http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2010-05/535803.html
A plan to curb the yawning wealth distribution will be drafted, according to officials with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) who declined to give a timetable. The efforts come as experts warn that the nation can ill-afford a growing disparity in earnings.
Such a plan could be written into the country’s next Five- Year Plan for 2011-15, according to the 21st Century Business Herald newspaper.
State media outlets have featured intensive coverage on the issue, with the latest report appearing Tuesday in the overseas edition of People’s Daily, which commented that China is faced with a growing income gap and an accompanying sense of social inequality despite a steady growth since the 1980s in the national average salary.
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Yang Yiyong, director of the Social Development Research Department at the NDRC, warned that China can't afford any further rises in the Gini Index, as growing disparity could result in social unrest and "could even cause distrust in the country's public-ownership economic system."
"Social problems, including migrant workers consecutively taking their lives and serial attacks on schoolchildren, are related to conflicts stemming from the income gap," Yang said.
Yang's words referred to seven unrelated attacks on primary school and kindergarten students in less than two months, in which more than a dozen children were killed. Also this week, the number of apparent suicides at Taiwanese company Foxconn hit 10.
The rural-urban income gap constituted a major part in the overall gap, Yang said, urging the free mobilization of labor and the implementation of equal pay for equal work, both of which are hindered by the current household registration system, or hukou.
People's Daily reported that the existing hukou system has helped push up the gap between the rich and poor.
Citizens with rural hukou cannot generally enjoy the same social benefits as urban residents, even though they live and work in cities.
Monday, August 1, 2011
The Most Interesting Ten Types of People in China
The following post is making the rounds of Chinese cyberspace. Translated by Yuanxi Huang:
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/10/the-most-interesting-ten-types-of-people-in-china/
9. The most pathetic Chinese are farmers. In fact the IQ of rural farmers is no lower than urban citizens. Their shrewdness is definitely worthy of respect. Yet they can only struggle for a position of an annual income of over 100 RMB—the village head. Chinese farmers are born with a special identity. To get rid of this identity, they have to pay the price for their whole lives.
最可怜的中国人是农民：其实山村乡民的智商并不比城里人低，其精明程度绝对让人佩服。可他们却只能为一个年薪？只有一百多元的村长的职位而争斗。中国的农民一生下来就有了一种特殊的身份，为了抛弃这个身份，他们甚至要花去一生的精力。
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/10/the-most-interesting-ten-types-of-people-in-china/
9. The most pathetic Chinese are farmers. In fact the IQ of rural farmers is no lower than urban citizens. Their shrewdness is definitely worthy of respect. Yet they can only struggle for a position of an annual income of over 100 RMB—the village head. Chinese farmers are born with a special identity. To get rid of this identity, they have to pay the price for their whole lives.
最可怜的中国人是农民：其实山村乡民的智商并不比城里人低，其精明程度绝对让人佩服。可他们却只能为一个年薪？只有一百多元的村长的职位而争斗。中国的农民一生下来就有了一种特殊的身份，为了抛弃这个身份，他们甚至要花去一生的精力。
"Amid China's economic transformation, many farmers struggle"
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-farming-20110707,0,2836392.story
A cabbage grower's suicide draws attention to the plight of 200 million Chinese farming households, many of which struggle to earn a profit even as global food prices rise...
Still, with global food prices rising, particularly in China's cities, conventional wisdom had it that Chinese growers must be enjoying a windfall. After all, some U.S. farmers are profiting handsomely selling pork, soybeans, nuts and other agricultural products to hungry Chinese buyers.
But in contrast to large, highly mechanized American farms, a typical Chinese farm is less than an acre in size and worked by hand. It's a legacy of communist reform, when the state seized control of China's farmland and subdivided it into tiny plots. Although this system has kept rural dwellers employed, it has slowed China's ability to boost their incomes.
Chinese farmers don't have crop insurance to protect them against disaster; government subsidies are minimal. Because they don't own their land, growers can't borrow against it and have little incentive to improve operations. Reliable market forecasts are hard to come by, leaving farmers to speculate about what to plant. Poor roads in many parts of the countryside force growers to sell their harvests locally or to middlemen who pocket much of the markup paid by city dwellers. Add rising costs for labor, seed, fertilizer and fuel, and many producers are seeing their profits squeezed even as retail prices soar.
"No one is going to get rich off farming," said Scott Rozelle, an expert on China's rural economy at Stanford University. "It's not going to happen until farm sizes get bigger. That's why millions of people are moving to the cities."
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...
A cabbage grower's suicide draws attention to the plight of 200 million Chinese farming households, many of which struggle to earn a profit even as global food prices rise...
Still, with global food prices rising, particularly in China's cities, conventional wisdom had it that Chinese growers must be enjoying a windfall. After all, some U.S. farmers are profiting handsomely selling pork, soybeans, nuts and other agricultural products to hungry Chinese buyers.
But in contrast to large, highly mechanized American farms, a typical Chinese farm is less than an acre in size and worked by hand. It's a legacy of communist reform, when the state seized control of China's farmland and subdivided it into tiny plots. Although this system has kept rural dwellers employed, it has slowed China's ability to boost their incomes.
Chinese farmers don't have crop insurance to protect them against disaster; government subsidies are minimal. Because they don't own their land, growers can't borrow against it and have little incentive to improve operations. Reliable market forecasts are hard to come by, leaving farmers to speculate about what to plant. Poor roads in many parts of the countryside force growers to sell their harvests locally or to middlemen who pocket much of the markup paid by city dwellers. Add rising costs for labor, seed, fertilizer and fuel, and many producers are seeing their profits squeezed even as retail prices soar.
"No one is going to get rich off farming," said Scott Rozelle, an expert on China's rural economy at Stanford University. "It's not going to happen until farm sizes get bigger. That's why millions of people are moving to the cities."
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중심
아주 이타적인 삶을 살다간 두 분에 대한 다큐를 (다시) 보았다. (기본적으로 종교인들이심...)
기가막힌 중심이 있으셨던 분들이었다.
내가 계속 찾고자 하는 것도 그런 중심이다. 그게 없으니 세상 모든 것이, 그리고 삶의 모든 것이 신기루처럼 느껴질 뿐이라...
기가막힌 중심이 있으셨던 분들이었다.
내가 계속 찾고자 하는 것도 그런 중심이다. 그게 없으니 세상 모든 것이, 그리고 삶의 모든 것이 신기루처럼 느껴질 뿐이라...
Friday, July 29, 2011
이성 vs 믿음
믿음은 이성의 영역이 아닌가...에 대해서 생각해보았다.
믿음의 영역과 이성의 영역은 구분될 수 있는가.
여기에 대한 나의 natural response는,
믿음과 이성의 생리학적 기제를 이해해야 나올 수 있는 대답이라는 것이라는 생각...
여기에 대해서는 워낙 많은 연구들이 쏟아져 나오고 있기 때문에 지금 쉽사리 정리하지는 못하겠다.
(지금 주문해놓고 기다리고 있는 책: On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not)
(저자의 구글 강연)
어쨌든 나의 기본적 stance는, '믿음'이라는게 있고 (혹은 '믿음의 영역') '이성'의 영역이라는게
따로, 우리 바깥에 원래부터 존재하는 독립적 영역이 아니라,
믿음과 이성적 추론이 서로 다른 생리적, 신경 메커니즘을 통해 머릿속에서 생산된다는 것이다.
이 부분은 현재의 과학에서는 조금도 부정할 수 없는 완벽한 사실..
(한완상씨의 인터뷰를 보다 들은 생각...)
믿음의 영역과 이성의 영역은 구분될 수 있는가.
여기에 대한 나의 natural response는,
믿음과 이성의 생리학적 기제를 이해해야 나올 수 있는 대답이라는 것이라는 생각...
여기에 대해서는 워낙 많은 연구들이 쏟아져 나오고 있기 때문에 지금 쉽사리 정리하지는 못하겠다.
(지금 주문해놓고 기다리고 있는 책: On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not)
(저자의 구글 강연)
어쨌든 나의 기본적 stance는, '믿음'이라는게 있고 (혹은 '믿음의 영역') '이성'의 영역이라는게
따로, 우리 바깥에 원래부터 존재하는 독립적 영역이 아니라,
믿음과 이성적 추론이 서로 다른 생리적, 신경 메커니즘을 통해 머릿속에서 생산된다는 것이다.
이 부분은 현재의 과학에서는 조금도 부정할 수 없는 완벽한 사실..
(한완상씨의 인터뷰를 보다 들은 생각...)
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
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