You may think that a 1-yuan lighter is very common, but there is a lot of innovation behind it, and the cow made in China also reflects it vividly.
my country's annual output of lighters exceeds 15 billion, accounting for nearly 70% of the world's total sales. In 2022, Shaodong City, Hunan Province exported 3.52 billion lighters, accounting for "half" of the country's total lighter exports during the same period. This county-level city in the hinterland of central Hunan not only undertakes the world-class "ignition" business, but also maintains the retail price of one yuan for 20 years.
According to People’s Daily, although the price of one-yuan lighters is low, the technical content is not low at all. The compact body contains more than 30 parts such as flame adjustment rings and gas box valves, involving many precision processes such as flame control and ignition intensity.
In the past 20 years, the price of a bowl of local rice noodles has increased from 5 cents to 10 yuan, but disposable lighters have maintained their price advantage of 1 yuan, taking root like a sucker. , creating 146 overseas registered trademarks and an annual output value of 8.5 billion yuan for the local area.
In 2009, six lighter export companies and five supporting companies in Shaodong came together to keep warm. With the help of the government, they jointly established an electrical group that unified R&D, injection molding, inspection and sales. When everyone adds fuel to the fire, the company invests 20 million yuan in researching key technologies every year, and so far has more than 240 intellectual property rights including invention patents.
In 2018, Shaodong was awarded the National Foreign Trade Transformation and Upgrading Base by the Ministry of Commerce, and more than 10 leading lighter companies have basically completed automation transformation. In the past, workers held tweezers and pliers in three shifts day and night. Now, all 12 processes have been automated, and intelligent robotic arms can be seen everywhere. The workshop is no longer crowded, but the labor cost of each lighter has been reduced from 0.1 yuan. to 0.015 yuan.
Like high-speed rail, shield machines, supercomputers and other important equipment of the great power, innovative lenses, toothbrushes, buttons and one-yuan lighters are also made in China.
These industries may not be large in size, but now most of them have become individual champions of local manufacturing industries. They are the "attackers" of key technologies, the "maintainers" of industrial chain security, and the high-quality economy. The "hard backbone" of development forms an important part of China's manufacturing fundamentals.
In a taxi two days ago, the driver said that there were not many things that had not increased in price in the past ten years, so the starting price of a taxi remained at 5 yuan. Later, he thought about it and said that the retail price of newspapers has not changed, it is 50 cents a copy. Yes, in the past ten years, with the improvement of the overall social economy, people's lives have been greatly improved, but there are not many things that have not increased in price. Newspapers are one of them. The starting price of a taxi has just changed from 5 yuan to 8 yuan. But in the context of ten years, it is also an example of sticking to low prices.
Bus fares have not increased in ten years
I am a native of Shijiazhuang and have witnessed the earth-shaking changes in the city in the past thirty years. I want to say that the prices of things have not increased in the past ten years. , although not many, but there are a few.
Bus fares have not changed in at least ten years. In the 1990s, tickets were sold based on road sections, but later the fare was changed to 5 cents. Around 2000, after the bus system implemented unmanned ticket sales, the fare remained at 1 yuan, which has remained unchanged until now.
The other is the retail price of newspapers. The price of newsprint has changed in the past 10 years, and the wages of newspaper employees have increased, but the retail price of newspapers is still 50 cents a copy. Not only that, newspapers have become thicker.
There are also some good but cheap cosmetics. For example, "Pearl Tremella Cream", "Phoenix Placenta Cream", and "Gong Lantern Almond Honey" all have good effects, but they have disappeared from the counters of large shopping malls. As far as I know, prices haven't changed in ten years either. Although they have given way to imported cosmetics and joint venture cosmetics, the effect remains the same as ten years ago. Oh, there is also "A Thousand Purple Reds", which comes in small round boxes. Has the price changed?
IT and communication products have dropped in price
I can’t find any items that have not increased in price in the past ten years. But I know that there are two types of products that have been reducing prices in the past ten years, one is IT products and the other is communication products.
The most obvious price reduction is the phone bill. I was still in school in 2003, and the phone bill at that time was 2.5 cents per minute, and it was charged in both directions; now, my monthly subscription service is 88 yuan, which works out to only 9 cents per minute, and the call is free. .
The monthly calls I have with my partner are about 300 minutes, and if other calls are included, it is about 600 to 700 minutes. If the phone bill is not reduced, how much more money will it cost?
In addition, the cost of broadband has also dropped a lot. This spring I bought a mobile phone for my mother, which came with 1G of free data per month and other services. It was really cheap.
Like consumer electronics, the price reduction is even greater. In 2002, computers were still a luxury item, but now almost every household has a computer, and more than one. I remember that I bought a computer worth more than 8,000 yuan at that time, which was shockingly expensive. Some time ago, my brother's child bought a desktop computer with very good configuration, which cost less than 3,000 yuan. Computers have gone from luxury goods to commonplace items.
The starting price of taxis has been maintained for many years and has just been raised
Some of my friends who go to Shijiazhuang on business say that the starting price of taxis here is low, almost the same as in other cities across the country. the lowest of them all.
The starting price of a taxi has been maintained for nearly 10 years and has been slightly increased recently. The starting price is raised from 5 yuan (2 kilometers) to 8 yuan (3 kilometers). Basically it has not increased in ten years.
In addition, it is also a public service, such as a park. I remember many years ago, there was a fee to enter the park, not a ticket, but a park management fee. Nowadays, there are almost no paid parks across the country, and all of them have become public welfare and free of charge. Back to the essence.
Do train tickets count as one item? Except for high-speed trains and high-speed trains, train tickets have not changed much over the years, especially for ordinary and express trains, the prices seem to have not changed. Compared with train tickets, the price of air tickets is on a downward trend. Ten years ago, if you were traveling by plane on a business trip, you would have to be at least the number one person in your workplace. Nowadays, more and more ordinary people regard air travel as their preferred method. It can be seen that technological upgrades and competition have brought high-quality and low-priced services.
Postage, lighters, lottery tickets, the prices of these items seem to have remained unchanged
If you count them in detail, there are really not many things around you that are related to life and have kept their prices unchanged for ten years.
In my impression, rice vinegar may be considered a kind of food. I went to the supermarket a few days ago and bought more than ten bags of vinegar. It was from Donghu. It cost 1 yuan a bag. But I didn’t notice whether the net content dropped.
In addition, the price of stamps for sending credits does not seem to have changed. But the express delivery fee has increased a lot. But there are very few people writing letters.
Smokers may feel that the price of lighters has not changed much over the years, it is still 1 yuan each.
One more thing, as you may know, the lottery may have been publicly issued in Shijiazhuang at the earliest. In the past ten years or so, it has still cost 2 yuan a ticket, but it has become a machine-based ticket. You can play 5 bets on one lottery ticket.
Among mass consumer goods, such as cars, prices have also been falling for more than a decade. Now it has entered the family and has become a means of transportation that most people can afford.
Before discussing this topic, I checked online.
Products such as buses, parks, and Internet access fees are priced by the government; lotteries are exclusively operated by the government and have nothing to do with prices in the economic sense. For automotive and IT products, costs have dropped due to technological upgrading across the industry and increased productivity. Taxis are also government-subsidized means of transportation, and their prices are not entirely determined by the market.
However, it is really difficult to find something whose price has not increased at all in ten years. Raw materials, labor costs, and rents have generally increased over the past ten years. It is indeed rare for a product like newspapers to remain unchanged for ten years.