Black technology: a super empire spanning two worlds

Chapter 342 [Specific Groups Must Be Clearly Defined]

in the office.

Yun Shu began making a memo, when Xiao Yu suddenly said to himself, "The number of elderly people in Linzhou, including towns and villages, is probably between 150 million and 160 million. I remember there is data showing that the average number of elderly people living in nursing homes nationwide is less than 1%."

The proportion of elderly people going to nursing homes is less than 1% because Chinese civilization is different from the West, and "raising children to provide for old age" is a tradition since ancient times.

In traditional cultural concepts, the entry of the elderly into nursing homes is often seen as a sign of unfilial children or the incompetence of the elderly themselves. Sometimes, even if the elderly are willing to go to nursing homes, their children will not agree, for fear of being accused by neighbors, relatives and friends of being unfilial for abandoning their parents in nursing homes.

Besides traditional cultural values, the problems inherent in current elderly care institutions are also a significant factor, such as negative issues like elder abuse.

Another reason is that although nursing homes can provide material support, they can never replace the companionship of family members. The elderly worry that entering a nursing home or retirement home will lead to estrangement from their families, and they will feel lonely and abandoned.

For these reasons, elderly people in China will not go to nursing homes if they have a choice.

That's why the percentage is so low, less than 1%. In many large cities, the vacancy rate of beds in elderly care institutions is quite high.

At this moment, Yun Shu looked up and said, "Based on this ratio, there are approximately 1.5 to 1.6 elderly people who are eligible to enter nursing homes."

Xiao Yu shook his head and said, "It's not just that. If our HP Foundation were to build a nursing home, it would definitely be purely for public benefit, aiming to help those low-income people at the bottom of society, especially the elderly living alone. These vulnerable groups at the bottom have difficulty obtaining basic survival resources, otherwise they wouldn't be low-income people and elderly living alone."

"Therefore, the HP Foundation cannot charge for this project; it must be free. However, if it is free, it must clearly define the special groups, namely low-income individuals and elderly people living alone. Without clear restrictions, someone will inevitably try to seize these resources that are intended for the survival of vulnerable groups."

If there were no restrictions on specific groups, elderly people who are not from vulnerable groups would definitely come to compete for resources and spots. More than half of the 150 million elderly people in Linzhou City might come to retire here. It would be a fool not to take advantage of such a good deal. They would feel like they are losing out if they didn't take advantage of this opportunity.

Nowadays, many elderly people are unwilling to go to nursing homes. In addition to traditional cultural concepts and the many problems existing in the nursing homes themselves, the cost is also a very important factor.

Leaving aside privately-run elderly care institutions, even publicly-run ones still have to charge certain fees to maintain operations and provide services, although the fees for publicly-run institutions are cheaper than those for private ones.

The fee schedule of some private nursing homes in Linzhou City is as follows:

自理老人每月费用在2000元至5000元，提供住宿、餐饮、基本护理等服务；半自理老人每月费用在5000元至8000元，可提供更多的护理服务；失能老人每月费用在8000元至15000元，能提供专业的医疗护理和康复服务。

Publicly-run nursing homes have relatively low fees, but beds are scarce and the services they provide are relatively limited. Their fee schedule is as follows:

自理老人每月费用在1500元至3000元之间；半自理老人每月费用在3000元至5000元之间，失能老人每月费用在5000元至8000元之间。

There are also some high-end nursing homes that offer luxurious facilities and better services, but they are more expensive.

自理老人每月费用就在5000元至10000元之间，半自理老人每月费用在10000元至20000元之间，失能老人每月费用在20000元至40000元之间。

After a while, Xiao Yu said, "In the entire city of Linzhou, including both urban and rural areas, according to the proportion, the number of low-income families and elderly people living alone without children should account for about 20% of the total number of elderly people, which is about 32 people."

Yun Shu, who was looking down to take notes, was taken aback. She then looked up at Xiao Yu and said, "You mean that the nursing home you plan to build in Linzhou City will accommodate more than 30 elderly people?"

Xiao Yu nodded affirmatively and said, "That's right. After all, it's free. The elderly care institutions that we had the HP Foundation set up are of higher quality and standards than ordinary private elderly care institutions. They are specifically targeted at elderly people from low-income families or elderly people living alone, so they will definitely apply."

Free of charge and with standards higher than those of typical private nursing homes, if there were no restrictions on accepting specific groups, even families without financial pressure would see a large number of elderly people applying.

Conversely, those elderly people in certain groups who face enormous economic pressure, have no children, and are nearing the point of being unable to care for themselves will definitely apply. If they don't, there's only one explanation: they are unaware of this free public welfare benefit.

Yun Shu calculated thoughtfully, "Based on the standard of a large nursing home with 500 beds, to accommodate all 32 people, we would need 640 nursing homes of the same standard."

Xiao Yu calmly asked, "Since the management of HP Fund has already studied and discussed this, have they calculated how much the annual operating expenses would be for a nursing home that can accommodate 500 elderly people if we were to do it?" Hearing this, Yun Shu nodded and replied, "We have indeed calculated it. I still have the minutes from that time. Wait a moment."

After speaking, Yun Shu took out her phone, downloaded the meeting minutes from the cloud, flipped to the right page, and handed it to Xiao Yu, who took the phone and looked at it.

"It's quite comprehensive..." Xiao Yu said with a smile.

According to the minutes, the HP Fund Management Team calculated and assessed the expenses of small, medium, large, and super-large nursing homes based on the consumption level of Linzhou City.

The approximate annual expenses for a large nursing home that can accommodate 500 people are as follows:
Venue cost: 480 million yuan.

Decoration and facility equipment costs: 860 million yuan.

Human resource costs: 550 million yuan.

Daily operating costs: 820 million yuan.

Catering costs: 420 million yuan.

Other expenses: 70 yuan (training, insurance, maintenance, etc.)
After looking at the data, Xiao Yu pointed to the labor cost on the screen and asked, "Does this 550 million labor cost include the cost of robot caregivers or the cost of human caregivers?"

Upon hearing this, Yun Shu glanced at the screen and replied, "This is the cost of a human caregiver. If we replace it with the Flowing Star Language robot, the cost can be reduced to 150 million yuan."

Xiao Yu nodded: "So, after deducting 400 million, the annual expenses for a large-scale elderly care institution of this standard are 2800 million yuan."

Yun Shuxuan immediately said, "The annual expenditure of one institution is 2800 million yuan. If 640 elderly care institutions of the same standard are to be opened, the HP Foundation will need to allocate 179.2 billion yuan annually."

Xiao Yu smiled and said, "The total annual expenditure of 179.2 billion yuan is not a small amount, but compared with the current abundant financial situation of HP Fund, the annual expenditure of less than 180 billion yuan is not a large amount, and there is no financial pressure."

In the first half of this year, Likang Technology Advanced distributed 812.448 billion yuan in dividends, while HP Fund, with a 53.28% equity stake, received 432.87 billion yuan. The dividends in the second half of the year will only be higher than those in the first half.

The cash dividends that HP Fund received from Lingjing Technology alone, including those from the second half of the year, will most likely exceed 1000 billion yuan for the whole year.

There is no doubt that an increase of 180 billion in annual expenditure budget will not put any financial pressure on HP Fund.

There's still 3000 billion yuan lying in the books, all in real cash. Of this amount, 330 billion yuan comes from donations from all sectors of society over the years, and another 2000 billion yuan was donated by Ruilian Group in the beginning.

Back then, Lingjing Technology's stock price surged seven or eight times in a single day, wiping out the army of short sellers who were maliciously shorting the stock. Ruilian Group sold 2% of Lingjing Technology's shares at that time, cashing out more than 2200 billion yuan, which was directly donated to the HP Foundation.

The remaining money is the money from Lingjing Technology's four cumulative dividends. Since its establishment, the HP Fund has received a total of about 4000 billion yuan in revenue, and there is still 3000 billion yuan lying in the account. About 1000 billion yuan has been spent in the last two years.

Finally, Xiao Yu immediately made a decision: "Then let's do it this way. Give this project an annual budget of 180 billion yuan and let the HP Fund management team come up with a specific and feasible plan based on this budget."

Yun Shu said, "If it's just supporting Linzhou City, there won't be much financial pressure. But if we expand the scale to this level, for example, by ten times, the annual expenditure will surge by 1800 billion. If we look at the whole country, it might be more than 100 times."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yu calmly replied, "You're even more ambitious than me. Don't do things beyond your capabilities. The HP Foundation should only operate on a scale that is within its capabilities; it's unrealistic to try to take over the entire country."

……

(End of this chapter)