The American Dream… Alive in China?
This is quite an attractive headline for most of us, isn’t it? What is it that made journalists pass such a statement.
What is the American Dream? The American Dream is defined as a promise of a better life for those who work hard. Is China offering the same lifestyle? Let us shed some light on the matter.
China as a country is still poorer than the United States. However people in China are leading in their attitude of optimism, which appears to be the most intangible but valuable economic indicators.
The Chinese are now considered the most optimistic people in the world, more that Europeans and Americans according to public opinion surveys. This is even after the politics in the country are closely monitored.
The change was noticed after the most recent economic expansions when more than 800 million people rose out of poverty, that is two and half times the populations of the United States. For China, the growth is seen in the middle class Chinese people, from incomes rising to newer generations outlearning the older. Also a rise in life expectancy where Chinese men born in 2013 are expected to live more than seven years longer than those born in 1990, women are expected to live nearly 10 years longer. China used to make up much of the world’s poor. Now it makes up much of the world’s middle class.
However, China still has a large gap between the rich and the poor — about 40% of the population, living on less than $5.50 a day, according to the World Bank. In some scales, Chinese society has about the same level of inequality as the United States. Today, the economic output per capita in China is $12,000, compared with $3,500 a decade ago. We have note that the number is far higher in the United States, $53,000. Hence, there is still a long way to go, but the Chinese as mentioned here are optimistic.
Poverty and corruption have brought average people in China down for too long. Today poor people have the resources to compete with rich people, too.
China’s progress is surprisingly remarkable given how the country is restricted in terms of where people live and how many children they have. Do we think that loosening those constraints could accelerate income growth? That is yet to be seen. Hence people are now talking about “the Chinese Dream.”
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