“With all the money we owe China, I think we might rightly say, ‘Hu’s your daddy!'” – Michele Bachmann at the 38th annual Conservative Political Action Conference. (February 10, 2011)
“If you look at China, they don't have food stamps … They don't have the modern welfare state, and China's growing. And so what I would do is look at the programs that LBJ gave us with the Great Society and they'd be gone.” - Michele Bachmann at the Republican Party Presidential candidate debate on foreign policy. (November 12, 2011)
Even with Gross Domestic Product expanding by 10% year after year, China's economic system isn't something to emulate or copy in America. The economy is growing fast but the wealth created hasn’t trickled down. Sound familiar? Understand why Bachmann loves it? Right wingers love to fantasize about a China of capitalism unhindered by individual freedoms and government regulation. And they love to fantasize even more about bringing that kind of capitalism to America. Beware of Republican stories about the success of China, especially when they claim it was a result of policies they’d like to introduce here.
The rights of the individual in China
Article 1 of China’s constitution states: “Sabotage of the socialist system by any organization or individual is prohibited.” Perhaps that’s to be expected but it’s a telling place to begin a national constitution. Individual rights and freedoms are addressed in Articles 33 - 56. Here are some interesting excerpts:
• No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. (Article 36)
• Citizens of the People's Republic of China have the right as well as the duty to work. (Article 42)
• Citizens of the People's Republic of China have the right to material assistance from the state and society when they are old, ill, or disabled. (Article 45)
• Both husband and wife have the duty to practice family planning. (Article 49)
• The exercise by citizens of the People's Republic of China of their freedoms and rights may not infringe upon the interests of the state, of society, and of the collective, or upon the lawful freedoms and rights of other citizens. (Article 51)
• It is the duty of citizens of the People's Republic of China to pay taxes in accordance with the law. (Article 56)
Becoming another version of China
Bachmann won’t be the Republican nominee for President but she’ll be on the sidelines cheerleading. Remember who she works for. She gives us more than an inkling about the elite she serves and their agenda: the repeal of minimum wage laws, the elimination of all social programs that provide assistance to those who are unable to pay for their own necessities, the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency and the complete deregulation of businesses. Bachmann doesn’t hide the alliance between extremist right wing business leaders and the extremist religious element pushing for a theocracy in the US either. They want abortion to be outlawed, contraceptives to become unavailable, and gays to be criminalized.
Any of the other Republican candidates for President would support the same agenda to a greater or lesser extent, if they’re allowed to have their way. But the cover story about trickle down, job creators, and deregulation they’ve used in the past to obtain votes, has hit a wall and it can’t be sold anymore. No matter which candidate is nominated, one portion or another of the GOP won’t have the energy to go to the polls on Election Day. Bachmann will continue cheerleading attacks against President Obama because it’s all they have left. Ever more inflammatory accusations to incite fear are to be expected and must be met head on, no matter how unreasonable the claim. Might as well start now with Bachmann’s assertion that the US and Obama are more socialist than the Communist People’s Republic of China.
Individual Wealth in China
In recent times, China couldn't afford to be a modern welfare state and probably can’t afford it today either. China is growing but its people are still relatively poor compared to Americans.
World Rank Country 2010 Personal Income
11 United States $ 47,200.00
125 China $ 7,600.00
Personal Income is distributed just as unequally in China as in the US. The UN measurement of GINI placed the US and China far below Denmark, Sweden and Norway where incomes are distributed through the population much more equally. This may seem strange since China is still, at least nominally, a Communist country. But China has many other collective goals that are prioritized over individual needs.
Country UN GINI Rank UN GINI
United States 73 40.8
China (PRC) 90 46.9
The CIA also measures GINI and came up with similar statistics using more recent numbers which show that the US has fallen behind China in this measurement in the last 5 years. A GINI co-efficient number that approaches zero indicates a population with equal income distribution. As the number increases, inequality between the top and the bottom of the income scale also increases.
Country CIA GINI Rank CIA GINI
China (PRC) 82 41.5
United States 94 45.0
Personal income concentrated in the hands of a few entrepreneurs isn’t the only problem in China. With a population of 1.3 billion and incomes less than 20% of what Americans earn, China’s obstacles to providing the “modern welfare state” mentioned by Bachmann should be obvious. Still, China has a Minimum Living Standard Assistance Program that recognizes an important difference between the more affluent population in the cities, versus the poor living in the countryside where the advances of the last 20 years haven’t even reached yet.
The urban poor are perceived as a threat to social stability in China’s cities and even with 10% annual GDP growth there aren’t enough jobs for everyone migrating from the countryside. At the same time, there are still 470 million Chinese, mostly in rural areas, living on less than $2 a day, ($730 a year) according to the World Bank. The Chinese have made tremendous progress lifting very large numbers of people out of poverty but there is still a long way to go. In rural areas, the Minimum Living Standard Assistance Program focuses on raising this vast number, equal to the total populations of the US, Germany and the United Kingdom combined, above the $2 a day poverty line. It’s not difficult to do the math to see that assistance for 470 million people could easily cost, every year, an amount similar to Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill.
Working jointly, Irwin Garfunkel of Columbia University and Qin Gao of Fordham University have produced a series of studies on the Minimum Living Standard Assistance (MLSA) program in China. It was introduced only 17 years ago and it continues to grow and expand steadily each year. Their most recent work using Chinese government figures indicates that a combined total of 77 million people in urban and rural areas received assistance in 2010. The benefits provided totaled approximately $25 billion. Garfunkel and Gao point out that this is a low number for a program intended to provide a safety net for nutrition compared to the size of the problem. But there are many other public assistance programs offered.
The central government provides health care assistance and is working to raise standards to levels found in wealthier countries. Recent articles in the China Daily English edition noted that standards of care and the quality of facilities are lacking in many areas of the country and the government is working on improvements recognizing that poverty, hunger and health must all be addressed together to be effective. Poverty and hunger affect a disproportionate number of children and they’re at risk because malnutrition makes childhood diseases like measles much more serious.
Assistance with housing costs are provided by many local governments in China, especially in cities where a housing bubble seems to be developing with costs going up very quickly. Since there are so many different programs offered and the government is trying to deal with rapidly changing circumstances, there may not be any figures that consolidate all forms of assistance to know the total cost. The important thing to know is that Bachmann is deliberately misleading when she suggests that food stamps and social welfare programs are hindering the American economy. She would eliminate those programs and she thinks that making people poorer will somehow bring prosperity. Meanwhile officials in China recognize the unequal distribution of income in the hands of a few entrepreneurs that developed with the introduction of privately owned businesses. They have a progressive tax code with a marginal rate of 45% for the highest incomes, compared to 35% in the US. But Republicans are very selective about facts when they spread their rancid propaganda.
It’s always good to have a much needed antidote after exposure to the toxic lies promoted by the GOP. Here’s a quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speaking during the 1932 Presidential election campaign.
“I believe that we are at the threshold of a fundamental change in our popular economic thought. That in the future we are going to think less about the producer and more about the consumer. Do what we may have to do to inject life into our ailing economic order; we cannot make it endure for long unless we can bring about a wiser, more equitable distribution of the national income.”