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fukuman
Wonder Wit
Joined: Sep 18, 2003
Posts: 3699
Status: Offline
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 Posted:
Mar 26, 2005 - 08:57 PM |
 
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| Post subject: 4 all the CCP haters |
"LIVING STANDARDS
Progress since 1949
Before 1949 the Chinese economy was characterized by widespread
poverty, extreme income inequalities, and endemic insecurity of
livelihood. By means of centralized economic planning, the
People's Republic was able to redistribute national income so as
to provide the entire population with at least the minimal
necessities of life (except during the "three bad years" of 1959,
1960, and 1961) and to consistently allocate a relatively high
proportion of national income to productive investment. Equally
important to the quality of life were the results of mass
public-health and sanitation campaigns, which rid the country of
most of the conditions that had bred epidemics and lingering
disease in the past. The most concrete evidence of improved
living standards was that average national life expectancy more
than doubled, rising from around thirty-two years in 1949 to
sixty-nine years in 1985 (see Mortality and Fertility; Health
Care, ch. 2).
In 1987 the standard of living in China was much lower than in
the industrialized countries, but nearly all Chinese people had
adequate food, clothing, and housing. In addition, there was a
positive trend toward rapid improvements in living conditions in
the 1980s as a result of the economic reforms, though
improvements in the standard of living beyond the basic level
came slowly. Until the end of the 1970s, the fruits of economic
growth were largely negated by population increases, which
prevented significant advances in the per capita availability of
food, clothing, and housing beyond levels achieved in the 1950s
(see Population, ch. 2). The second major change in the standard
of living came about as a result of the rapid expansion of
productivity and commerce generated by the reform measures of the
1980s. After thirty years of austerity and marginal sufficiency,
Chinese consumers suddenly were able to buy more than enough to
eat from a growing variety of food items. Stylish clothing,
modern furniture, and a wide array of electrical appliances also
became part of the normal expectations of ordinary Chinese
families.
Food
While food production rose substantially after 1949, population
increases were nearly as great until the 1980s. Production of
grain, the source of about 75 percent of the calories in the
Chinese diet, grew at an average rate of 2.7 percent a year
between 1952 and 1979, while population growth averaged almost 2
percent a year. Total grain output per capita grew from 288
kilograms a year in 1952 to 319 kilograms in 1978, an increase of
only 11 percent in 26 years. In 1984, however, a remarkably good
harvest produced 396 kilograms of grain per capita, an increase
of 24 percent in only 6 years. In 1985 grain output fell below
the peak level of 1984, to 365 kilograms per person, and
recovered only partially in 1986 to 369 kilograms per capita (see
table B; Crops, ch. 6).
Other important food items that remained in short supply before
the economic reforms included edible oil, sugar, and aquatic
products. Production of oil-bearing crops increased at an average
rate of about 2 percent a year from 1952 to 1979, and annual
consumption of edible oil was less than 2 kilograms per person in
1979. Between 1978 and 1985, output grew at over 16 percent a
year, and annual consumption increased to 5.1 kilograms per
person. Sugar production grew at an average annual rate of 4.5
percent after 1952, but in 1979 consumption per person still was
only 3.5 kilograms per year. From 1979 to 1985, sugar production
grew by 10 percent a year, and the total amount of sugar
available per person rose to 5.6 kilograms in 1985. Output of
aquatic products rose at an average rate of only 2 percent a year
between 1957 and 1978 and declined slightly in 1979; between 1979
and 1985, however, output grew at an average rate of 8.5 percent
a year, and individual annual consumption rose from 3.2 kilograms
to 4.9 kilograms.
Pork, eggs, and vegetables were increasingly available before
the 1980s (see Animal Husbandry, ch. 6). Annual consumption of
pork--the most commonly eaten meat in China--grew from 5.9
kilograms per person in 1952 to 7.5 kilograms per person in the
mid-1970s. In 1979 a sharp increase in procurement prices for
pork brought about a surge in supply--to 9.6 kilograms per
person. Beginning in 1980, availability increased steadily,
reaching 14 kilograms of pork per capita in 1985, an increase of
9 percent each year from 1978. Consumption of fresh eggs followed
a similar pattern, climbing from an average of just over one
kilogram per person in 1952 to almost two kilograms in 1978. The
economic reforms elicited rapid increases in the supply of eggs,
as they had with pork, and by 1985 consumption had more than
doubled, to 5 kilograms of eggs per person a year, for an
increase of over 14 percent a year.
Vegetables were the major supplement to grain in the Chinese
diet and were very important nutritionally. In 1957 annual
vegetable consumption per capita in Chinese cities averaged 109
kilograms and by 1981 had grown to 152 kilograms. Household
survey data indicated that in 1985 vegetable consumption had
leveled off, at 148 kilograms per person per year in urban areas
and 131 kilograms in the countryside, as people used their higher
incomes to increase their purchases of more expensive foods, such
as meat, fish, and edible oil.
As of the late 1970s, famine and malnutrition were no longer
major problems in China, but the average diet lacked variety and
provided little more than basic nutritional requirements.
Protein, in particular, was barely adequate for health
maintenance. By the mid-1980s the availability of food had
improved dramatically. Bustling street markets offered a good
variety of fruits and vegetables throughout the year, and per
capita consumption of high-protein foods--meat, poultry, eggs,
and fish--increased by 63 percent over the 1979 level, to nearly
27 kilograms a year in 1985.
Clothing
Before the reform period, clothing purchases were restricted by
rationing. Cotton cloth consumption was limited to between four
and six meters a year per person in the 1970s. In the 1980s one
of the most visible signs of the economic "revolution" was the
appearance in Chinese cities of large quantities of relatively
modern, varied, colorful, Western-style clothes, a sharp contrast
to the monotone image of blue and gray suits that typified
Chinese dress in earlier years. Cloth consumption increased from
eight meters per person in 1978 to almost twelve meters in 1985,
and rationing was ended in the early 1980s. Production of
synthetic fibers more than tripled during this period; in 1985
synthetics constituted 40 percent of the cloth purchased (see
Textiles, ch. 7). Consumers also tripled their purchases of
woolen fabrics in these years and bought growing numbers of
garments made of silk, leather, or down. In 1987 Chinese
department stores and street markets carried clothing in a large
variety of styles, colors, quality, and prices. Many people
displayed their new affluence with relatively expensive and
stylish clothes, while those with more modest tastes or meager
incomes still could adequately outfit themselves at very low
cost.
Consumer Goods
As with food supplies and clothing, the availability of
housewares went through several stages. Simple, inexpensive
household items, like
thermoses, cooking pans, and clocks were stocked in department
stores and other retail outlets all over China from the 1950s on.
Relatively expensive consumer durables became available more
gradually. In the 1960s production and sales of bicycles, sewing
machines, wristwatches, and transistor radios grew to the point
that these items became common household possessions, followed in
the late 1970s by television sets and cameras (see Other Consumer
Goods, ch. 7). In the 1980s supplies of furniture and electrical
appliances increased along with family incomes. Household survey
data indicated that by 1985 most urban families owned two
bicycles, at least one sofa, a writing desk, a wardrobe, a sewing
machine, an electric fan, a radio, and a television. Virtually
all urban adults owned wristwatches, half of all families had
washing machines, 10 percent had refrigerators, and over 18
percent owned color televisions. Rural households on average
owned about half the number of consumer durables owned by urban
dwellers. Most farm families had 1 bicycle, about half had a
radio, 43 percent owned a sewing machine, 12 percent had a
television set, and about half the rural adults owned
wristwatches.
Housing
Housing construction in towns and cities lagged behind urban
population growth. A 1978 survey of housing conditions in 192
cities found that their combined population had increased by 83
percent between 1949 and 1978, but housing floor space had only
grown by 46.7 percent. In 1978 there were only 3.6 square meters
of living space per inhabitant in these cities, a reduction of
0.9 square meter since 1949. To remedy this problem, construction
of modern urban housing became a top priority in the late 1970s,
and by the mid-1980s new high-rise apartment blocks and the tall
cranes used in their construction were ubiquitous features of
large cities. Some apartments in the new buildings had their own
lavatories, kitchens, and balconies, but others shared communal
facilities. Nearly all were of much higher quality than older
houses, many of which were built of mud bricks and lacked
plumbing.
By 1981 living space in urban housing had increased to 5.3
square meters per person, and by 1985 the figure was 6.7 square
meters (see Housing Construction, ch. 7). Despite this progress,
scarcity of housing continued to be a major problem in the
cities, and many young married couples had to live with parents
or make do with a single room (see Housing, ch. 3).
Housing conditions in rural areas varied widely. During the
1960s and 1970s, thousands of production brigades built sturdy,
sanitary houses and apartments and in many cases entire new
villages. With the introduction of the responsibility system and
the more than doubling of rural incomes in the early 1980s,
another wave of housing construction took place as farm families
moved quickly to invest in their major personal assets--their
homes--which for the most part were privately owned. Many farm
family houses lacked running water, but virtually all had
electricity and were considerably more spacious than urban
dwellings. In 1980 farm homes averaged 9.4 square meters of
living space per person, and by 1985 the figure had risen to 14.7
square meters. Despite extensive construction of new housing, in
poorer regions some farm families still lived in traditional
dwellings, such as mud-brick and thatch houses or, in some
regions, cave houses. Many of the nomadic herders in Nei Monggol,
Xinjiang, and Xizang (t¡bet) autonomous regions still lived in
tents or felt yurts. In the Chang Jiang Valley and in south
China, some fishing and boat transportation communities continued
to live on their vessels (see Minority Nationalities, ch. 2).
Income Distribution
Income differences in China since the 1950s have been much
smaller than in most other countries. There was never any
attempt, however, at complete equalization, and a wide range of
income levels remained. Income differences grew even wider in the
1980s as the economic reform policies opened up new income
opportunities. More than two-thirds of all urban workers were
employed in state-owned units, which used an eight-grade wage
system. The pay for each grade differed from one industry to
another, but generally workers in the most senior grades earned
about three times as much as beginning workers, senior managers
could earn half again as much as senior workers, and engineers
could earn twice as much as senior workers. In 1985 the average
annual income of people employed in state-owned units was
-Y1,213. An important component of workers' pay was made up of
bonuses and subsidies. In 1985 bonuses contributed 13 percent of
the incomes of workers in state-owned units; subsidies for
transportation, food, and clothing added another 15 percent. One
of the most important subsidies--one that did not appear in the
income figures--was for housing, nearly all of which was owned
and allocated by the work unit and rented to unit members at
prices well below real value. In 1985 urban consumers spent just
over 1 percent of their incomes on housing (see Wages and
Benefits; Urban Society, ch. 3).
The 27 percent of the urban labor force that was employed in
collectively owned enterprises earned less on average than
workers in state-owned units. The income of workers in
collectively owned enterprises consisted of a share of the profit
earned by the enterprise. Most such enterprises were small, had
little capital, and did not earn large profits. Many were engaged
in traditional services, handicrafts, or small-scale, part-time
assembly work. In 1985 workers in urban collective units earned
an average annual income of -Y968. In the more open commercial
environment of the 1980s, a small but significant number of
people earned incomes much larger than those in regular
state-owned and collectively owned units. Employees of
enterprises run by overseas Chinese (see Glossary), for instance,
earned an average of -Y2,437 in 1985, over twice the average
income of workers in state-owned units.
The small but dynamic domestic private sector also produced some
lucrative opportunities. Private, part-time schools, which
appeared in large numbers in the mid-1980s, offered moonlighting
work to university professors, who could double or triple their
modest incomes if they were from prestigious institutions and
taught desirable subjects, such as English, Japanese, or
electronics. Small-scale entrepreneurs could earn considerably
more in the free markets than the average income. Business people
who served as a liaison between foreign firms and the domestic
economy could earn incomes many times higher than those of the
best-paid employees of state-owned units. A handful of
millionaire businessmen could be found in the biggest cities.
These people had owned firms before 1949, cooperated with the
government in the 1950s in return for stock in their firms, and
then lost their incomes in the political turmoil of the Cultural
Revolution. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when these
businessmen were politically rehabilitated, their incomes were
returned with the accrued interest, and some suddenly found
themselves quite wealthy. Although the number of people earning
incomes far beyond the normal wage scale was tiny relative to the
population, they were important symbols of the rewards of
economic reform and received a great deal of media attention. In
1985 most of these people worked in enterprises classified as
"units of other ownership" (private rather than state- or
collectively owned enterprises). These enterprises employed only
440,000 people out of the total urban labor force of 128 million
in 1985 and paid average annual salaries of -Y1,373, only
slightly higher than the overall urban national average.
In China, as in other countries, an important determinant of the
affluence of a household was the dependency ratio--the number of
nonworkers supported by each worker. In 1985 the average cost of
living for one person in urban areas was -Y732 a year, and the
average state enterprise worker, even with food allowance and
other benefits added to the basic wage, had difficulty supporting
one other person. Two average wage earners, however, could easily
support one dependent. Families with several workers and few or
no dependents had substantial surplus earnings, which they saved
or used to buy nonessential goods. An important positive
influence on the per capita consumption levels of urban families
was a decline in the number of dependents per urban worker, from
2.4 in 1964 to 0.7 in 1985. In farm families the dependency ratio
fell from 1.5 in 1978 to 0.7 in 1985. Farm incomes rose rapidly
in the 1980s under the stimulus of the responsibility system but
on average remained considerably lower than urban incomes.
Household surveys found that in 1985 average net per capita
income for rural residents was -Y398, less than half the average
per capita urban income, which was -Y821. The value of goods
farmers produced and consumed themselves accounted for 31 percent
of rural income in 1985. The largest component of income in kind
was food, 58 percent of which was self-produced.
Farm family members on average consumed much less of most major
kinds of goods than urban residents. For instance, a household
survey found in 1985 that the average urban dweller consumed 148
kilograms of vegetables, 20 kilograms of meat, 2.6 kilograms of
sugar, and 8 kilograms of liquor. At the same time, a survey of
rural households found that the average rural resident consumed
131 kilograms of vegetables, 11 kilograms of meat, 1.5 kilograms
of sugar, and 4 kilograms of liquor. Differences of a similar
nature existed for consumer durables.
Another indication of the gap between urban and rural income
levels was the difference in personal savings accounts, which in
1985 averaged -Y277 per capita for urban residents but only -Y85
per capita for the rural population. There was great variation in
rural income levels among different provincial-level units,
counties, towns, villages, and individual families. While the
average net per capita income for rural residents in 1985 was
-Y398, provincial-level averages ranged from a high of -Y805 for
farm families living in Shanghai to a low of -Y255 for the rural
population of Gansu Province.
The fundamental influence on rural prosperity was geography (see
Physical Environment, ch. 2). Soil type and quality, rainfall,
temperature range, drainage, and availability of water determined
the kinds and quantities of crops that could be grown. Equally
important geographic factors were access to transportation routes
and proximity to urban areas (see Internal Trade and
Distribution, ch.  .
The highest agricultural incomes were earned by suburban units
that were able to sell produce and sideline products in the
nearby cities. Under the responsibility system, household incomes
depended on the number of workers in each household and the
household's success in holding down production costs and in
supplying goods and services to local markets. Most of the rural
families with the highest incomes--the "10,000-yuan
households"--were "specialized households" that concentrated
family efforts on supplying a particular service or good. Many of
these families owned their own equipment, such as trucks or
specialized buildings, and operated essentially as private
concerns. An increasingly important influence on rural incomes in
the mid-1980s was the expansion of nonagricultural rural
enterprises, often referred to as "township enterprises." These
were factories, construction teams, and processing operations,
most of which were owned by collectives, primarily villages,
towns, and townships. Some were owned by voluntary groups of
families. Township enterprises were considered by the government
to be the main source of employment for rural workers who were
leaving agriculture because of rising productivity under the
responsibility system. By the end of 1986, township enterprises
employed 21 percent of the rural labor force. The movement of
rural labor into township enterprises helped to increase average
rural incomes because of the higher productivity in
nonagricultural jobs. In 1986 industrial workers in rural areas
produced an average annual value of -Y4,300 per person, compared
with about -Y1,000 per farmer in the same year.
The change in farm production from primarily collective to
primarily household operations is reflected in household survey
data on the sources of rural incomes. Before the 1980s farmers
received income in the form of shares of the profits earned by
their production teams plus supplementary income from household
sideline activities. In 1978 two-thirds of the net income of farm
families came from the collective, and only 27 percent was
derived from household production. With the shift to the
responsibility system these ratios were reversed. By 1982 the
collective provided only 21 percent of farm income, while
household production provided 69 percent. In 1985 the collective
share of farm income had fallen to just over 8 percent, and the
family production share had risen to 81 percent.
Perhaps the most serious gaps in living standards between rural
and urban areas were in education and health care. Primary
schools existed in most rural localities, and 80 percent of the
country's primary-school teachers worked in rural schools.
Secondary schools were less widely distributed; only 57 percent
of the total number of secondary-school teachers served in rural
schools. Most rural schools were less well equipped, and their
staffs less adequately trained than their urban counterparts.
Health care had been greatly improved in rural areas in the 1960s
and 1970s through sanitation campaigns and the introduction of
large numbers of barefoot doctors (see Glossary), midwives, and
health workers. Most modern hospitals, fully trained doctors, and
modern medical equipment, however, were located in urban areas
and were not easily accessible to rural families. In 1985
two-thirds of all hospital beds and medical staff personnel were
located in urban hospitals. The economic reforms affected rural
education and health care positively in places where farm
communities used their higher incomes to improve schools and
hospitals and negatively in localities where the reduced role of
the collective resulted in deterioration of collective services
(see Health Care, ch. 2; Primary Education, ch. 4; Secondary
Education, ch. 4). " |
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Nick-la
Wonder Wit
Joined: July 19, 2003
Posts: 3675
Location: Wasted on this site
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| Posted:
Mar 26, 2005 - 09:12 PM |
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To me, none of this matters when placed next to amnesty internationals estimation of at least 10,000 suffering human rights violations.
Wowie the ccp made progress over a 40 year period. woop-di-doo. |
_________________
I'm surrounded by idiots. |
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