The Chinese Economy
davidtrios
Posts: 9,732
In the last 30 years, China has grown into the 2nd largest economy in the world, yet, their economy is mainly state-run...lots of govt control and regulation.
let me ask you this:
since they've prospered economically, mind you through the great recession they were not hit nearly as hard as the USA, would you agree that more gov't can be a GOOD thing for economic prosperity?
let me ask you this:
since they've prospered economically, mind you through the great recession they were not hit nearly as hard as the USA, would you agree that more gov't can be a GOOD thing for economic prosperity?
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
And yes, I take demography from a Chinese professor.
It would be nice to get Byrnzie in on this
Nope ... they have much, much cheaper labor ... and probably extremely lax regulation on worker rights, health and safety issue, environmental issues and I'm sure many more things ... but I'll say extremely cheap labor is why.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
They were interviewing the head of a residential construction company that has $53B in assets and he seemed freaked out by a potential housing market bubble bursting.
A good little audio piece here by Peter Hessler, an American writer who came to China in 1996 to work as English teacher, and ended up staying for ten years. He's written three books on China - I've read them all - and has documented it's gradual emergence out of the Maoist years. This little interview has him discussing some of the most glaring changes that have taken place in the country since he arrived here nearly 20 years ago:
http://thestory.org/archive/2013_02_27_ ... c.facebook
Could you try that link again, please? It doesn't appear to work
It's an interesting topic. Living in Hong Kong many people compain about the China pollution and how terrible China is. People are starting to notice and have got new factories stopped from being built because they don't want pollution in their cities.
Workers rights and factory regulations are becoming more strict (good thing). consequently more companies are moving elsewhere like Viet Nam.
People like to complain until they start paying more for their goods. Then they are really concerend.
Try this: http://thestory.org/stories/2013-02/return-fuling-china
There are problems in China, but it's not as bad as people imagine. They report on the pollution in Beijing and people believe that shit applies to the whole country. It doesn't.
As for workers rights, e.t.c. Things are slowly changing for the better and will continue to do so. Remember, China only emerged from Mao's Stone-Age bullshit ideal about 30 years ago. The country has come a long way since then.
Listen to the radio link I posted. Hessler makes some insightful observations.
That is almost universally true... but there is another side that I think is worth looking at. Personally, I don't mind paying more for something that is durable. I would rather pay $100 for a quality item that will last 10 years which, if I keep replacing the item, will cost me $400 over 40 years, than I would to pay $45 for something that will last 4 years which will cost me $450 over 40 years PLUS use more resources PLUS cause more pollution. Quality pays in many ways.
This applies to most things- cheap things that don't last as long usually cost more in the long run in many ways than durable items that cost more at the outset.
Of course the argument against that is that people can't afford to buy the more expensive items. The way around that in many cases is to learn to budget. Budgeting, consuming less stuff, buying used items, repairing older items and buying things that are quality, durable and healthier all lead to a greater, simpler form of prosperity. It's not as hard as it sound and the time is well spent.
I'm glad to hear about the progress over there, Byrnzie. I've read about folks in China who are doing great things to make things better there. My comments were not meant to be disparaging to the country as a whole. Most if not all of us of us live in places that could much better as well. It's a planetary issue, really.
It's way late here on the west coast- I'll try to remember to check out link tomorrow. This place keeps me up late. Well, no, I keep myself up late posting here.
but the most expensive, durable, qualtiy items are also made by China.
Always a misconception that cheap, bad qualtiy items come from China. Everything comes from China. from poor quality to the best.
That may be true some of the time, Smellyman, because the US has outsourced much of it's production, although the US still produces some well-made goods. Any quality and durable items produced wherever are fine with me but it makes more sense to me to purchase domestic items in order to save resources- in this case, fuel to ship items half way around the world. Part of the quality/durable formula should include closest-to-home production. Local economy makes the most sense. I often recommend reading James Howard Kunstlers The Long Emergency to get a clearer picture of these ideas.