LivingInChina

Based on the relative purchasing power of the two currencies, gas is over FIVE TIMES as expensive here in China as it is in the States. posted 06/08/2008 at 10:39:39

Posted in two parts - part two)

Finally, here is the clincher. The t-shirt you buy at WM for $2.00 is the same thing you can get here for 2 RMB (That's about 29 cents at the current exchange rate.). That means it was produced for less than 29 cents, probable less than half that amount. There is not enough money in the deal here in China to pay anything close to a real living wage. So, eternal sweatshop.

For the US, the $2.00 is not enough to pay a living wage either. So, eternal minimum wage jobs.

There is only enough profit in the system to pay the factory owners in China and the stock holders in the US.

Well, there are not enough factory owners in China nor enough stock holders anywhere else to feed and grow an economy.

Wall Mart perpetuates poverty where ever it goes. posted 06/05/2008 at 06:05:14

(Post in two parts - Part One)
Wall Mart is an excellent model for making money, but only in the short term. In the long term they are the worst thing that could happen to an economy.

The goods are cheap (in every sense of the word) but they cost jobs and here in China, where Wall Mart does provide jobs, they do not provide good jobs by any stretch of the imagination.

Here, they perpetuate the sweatshop system and keep people in poverty with no real way of escaping the shop. Yes, WM workers here make a little more money than they would on the farm but they will never make enough to graduate to the next level on the economic ladder. The jobs are a bit above slave labor and if you don't like it there is someone waiting to take your place.

In the US, the jobs are pretty much minimum wage and if you don't like it there is somebody waiting to take your place.

(continued in part Two) posted 06/05/2008 at 06:04:30

!

Is anything Lieberman says worth listening to?

I think not.

! posted 06/05/2008 at 06:16:17

(Continued)

Third, personal rights and freedoms are regularly trampled beneath the foot of a very strong central government. Recently a "civil rights" advocate was imprisoned for five years for suggesting that civil rights were more important than the Olympics. The charge was subverting the government. For such a strong central government I can not understand why they refuse to even allow a dialog with anyone critical of the government.

Finally, the scene in which the Olympics will play is more like a stage play than reality. Beijing has been remodeled, repainted, and rebuilt in an effort to present a good looking city. Factories will be closed to encourage clean air and blue skies. Traffic will be truncated to allow for smooth transportation. The citizens have been instructed in table manners. Fines for spitting have been put in place. Taxi drivers have been required to learn English. Everything will look good for the games, in Beijing. But what about the rest of the country? Sorry, the rest of the country is not the stage on which the Games will be played.

Boycott the games? I think not. But see them for what they are, China's way of presenting the image they want the world to see. Unfortunately, not an image of the real China which would be much more interesting and much more worthy of respect. posted 03/29/2008 at 07:26:15

Well, a lot of what was said in the article is, I think, correct.
However there are many things I disagree with.

I have been in China for five years, teaching in universities north and south and I think my observations are fairly accurate.

First, the number of Chinese who care about the Olympics is no where near 1.3 billion. I would submit that the 800 million farmers care little or nothing about it. They know about it but it will have no impact on their lives.

Second, the central government is attempting to suppress all dissent, an impossible mission. There are a lot of unhappy people here and although most of them express no interest in politics they do have a keen interest in the economic state of the nation. The growing upper class, in and of itself, is a good thing. Still, the poor are realizing little benefit from the booming economy and the number of poor is HUGE. Granted, the rampant poverty of 30 years ago has been virtually eliminated (People are no longer starving to death.) but the divide between "factory owner" and factory worker" is both pronounced and growing. posted 03/29/2008 at 07:25:37