Deep Thinking On Vulnerable Groups During Social Transformation

At the beginning of the 21st century, China is totally getting into a period of constructing relatively comfortable society, but nearly at the same time the problem of vulnerable groups appears. Vulnerable groups are those who are poverty-stricken and lack of competitiveness because of some impediment and politics,economics and social opportunities. They can be divided into two groups, one is physiological vulnerable groups including disabled people(60,000,000),old people(130,000,000, about 10 per cent of the total population in China is over 60 years),the other is social vulnerable groups including workers who come or go off sentry duty and those who are unemployed(over 20,000,000) ,poor people (those whose income every year is below 625$are about 30,000,000;between 625 and 820$ are about 60,000,000). They are about 20 percent of Chinese total population excluding some repeated statistics. They have a series of characteristics: low economical income ,poverty-stricken in life,low social status,weak political influence and high mental sensitiveness. The reasons which caused vulnerable groups are rather complicated, in the course of transformation from uncivilized times to civilized times, private ownership appeared because of the contradiction between productive forces and productive relations. Private ownership reflected and encouraged avariciousness of human nature, so productive forces,productive relations and human nature continued to be in contradiction in each past social form, and that made the inequality of humankind continue in different ways. So far, vulnerable groups have never been eliminated. During the period of social transformation, all the policies and institutions are changing. Social constructions are obviously changing, too. The scale of vulnerable groups is becoming larger and larger. After more than 20 years'socialist construction and practice, China's productivity develops faster than ever, so the productive relations are changing widely and deeply, productive materials,products,social status,political rights and cultural resources are all redistributed, but the redistribution usually bases on the amount of economics,political resources or cultural resources one owns. One who owns more is to be redistributed more and becomes the member of strong groups, on the contrary, one is to be in the lowest part of society with an invisible label—social vulnerable groups. According to the theory, it is normal that China exists vulnerable groups today, because China is still at the primary stage of socialism—"a long period of throes". It is impossible to eliminate the vulnerable groups completely now. Only when the productive forces highly develop and the source of all wealth spurts, vulnerable groups can be eliminated. But, this does not mean we can do nothing for vulnerable groups. we can build a strong safety net made up of government-supported system,society-supported system and vulnerable groups themselves-supported system to guarantee their rights and interests,help them to transform and reduce the amount and scale. It is necessity for guaranteeing human rights,maintaining social stability,consolidating successes scored in reform and forming a harmonious society. It is also necessity for vindicating China's international honor and strengthening China's international influence.