The article discusses the attitude of China’s consumers. Many consumers in China are saving more than spending, and while that sounds good in theory it has created a setback in the Chinese economy. The author, Barboza, highlights the differences between two cities, Jilin and Beijing. In Beijing, any global company can prosper, but in cities like Jilin people do not like to pay the full price because they do not have the spending power to do so. With a country that lacks in spending power, China’s economic power is not able to grow to its full potential, and as a result inflation is on the rise. As the article continues the reason behind the bargaining is revealed. The Chinese people are not earning enough money to pay their bills and have a little left over. In fact, the family in this article, the Wangs, earns an average of $16,000 a year. And the Wangs are considered a middle class family! As the article comes to a close, the author points out that the only way to fix the consumption problem, or lack of, is to stop taking money from the households and instead focus on companies and the government.
Over the past few weeks I have been reading about this sector of the world, China in particular, and I have seen an alarming pattern. The gap in China between the rich and the poor seems to grow every day. This article is a fine example of the problem. It talks about the middle class families of China and the difficulties and strain they receive from China’s newer economy. They are the ones to suffer because as the title of the article says, they are being left behind while China’s economy and upper class reaps in the profits of the middle class hard work. If the gap continues to grow at the rate it is and the middle class does not receive some relief or some of the benefits that the upper class enjoys then China is in for more than just experiencing a pitfall in their economy: they will experience another rebellion. To read more about the Chinese middle class setbacks check out these links:
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