The China Rich....Are Not Like Us?

[CardSharp]

From the China Law Blog

Got an email from a reader who is now in England studying law. His email was a combination of updates and thoughts and I just loved one portion of the thoughts. This person spent considerable time in Beijing tutoring children of high level Chinese executives, mostly bankers, and here, word for word, are some of his random, insightful thoughts from that experience:

1) None of them had counterfeit stuff in their houses. Even their DVDs were genuinely bought from Walmart, or HK, unlike most Westerners, whose apartments are full with fakes bought openly in Sanlitun.

2) None of them wanted their kids to go to university in China. They all universally hated China's education system and its high pressures. They all universally pushed their children to top their classes.

3) All of them were getting books banned in China from their frequent trips to HK, or from friends bringing them in. The recent one on WenJiaBao was common, but they also had stuff on Mao, T1a-nanmen etc. They would read and discuss them openly and their kids would read them too.

4) None of them wanted any kind of immediate reform. The best you could get was an admission that the government now was pretty 'arrogant' off how well they'd done in the past 3 years. One said this could be hubristic, others said it was well deserved.

5) The currency trader told me that on the day the government announced to great fanfare they'd allow some appreciation of the RMB, he was called in and told to generally not consider this as significant in his trading decisions.

6) The book industry in Beijing at least, must be doing well. Their book stores are massive emporiums, floor to ceiling on 6 levels of books, and incredibly busy. I asked why people don't go for ereaders. Was told they liked the feeling of choosing the books, and the smell!

 

[ThatDamnGood]

6) The book industry in Beijing at least, must be doing well. Their book stores are massive emporiums, floor to ceiling on 6 levels of books, and incredibly busy. I asked why people don't go for ereaders. Was told they liked the feeling of choosing the books, and the smell!

Hemp paper will be needed.

 

[below_freezing]

I figured as much. The rich in China are nothing like everyone else in China. They live by a different set of rules to a different set of standards with a different sort of value system. That's not the problem. The problem is when the law starts operating that way.

this is what's interesting:

"2) None of them wanted their kids to go to university in China. They all universally hated China's education system and its high pressures. They all universally pushed their children to top their classes."

So they hate the pressure of the education system but they themselves pressure their children.

 

[no_name]

^^It's not that contradictory. Same problem happens in Taiwan, having good scores and go to good schools gives you a head ahead others.

Part of the reason why my family emigrated to NZ is because they are worry that the education system is not suitable for me. (I was one of those problem childs that are not malicious but just can't keep still )

It's doubtful how much I can accomplish if I stayed in taiwan. A childs performance cannot and should not be directly translate to adulthood.
A kid should not be punished for minding outside his business or show more curiosity than 'necessary'.

Strangely as I grow older I become better behaved. But I didn't start to 'learn how to learn' until I entered university, where it really mattered.

 

[below_freezing]

What irritates me about these rich is that most of them got rich without making any positive contributions to society. They're, after all, bankers, real estate dealers and currency traders and not real innovators. That's to say, they got rich by loopholes in the system. Admittedly, so did many industrial investors but at least they have contributed real products. How does the country as a whole benefit from having thousands of insanely paid investment bankers as opposed to replacing them with engineers, scientists, technicians, welders, supply chain managers, etc. that produce real things of real value and not paper value? The real point of the issue is, how do we control capital flight from the country if they decide to pack up and leave? They contributed nothing else, whereas if engineers decided to leave, they couldn't bring the factory with them.

I admire the rich that worked for their money like Zhang Ruimin.

 

[Solomon2]

What irritates me about these rich is that most of them got rich without making any positive contributions to society. They're, after all, bankers, real estate dealers and currency traders and not real innovators. That's to say, they got rich by loopholes in the system.

Such middlemen serve a necessary social function that ensures smooth economic operation: they are all mediators in trade and by doing so improve over-all economic efficiency, and as such deserve a share of the profits.

They contributed nothing else, whereas if engineers decided to leave, they couldn't bring the factory with them.

Imagine if an engineer had to stop working to seek out capital, market his products, buy real estate for a factory. His productivity will suffer and his business will lose out to competitors who divide the labor of different specialties.

 

[CardSharp]

Such middlemen serve a necessary social function that ensures smooth economic operation: they are all mediators in trade and by doing so improve over-all economic efficiency, and as such deserve a share of the profits.

Imagine if an engineer had to stop working to seek out capital, market his products, buy real estate for a factory. His productivity will suffer and his business will lose out to competitors who divide the labor of different specialties.

Traditional Chinese Confucian values say of the classes in society, the middle man is the lowest below that of the peasant farmer because as he said, they do not add perceived value to society.

I disagree but that is the historical view.

 

[oct605032048]

Traditional Chinese Confucian values say of the classes in society, the middle man is the lowest below that of the peasant farmer because as he said, they do not add perceived value to society.

I disagree but that is the historical view.

that is why Confucius can't win the competition against Adam Smith.

 

[gambit]

Traditional Chinese Confucian values say of the classes in society, the middle man is the lowest below that of the peasant farmer because as he said, they do not add perceived value to society.

I disagree but that is the historical view.

Middlemen do not appear out of nowhere. May be they came from the profession they represent? After all, say you are a dentist, do you want the agent representing your practice to at the very least have some knowledge and experience in dentistry? Or do you want him to come from sales from masonry?

 

[BigTree.CN]

3) All of them were getting books banned in China from their frequent trips to HK, or from friends bringing them in. The recent one on WenJiaBao was common, but they also had stuff on Mao, T1a-nanmen etc. They would read and discuss them openly and their kids would read them too.

If i'm not mistaking, the name of the book should be "The Best Chinese Actor"(中国最大的影&#24093.

 

[CardSharp]

Middlemen do not appear out of nowhere. May be they came from the profession they represent? After all, say you are a dentist, do you want the agent representing your practice to at the very least have some knowledge and experience in dentistry? Or do you want him to come from sales from masonry?

Confucian thought on the subject dealt more with the historically very successful Chinese merchant class than actual middlemen as we know it by modern definition. Confucian scholars thought that merchants were exploiting a loophole or something by just moving goods from one place to another, they made a profit.

Many in the merchant class became emmensely wealthy but had no social standing. What they did eventually was to buy land and send their sons to the imperial examination, transforming themselves into landed gentlemen.

 

[CardSharp]

If i'm not mistaking, the name of the book should be "The Best Chinese Actor"(中国最大的影&#24093.

Modern Chinese leaders I think are discouraged from having a public persona. A retraction from the cult worship of Mao.

 

[gambit]

Confucian thought on the subject dealt more with the historically very successful Chinese merchant class than actual middlemen as we know it by modern definition. Confucian scholars thought that merchants were exploiting a loophole or something by just moving goods from one place to another, they made a profit.

Many in the merchant class became emmensely wealthy but had no social standing. What they did eventually was to buy land and send their sons to the imperial examination, transforming themselves into landed gentlemen.

Do not care. I care only if someone can provide a service or a product that I want/need. Moving goods from one place or another is a service and a product and easily quantifiable. This condescension towards the 'merchant' class smacks of petty jealousy to me.

 

[CardSharp]

Do not care. I care only if someone can provide a service or a product that I want/need. Moving goods from one place or another is a service and a product and easily quantifiable. This condescension towards the 'merchant' class smacks of petty jealousy to me.

Ok? I am recounting what I read from a history book. Chill.