By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Gross Domestic Product
We all know China's love affair with its idol and nemesis the USA. We know how people here copy the USA in nearly everything. Children go to "Kindergartens", the energy company is "State Grid", the residence permit is a "Green Card", etc.
I ran across an old JFK quote from 1965 which I though was funny, because it seems China has copied the definitions without understanding the message, in true Confucian learn-by-rote style:
"Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising ... ambulances to clear our highways of carnage ... locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them ... destruction of the Redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl.
It counts napalm, nuclear warheads and armoured cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play ... beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages ... It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”
Wait till they have their own OS for PCs! I wonder what they will call it...Greatwall OS? Seems to fit, I'm sure somewhere in the reams of coding, the OS will block "conflicting western thought". They are certainly not reinventing the wheel since everything is there for the taking, buy it, strip it, copy it wholesale...whatever works.
Still, I wonder, how is it possible to have a capitalistic free market operate within the realms of a communist run economy. Granted that major portions of the economy is now laissez fair but with each successive change in heads of government, controls are getting tighter, outside world information is less frequent (at times totally unavailable). The education system is still far from international standards. It would appear that they are still unaware that the current system brings them nowhere nearer to world literacy standards. The government's primary focus appears to be defense, economy and nothing else.
Burak43:
The government holds the economy in it's iron grip, that's hardly lassiez faire, or even capitalist.
As for the OS, I hope they will make and launch it as soon as possible. The security holes in such an OS will be glorious.Eorthisio:
Agree with Burak, considering the scale of China's market and the fact that the country is a middle income economy, foreign brands and their products are surprisingly absent from the shelves of the supermarkets, the reason for this is the extremely protectionist government that favor domestic brands and products above all, even breaking the most basic rules of the WTO that they agreed with.
The GDP is the value of all goods and services produced.... period. Obviously it's not a barometer of how courageous or moral a society is but is a pretty good indicator of its level of economic development. So I think it's pretty unfair to say that it measures everything except what makes life worthwhile. Yes, making bombs adds to GDP but so does building roads and higher quality housing. Having a higher GDP brings a society numerous material advantages that make quality of life better. Compare life expectancy and quality of life between high GDP/capita and low GDP/caita nations and you'll see that GDP roughly correlates to better living standards.
Does China worship GDP too much? Of course. It leads to poor planning and short sighted programs that are bad for the health of the economy and the society . But the living standards of most Chinese have improved along with the GDP and that keeps the party in power.
coineineagh:
Living standards have improved? Do you refer to quality of education, or health care, art & entertainment, access to quality goods (including the average person's purchasing power to consume said goods), social capital (trust, kindness, consideration), civil rights/liberties (freedom from bullying by gov't cronies), technological advancement, freedom to voice opinion, city hygiene standards? Sorry: I see only windowdressing, Red Guard enrichment and feel-good stories for the masses.
CharlieB:
GDP in the US is determined by the amount of product produced and SOLD. In China it is calculated by what is produced only. Therefore China can produce warehouse after warehouse of goods, apartment bldgs that do not sell and claim the economy is growing. Many western economist predict that houses other than tier 1 cities will drop in value an average of 47% by 2016. Most cities have seen prices steadily decline for the past 6 months. That sound is the air coming out of the bubble.
dongbeiren:
@coine Yes, I would say that living standards have improved in a material sense. As for education, I would agree that it is shit now but I doubt it was any better during the glory days of Mao. Health care? I agree that it is shit now but there is more access to modern medicine than there used to be and life expectancy is increasing. Common people are now able to afford cars and almost everyone has a smartphone. More units of decent quality housing are being built and more people are able to afford to live in them than before. Cities are upgrading infrastructure and most tier 2 cities now have subway systems or are in the process of building them. The high speed rail network is quite affordable and impressive.
I'm not trying to give any feel-good stories or claim China is a paradise. I'm just saying it's better now than it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago when the whole country was dirt poor and backwards. Now, it's mostly but not entirely dirt poor and backwards. Look at a picture of the Shanghai skyline in 1990 versus today. The amount of wealth created is staggering and while it has mostly gone to the top, I would argue that hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty and there is a growing middle class.
Now as for the less quantifiable areas you mention (kindness, civil liberties, etc.) I would say that it hasn't improved but hasn't really gotten worse. In fact, not long ago people had to fear for their lives from the Red Guards etc. that you mentioned in a recent post. I would guess that there is more rule of law now then there was not too long ago although China has a looooong way to go in all of these areas.
As much as you hate China, I would encourage you to try to see the bright spots where they do exist. Believe me, I'm not some sinophile or apologist but it is nice to see a lot of people prospering economically who were living in shit conditions not long ago. There's a long way to go but aside from environmental destruction I'd say the country is moving in the right direction. I mean, I doubt people were polite and waited in line in the past either.
