At noon, Lu Li called Elder Wu and set off for Beining City.

He did not bring many people.

He only brought the core materials and the bottom-layer model calculation results.

Because this matter, in the end, did not rely on packaging.

It relied on logic.

The Mayor of Beining City met him in person.

This mayor was a very intelligent man and someone who had truly witnessed the results in Chengbei District.

So, when Lu Li spread out the proposal and explained it page by page, the other party's expression became visibly more solemn.

It was not aversion.

It was shock.

There was even a hint of unease after being persuaded.

When Lu Li finished speaking, the conference room was silent for a long time.

The mayor leaned back in his chair, staring at the proposal for a long time before slowly spitting out a sentence:

"Are you doing a city pilot..."

"Or are you trying to step into a certain era ahead of time?"

Lu Li did not answer that, just looked at him.

The mayor was silent for a few seconds and was just about to continue when the door of the conference room was suddenly pushed open.

Elder Wu walked in.

He was old, but his steps were still steady. As soon as his eyes landed on the proposal, his face sank.

"I knew it."

"This kid wouldn't just quietly talk about urban construction."

The atmosphere changed instantly.

Elder Wu walked to the table. Without even sitting down, he picked up the proposal and scanned it. The more he read, the more his brows furrowed.

Finally, he looked up at Lu Li and bluntly defined it:

"This is wishful thinking."

The atmosphere in the conference room sank to the bottom instantly.

Lu Li looked up at him, his expression unchanged.

Elder Wu put the proposal on the table, his voice hard.

"You want to pilot basic security payments in Chengbei?"

"Then what about those micro-enterprises that only pay two thousand yuan a month?"

"Who would still be willing to take those low-wage jobs?"

"If Beining City issues them, will other cities do the same?"

"Tomorrow, the whole country will come asking, 'Why does Chengbei have it and I don't?' How do you plan to answer?"

"Can the fiscal budget handle it?"

"Can the social climate handle it?"

"Are you trying to make people stop working altogether in the future?"

With this barrage of questions, the conference room became so quiet that it felt as if the very air was being crushed.

The mayor did not speak.

Because these were precisely the things he was most worried about as well.

Lu Li looked at Elder Wu, paused for two seconds, and then slowly spoke:

"Those two-thousand-yuan-a-month jobs should never have become the foundational structure of the era in the first place."

Elder Wu's gaze sharpened.

Lu Li's tone, however, did not retreat an inch.

"If the value of a job's existence is only to keep people alive on low wages, then it should have been eliminated long ago."

As the words fell, the atmosphere changed completely.

This was no longer a discussion about a project.

It was like flipping the table.

Elder Wu stared at him, his face dark.

The mayor also fell silent.

But everyone knew that this meeting could no longer continue as gently as it had just been.

This was not a technical disagreement.

This was two eras colliding head-on for the first time.