Reply #20: The Chinese Latte Liberals are the Minority Spending Money [View All]

[On the Road]

The impoverished workers are the ones saving half their paychecks.

Working-class man from high unemployment areas like Fujian frequently pay someone $50K for illegal passage to the US, pay a green card lawyer another $5K to get legal status, meanwhile working on renovation projects, living in the unfinished buildings, cooking rice and vegetables, and every few months dragging a bag of $20 bills to the local Western Union office to wire home. Much of the money received in Chine goes into investment into residential or small commercial real estate projects.

Older Chinese still have memories of the deprivations of the Mao period, when despite the communist ideology many families were not able to make ends meet. The lack of pensions or disability and fear of serious medical expensions drives a lot of the behavior. It's going to change eventually with the change of generations and the possible passage of universal health care, which the government is considering partly to increase financial security and thus consumer spending.