During Hu Jintao's speech at the 18th Party Congress it was evident that the leaders were aware of growing public anger at the excesses of the Communist Party and the large income inequality.Business Insider
He said at the time that China would aim to double its per capita income for rural and urban residents by 2020.
China has a Gini coefficient above 0.4 which is the level beyond which there is a risk of social unrest.
China Just Approved A New Plan To Crush Income Inequality
Mamta Badkar
Comparison of Gini coefficients (2011) shows the US (0. 450) to be more unequal than China (0.415).
The Atlantic
Map: U.S. Ranks Near Bottom on Income Inequality
Max Fisher
What I think is interesting about the media coverage of China is that a number of media folks here will often cheer of developments in China that they are afraid to advocate publicly here in America. The ideological code of conduct in America is rigidly enforced.
ReplyDeleteFun to imagine the opposition here to government setting a priority to increase the standards of living for the rural poor. With a corrupt self serving two party system instead of a one party system like China has we have far more entertaining politics.
ReplyDeleteRepubs would say it was socialism or a government handout or something and block it because you aren't supposed to help regular folk and they would garner a good 45% of votes. They would say it was more of the same from the dems.
And The Dems, would rant about more pollution when people spend more to get support on the gilded coasts and they would block any progress unless the increase in living for poor was matched with extra taxes on the rich to appeal to midwest voters and then they would claim the whole agenda was somehow really white racism to divide the county on skin color and then blame the Repubs for being racist to distract from their hypocrisy.
Business as usual, the entrenched powers are just fine, thank you, don't change a thing.
Repubs would say it was socialism or a government handout or something and block it because you aren't supposed to help regular folk and they would garner a good 45% of votes. They would say it was more of the same from the dems.
ReplyDeleteThat's true as far as it goes, Ryan, but you've missed the nuance that it would never be the D.'s who'd propose it. The current D. motto is "never let 'em call you a liberal" and to always have talking points ready to prove how they're the "real conservatives." Such a proposal would have to come from the R.s. Think "Nixon goes to China." I wonder if it's ever occurred to Karl Rove that with a half step and a pirouette he'd be to the left of the Democrats with nothing but open field ahead of him on the way to "permanent majority" paydirt.
David with Rove it seems like he just advocates the positions of the ones writing the checks to him these days...
ReplyDeleteAnd the check writers are all libertarian and recoil at the thought of Dan's 'Public Enterprise'...
Rsp