rlirph

America Frets About the Economy as China Buys 'Stuff'

China's pension system is on a sounder footing than our social security system. At least you can see money actually was transferred into a trust fund. All we have is an IOU from our Treasury Department. If I have a choice I would like to be a pensioner in China than collecting soon-to-disappear social security.

-From A US Expat In Guangzhou


On Feb 22 06:05 PM Sober Realist wrote:

> It's funny what unpredictable twists and turns occur in history.
> While it may appear to many that China is sitting pretty, they have
> a lot to worry about.
> Statistics from China's regime are as untrustworthy as our government's.
> So when the CCP reports "4.2% unemployment rate on registered <br/>(urban)
> workers for the end of 2008, as reported by Xinhua News Agency on
> Jan. 21, 2009.", don't believe it. Experts believe the total unemployment
> for urban and rural workers is around 25%. China's growth rate is
> also most likely well under the 6% figure touted by the regime as
> a "critical threshold required to absorb incoming young workers and
> maintain sufficient jobs for the workforce in general."
> What's this adds up to is that the financial crisis is hitting China
> from the bottom up.
> How long will the tens of millions of destitute Chinese migrant workers,
> who were the lifeblood of China's once humming factories, stay patient?
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> China's Demographic Time Bomb:
>
> A recent study by the Institute of Economic Affairs found that "of
> all the pensions systems we studied, China’s was possibly the most
> complex, the most inequitable (relatively rich urban dwellers receive
> very generous pensions from age 50, poor rural workers receive nothing),
> entirely inflexible (people cannot transfer benefits between regions)
> and riddled with corruption – entirely unsuited to meet the oncoming
> crisis."
> China's one child policy has created a demographic time bomb consisting
> of "4-2-1 problem, one child supports two parents and four grandparents."
> "Even if China’s economy continues to grow rapidly, its per capita
> income will still be a fraction of ours during the demographic transformation
> – China will grow old before growing rich. China’s high savings rate
> has often been commented on – this is not surprising given its rapidly
> ageing population."
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