Quick Summary:
Article:
Massive inequality is being facilitated by a set of speculative bubbles
This year’s list of the super rich in the People’s Republic of China provides a staggering picture of the country’s levels of social inequality. While the international media still routinely labels China as “communist”, the unfettered operation of the market has produced more billionaires this year in China than any country in the world, with the exception of the United States—the very centre of global capitalism.
The US-based Forbes list of “China’s 40 Richest” released last month found that their total worth had trebled from $US38 billion last year to a massive $120 billion this year. As the magazine commented: “By comparison, the 40 richest Americans are worth $628 billion. Once poor, China is hardly hopelessly behind the world’s richest country.”
Another annual compilation—the Hurun Rich List—issued a few days later found that China currently has 106 billionaires. Last year China had just 15 billionaires and none in 2002. Now China has the second largest group of billionaires after America, which has over 410 billionaires, and nearly twice as many as the previous second placeholder, Germany with about 55.
Read the rest
China is a profoundly polarised society, with hundreds of millions of impoverished workers and peasants at one pole, and a tiny capitalist elite at the other. According to a Boston Consulting Group study, China had 250,000 millionaire households in 2005, ranking the country sixth in the world. These households accounted for only 0.4 percent of the total, but controlled 70 percent of national wealth.
Popular discontent is rising as exponentially as the wealth of China’s billionaire elite. Moreover, this huge wealth rests upon an extremely fragile foundation – real estate speculation and stock market dealing. As in most of the world, productive investment and fixed capital are secondary to the quick buck.
The contradictions of capitalism continue to unwind…
Popular discontent is rising as exponentially as the wealth of China’s billionaire elite. Moreover, this huge wealth rests upon an extremely fragile foundation – real estate speculation and stock market dealing. As in most of the world, productive investment and fixed capital are secondary to the quick buck.
The contradictions of capitalism continue to unwind…
Article:
Massive inequality is being facilitated by a set of speculative bubbles
This year’s list of the super rich in the People’s Republic of China provides a staggering picture of the country’s levels of social inequality. While the international media still routinely labels China as “communist”, the unfettered operation of the market has produced more billionaires this year in China than any country in the world, with the exception of the United States—the very centre of global capitalism.
The US-based Forbes list of “China’s 40 Richest” released last month found that their total worth had trebled from $US38 billion last year to a massive $120 billion this year. As the magazine commented: “By comparison, the 40 richest Americans are worth $628 billion. Once poor, China is hardly hopelessly behind the world’s richest country.”
Another annual compilation—the Hurun Rich List—issued a few days later found that China currently has 106 billionaires. Last year China had just 15 billionaires and none in 2002. Now China has the second largest group of billionaires after America, which has over 410 billionaires, and nearly twice as many as the previous second placeholder, Germany with about 55.
Read the rest
