| Jobs 8 |
July 4, 2019
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| Governments want their countries to be safe and prosperous. Therefore, in most circumstances, voters are able to choose who can lead their governments in order for the nation to be safe and prosperous. In any country, a basic unit in which people live is a family. Everybody has parents, and children need their parents' support to live. In modern societies, people, especially young families, tend to want to live in cities, which have hospitals, schools, community halls, libraries, police, fire fighters, supermarkets, bookstores, etc. Young families would probably move to an area that has other young families so their kids can play together and parents are able to exchange information about discipline and education, etc. They might think that smaller cities are better than bigger cities because big cities are noisy and they have little nature, as well as more chances of crimes and traffic accidents. Maybe elderly people tend to think the same way. They like to live in a safe and convenient place. If the climate is moderate and the nature is rich, then the better. And for local governments to keep their cities safe and convenient, they need money. So they gather taxes. They welcome residents and companies because they have to pay taxes. Sometimes local governments will pay subsidies to companies if they make their factories in their city because they have to buy land and pay land tax, build facilities  and pay property tax; and, if they gain profits, they will pay taxes for that. And, more importantly, they would employ workers, who pay taxes. Recently some small municipalities which have a population shortage pay subsidies for moving into their city.Municipalities might build facilities for children, expecting young families to move to their cities, hopefully some of them might live there for their lifetime. Municipalities might build nursing homes, expecting elderly people not to change their living places. These types of facilities require a lot of young workers, so they would live around the facilities. They have chances to go to restaurants, bars, shops, movie theaters, zoos, etc. He checked on the internet to know how much money an average household uses each month: Total monthly Consumption Expenditure of a household which has one or more workers : $30,000 ・Food : $710 ・Housing : $180 ・Fuel, Light & Water Charges : $200 ・Furniture & Household Utensils : $110 ・Clothing & Footwear : $130 ・Medical Care : $110 ・Transportation & Communication : $480 ・Education : $180 ・Culture & Recreation : $290 ・Other Consumption Expenditure : $610 He could guess that the money spent by each household would be consumed in ones' living area so it would contribute to the local economy, thus helping to keep and create jobs. But he had heard that recently bigger cities have become bigger, while smaller cities have become smaller. In this case, large number of small cities would disappear in the future. "But ...," he thought, "Even middle sized cities like my city, worker shortage is a problem. Probably small cities have the same problem. In that case, young workers could work in their hometown, and it would increase the cities' population." "Maybe this doesn't happen," he had a second thought, "Bigger cities would offer more attractive salaries. Although the living costs in bigger cities are more expensive, they would have more of an attractive environment and a broader selection of jobs. So young people would tend to go to bigger cities and live there. He didn't like this story, "The bigger, the better?" When he graduated from junior high, more than 40 years ago, he went to see off one of his classmates at the station, who went to work in the capital city. At that time, he felt something irrational, why would a young boy have to go to work so far away from his parents? Big cities can use more money to develop their cities, and collect more residents and companies. This is the same as big companies which can use more money and resources to develop their products, so the products would be more competitive. "But is this the only reason big cities have become bigger?" he wondered. (To be continued ...) |
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*prosperous :栄えた
*circumstances :状況
*discipline :規律、しつけ
*subsidy :補助金
*municipality :地方公共団体
*expenditure :支出
*irrational :不合理な