This is why US establishment has so much fear and loathing towards China.
Imagine if Americans say, “Whoa, whoa! Wait a minute! The Chinese retire at 54?”
“What’s going on here in the capitalist paradise where 70-year-olds are forced to work at Walmart?”
sigh…
The Economist, this is the last time im gonna bring this card.
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54 sounds wild man. I’m allowed to retire at 67 and my current employer the Union is at least fixing my retirement plan for me. Unfortunately many people aren’t that lucky and have to live of meager pensions after working for 40+ years.
This is how you get thanked in our glorious Western capitalist paradise. You work your ass of for decades and afterwards you can fuck off and preferably die quickly.
I will have to work till I can’t then die in a gutter after everything I own is sold in order to pay for medicare.
But at least your free
What’s the matter, Economites? Worried that eventually, Amerikans will demand that kind of leniency at gunpoint?
I’ve always tempered my expectations by reminding myself “they have their own issues”, and that they are similar to America in living standards (in the present. I obviously expect them to surpass in the near future).
But is it wrong to think China is just straight up superior as a country in nearly every facet to America? The infrastructure, the home ownership, poverty alleviation, health care access.
Of course part of this is my privilege as I wouldn’t be affected by any social rights shortcomings were I to move to China (I’m not LGBTQ). And those sort of attitudes take longer to resolve through culture than economic ones (as the economic progress informs social progress). But I also understand that China is making real steps towards progress there.
Usually to engage liberals I try to use some form of equivalence of China to the US (ex they have problems like us such as xyz). And imo this is a great way of having a real conversation. But is it factually correct anymore? If not, it seems pretty soon then that China will blow the doors open and it will be simply better for living.
To add to that, I don’t see any evidence to support the notion that social issues in countries like China have anything to do with the economic model. The reason China is more conservative when it comes to things like gender identification are cultural and historical. If western countries adopted a socialist model, then it would necessarily be rooted in western values and culture. I think liberals intentionally conflate the two things to paint the socialist model as being repressive while they portray neoliberal model as the progressive one.
Yeah that’s a great point. Always felt that notion was flimsy too.
The major urban centres that have all the cutting edge infrastructure and ‘treats’ aren’t in actuality much better than major Western cities when it comes to cost of living, there isn’t an enormous gap in any direction (positive or negative) when it comes to living in Shenzhen vs Seoul or even NYC. (I think, I haven’t actually been to major American cities.) The majority of these improvements when it comes to affordability, home ownership, poverty alleviation etc. are mostly happening in ‘Tier 2’ cities which are still big by western standards but don’t really have the same amenities. I’d say it’s worth it, and in general yes China is making more progress than the West but it’s important to understand where specifically and for which demographics these improvements are actually occurring for.
Source: Some of my family are Chinese.
re: poverty alleviation
a lot of it is still happening out in the boonies but it’s been slow going since local governments are still trying to pick the low hanging fruit and de-povertize ie their extended family members to satisfy quotas because actually alleviating poverty is extremely difficult. a lot of the stay-behinds don’t trust the government to not just take their land after they leave (for good reason) and housing/facilities for people willing to move are expensive. add to it that these areas were poor to begin with (obviously) and have fewer job opportunities and lower ability to attract investment and it becomes a negative feedback loop that requires a shitload of money to break. they’ve been doing decent work out there and there are a lot of policies in place to attract capital, but like with all things it’s been a real mixed bag.
That more or less aligns with what I’ve heard about rural areas.
But is it wrong to think China is just straight up superior as a country in nearly every facet to America? The infrastructure, the home ownership, poverty alleviation, health care access.
some stuff seems to be worse. people work much more and get fewer days off. air pollution has gotten much better over the past decade, but still isn’t good in some areas. tap water isn’t really safe to drink. stuff like immigration is harder - you could never become a citizen and getting permanent residence is hard unless you’re married to a Chinese citizen.
people can tell me if I’m wrong, this is based on my reading and talking to some Chinese friends.
From what I understand about America (though I’ve not lived there nor in China), all of those problems are present as well depending on where you live. Both nations are massive and people’s experiences will be incredibly varied based on where they live and how much money they make.
Why do they want to raise it though I’m gonna become Maoist
Because they need the labour. Aging populations are hard to support.
Automation is also rapidly replacing menial human labor in labor-intensive manufacturing, and even, to some extent, human labor* in capital-intensive manufacturing. This shifts people away from repetitive and mundane low-value manufacturing and into service jobs, such as child or elder care; all this while keeping the supply chain inside China instead of de-industrializing and exporting it to foreign nations, like what the US did.
Edit:*
I would like to hear more sources on that in raw data.
https://twitter.com/zhao_dashuai Not the most rigorous, but you can see just how advanced China’s industrial capabilities are. Just scroll down and look for related topics.
Edit: https://www.sinodefenceforum.com is also pretty good. If you go to the science and technology sections, you can often find updates on China’s progress in key, emerging technologies, along with sources to the original papers.
Edit 2: r/sino at Reddit and simp.com, such as this article https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3231715/china-eyes-robot-manufacturing-way-fuel-economic-growth?module=lead_hero_story&pgtype=homepage, can also be decent sources of information, along with sources.
Do you mean scmp.com and not simp?
You heard what they said.
But Biden was so gleeful about raising the retirement age back when he was a senator. Surely that was because it was good for the average American.
I mean, they might get bored! Surely you don’t want people enjoying their retirement while they still have energy.
What are you gonna do with that anyway? Spend it with the family? Help raise the newer generations. No man! That’ll effect the childcare industry!
50 should be the universal retirement age for everyone, especially labourers. also child policy need to be implemented: bringing up children only benefit corporate; if they are evading taxes and u as a person can’t do nothing about it, at least dont feed them fresh labour. also u pocket extra money. i am glad japan is already running out of young people
will they even imagine a better world is possible or just dismiss the entire concept with various racial and social chauvinisms?
The fact that they proudly call themselves the “Vanguard of the non-working class” should give you a hint in regards to that.
