Inequality And Productivity Growth In China: Fill & Download for Free

Because the Chinese have a history of thinking long term. At a meeting an American diplomat asked Zhou en Lai what he thought of the implications of the French Revolution. He thought for a moment, and said“I don’t know. It’s too early to tell.”American companies focus on the next fiscal quarter. The Chinese are already planning ten years in advance. All sane people know that solar energy and green energy is going to be a huge growth sector. The Chinese have invested heavily in it. The price of solar energy is decreasing all the time. Trump stopped the funding for the development of solar. He claims climate change is a Chinese hoax designed to hurt American manufacturing. Meanwhile, the Chinese are doubling down. They are also investing heavily in robotics, A.I., supercomputers, and other high tech areas.To make a quick buck the U.S. corporate executives decided to embark on a neoliberal capitalist journey. Deregulation, privatization, free trade, breaking unions, pushing tax cuts for the rich, and offshoring factories caused the decimation of the middle class in America. The infrastructure crumbled from lack of funds for repair. The rich got richer. America fell apart. The GOP is now doubling down on the same policies. The American economy now relies on cheap borrowing because America is the world’s reserve currency. It also relies on financial “products,” which are shell games done by Wall Street. It is an economy of illusion. China went in a different direction. It invested in manufacturing. It builds things. It optimized its infrastructure for future growth. It is preparing for expanded growth in Africa and other places. Instead of wasting money on the military it is focusing on internal growth. By 2032 it will surpass the U.S. in economic size. The U.S. has skyrocketing inequality and the poverty level is increasing. In China there is more inequality, but other policies have been enacted to ensure that poverty is reduced.U.S. poverty is increasingThe American Dream is long gone.

Of course this question is best answered by a Chinese person. I can only add that, as a Westerner who has worked in China for a couple years, I was surprised to find that most people I befriended did not have aspirations about moving to the West. Travelling to the West, yes! My Chinese friends were on the whole very interested in travel.As to the economy and living standards I have learned that the differences are pretty subjective. Economic opportunity in China seems to be pretty boundless. There are huge ships leaving Chinese ports laden with products and then these ships sail back to China (metaphorically) laden with cash; of course a lot of this money is siphoned off by the multinational companies that have set up shop in China. (When I return home to Canada I shop for gifts for my Chinese friends and I have incredible difficulty finding things that are NOT made in China) Business is alive and well in China - although, it seems, doing business in China is a little like swimming with sharks. Hmm ... how different is that from the Western business environment? Well, it does seem different, at least to a non-businessperson observer like me.My personal experience is that in some ways China offers more personal liberty than my home country ... but one has to negotiate a very different societal construct in China, something I don't think I would ever be able to do. It seems that in order to do so it is enormously beneficial to actually BE Chinese. It seems that a foreigner can never become de facto Chinese in China (well, almost impossible) whereas Chinese can become full citizens of Western countries. So, on the emigration front, Chinese have the advantage. Personally, I could see myself living quite happily in China ... but it seems that at the moment full de facto citizenship is nearly impossible to achieve.Of course, in some ways there is less personal liberty in China. For example - you cannot truly own property - my understanding is that property can only be 'leased' from the government. (I think 'ownership' lasts 75 years, after which the lessee can repurchase the property from the government at a percentage of the original price) Property rights are quite different in many other ways too.It has been mentioned in many comments that the education system in China is difficult. On this point I would have to agree. It seems to me that it can be very harsh and competitive. As a teacher I look at my Chinese students and cannot imagine my students from the West in their place. Then again, more often than not, when I go to shops and such, invariably the child is there with the working parents studying - often with a parent by her side. This phenomenon seems less present in the West.However, I spend time on education forums and am often appalled by what I hear from teachers regarding support for education. Schools should be palaces because it is within those walls that the future of the world is nourished. But ask anyone working in public education in the West if they feel the education system is lavished. They'll laugh you out of the room. So, we in the West should not be too proud.Pollution level has been mentioned as well. Well, that's a big one. I think most Westerners visiting parts of China for the first time would be astonished by the pollution levels. (Of course a Londoner from the late 19th century would probably feel right at home)Which brings me to a point that I've mentioned in other letters. China, to me, resembles England in the late 19th/early 20th century in many ways with respect to its social construct. There is incredible economic inequity ... just as there was (IS!) in the West. Wealth equals power is also a problem.On the positive side, it seems that the government has the best interest of the people at heart and is moving incrementally in a positive direction. One may not agree with all of their methods ... but what government exists anywhere that is beyond criticism? And, as has been mentioned over and over, China is improving; economically and hopefully - socially.It is my wish for China that they continue to develop and hopefully not adopt some of the less just methods of Western society. China has an opportunity to exceed all countries in all aspects ... and if they do, I think the world could benefit from their eventual rise.Then we'll all be knocking on their door asking for admission.Maybe.

This is the population pyramid of China. The width of each line shows how many people are at a particular age.If you look at the pyramid for the ages of 20–60, these are the productive people in the work force. Now look at the population from 0–20. If you compare the widths, China is already beginning to move into the generation of the one-child policy, with the number of productive people beginning to shrink precipitously over the next generation. Within a generation, there will be more seniors in China than newborns and soon after more seniors than productive people. China will struggle to maintain its GDP and infrastructure.This is the American population pyramid.In a generation, the US will remain more or less as it is now; a stable population with as many people entering the workforce as leaving. The US also has a mature economy, with a high standard of living. China has huge inequalities, with some extremely rich and many still at a subsistence level.Both countries have their own economic advantages and disadvantages, but China faces significant challenges to attain more than a strong regional power status. A superpower implies the ability to project power globally.Japan was once thought to be the first serious contender to American economic supremacy, but demographics have effectively plateaued its economy for the foreseeable future. China has perhaps 20 years of growth before it faces the same situation as Japan.