Oct
20
By Paolo von Schirach
October 20, 2011
WASHINGTON – Here is some food for thought. In democratic (and once upon a time more egalitarian) America, the Occupy Wall Street movement has propagated the notion that just 1% of super rich Americans own almost everything, while the remaining 99%, with almost nothing, are condemned to suffer. Given this injustice, the Occupy Wall Street crowds now speak out, at last, for the disposessed 99%. Is this narrative even remotely true?
In unequal America most people are not poor
Well, remotely, yes. It is true that there has been an unhealthy accumulation of wealth at the very top in America. The divide between the super affluent and the rest of us is much larger than the historic average. And this cannot be good. But the implications of this undeniable fact are debatable. The New York crowds would have you believe that 99% of Americans are left with just a few crumbs. Well, this is a bit of a stretch in two car garage America, a country in which even many people officially below the poverty line have a life style (cars, TVs computers, dishwashers, air conditioning) that would be the envy of many around the world.
Socialist China more unequal
But if we believe the 1% versus 99% story that creates the image of an opportunity deprived America, how is socialist China doing in comparison? You would think that, notwithstanding vast reforms and the acceptance of key elements of a market economy, the socialist soul would somehow have survived, guaranteeing an equitable distribution of the new national wealth.
Well, some critical metrics say it is not so. Take housing affordability, for example. In poor America, where the greedy 1% cleaned up, the price for a dwelling is about three times the average annual household income.
Whereas, according to Du Jinsong, an analyst at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong, quoted in The Financial Times, in China, “nationwide the average price for a flat is now seven times the average annual household income, but in Beijing and Shanghai it is more than 17 times”.
Economic policies failed?
There you go, apparently in some countries people suffer more than in deprived America, now essentially owned by the 1% greedy conspiracy. Owning a home in China is a major challenge. In fact an unreachable goal for millions. According to Lei Jin, a young Beijing woman quoted in the same FT story, ” Our government’s economic policies are no longer good enough to improve our lives. It looks I will never be able to but a flat of my own”.
A protest like Occupy Wall Street in China?
Government economic policies failing the people? Never to be able to buy a house. This is heavy stuff. Well, there seems to be enough material here to start an “Occupy Tien An Men Square” movement. Since super twitting and totally connected Occupy Wall Street people have so much outreach, I suggest they do that: start a protest against lack of housing affordability in socialist China. (Only kidding).
America not so bad, after all
Somehow, though, I suspect that, if they went that far, the Beijing authorities would be a touch less accommodating, even in case of a tiny little protest, than New York Mayor Bloomberg and the owners of Zuccotti Park have been. And this consideration alone about US forbearance towards dissent should tell the Occupy Wall Street crowd that things after all may not be so bad in what they describe as Evil America now owned by The Dark Conspiracy Of The Greedy.
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