Wealth Inequalities in the People Republic of China - Essay Example

Wealth inequalities in the People’s Republic of China Wealth inequality is the primary cause of social inequalities in many societies in the world today, with the widening gap between the rich and the poor increasing each day; the People’s Republic of China is arguably one of the places with a large discrepancy in wealth distribution between the rich and the poor. Surveys indicate that the PRC is in fact the country with the most uneven distribution of wealth in the world since it has amongst the most unequal levels of distribution of wealth of any country in the world today (Chandler Clay). Wealth inequalities inevitably have a profound impact on individual’s living standard, access to social services such as education, housing, transportation, employment opportunities, and fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as other opportunities in life. This paper examines the implication of wealth inequalities in the PRC, particularly regarding individual’s way of living, education, housing, transportation, employment, and human rights for a citizen in the PRC; in relation to that, the paper will address whether people who are deprived access to these things can even be considered citizens. The paper will also highlight the effect of sexual, racial, and class discriminations on the patterns of consumption in the PRC and the manner in which the different social groups in China define and promote popular culture in the consumption patterns. As already mentioned, wealth inequalities have a very profound impact on individual’s way of living; generally, the large disparities between the rich and the poor in the PRC results to social inequalities since they deprive the poor access to most of the very basic yet fundamental social opportunities and services in life. For instance, the huge gaps between the rich and the poor in the PRC implies that the poor have been deprived access to decent lives with since basic needs such as food and shelter will almost always remain an elusive dream beyond their reach. Poor households in the PRC cannot afford daily provision, leave alone healthy dietary, and nutrition and they have to struggle for bare survival to see another day; apart from that, poor housing or lack of housing altogether predisposes the poor to harsh environmental conditions, which further aggravate their already worse condition. Housing projects in the PRC have been monopolized by the affluent and well-educated group that has the financial flexibility to live in those rich neighborhoods (Doray Demers 297). This implies that those without financial flexibility cannot access decent housing in decent neighborhoods like around Beijing (Tomba 1). Additionally, the poor cannot afford quality medical and healthcare, and are more likely to suffer even from simplest of all common treatable diseases. Poor neighborhoods in the PRC have a disparity of healthcare facilities, and the least that are available do not even offer quality healthcare services either; Lack of quality healthcare and housing coupled with poor nutrition inevitably results to despicable living conditions. Apart from that, wealth disparities also deprive the poor access to quality education since it leads to unequal access to educational opportunities; whereas the rich can afford quality education for their children, the poor lag behind simply because of limited educational opportunities and high cost of education. Uneven wealth distribution also implies that some areas of the PRC are more developed thus have more education facilities that offer quality education than others, which are underprivileged due to disparities in wealth distribution. The rich neighborhoods in the PRC have enough schools, which provide enough opportunities for children from socially affluent families to access to education, unlike poor neighborhoods that lag behind in development, thus have few congested schools that offer low quality education. In this respect, the limited access to education due to high costs and limited spaces available for children from the low-income families in the PRC further limits access to improved living conditions respectively. Quality education determines individual’s access to employment opportunities, which eventually enable people to improve their living standards since they can use their enhanced financial positions to alter the conditions in their living environment accordingly. Just like in the other instance, wealth inequalities also translate to limited mobility, as individuals cannot move about without the means to do so; transportation in the PRC is not affordable for the poor since they have to make trade-offs between transportation and basic survival. Wealth disparities lead to uneven development, which in turn determines the expansiveness and efficiency of the transport network, communication systems accordingly; developed places in the PRC such as cities, and big towns have excellent transportation systems and communication infrastructure that is because of consumer capitalism (Erwin 169). In this respect, poor transport systems and transport infrastructure coupled with high transportation costs in the PRC translates to limited mobility, especially in the case of the poor who can barely afford bare survival, leave alone transportation. The way of living of the poor in the absence of effective transportation is full of hardships since they have trouble moving from one place to another, unlike the rich who can communicate easily through effective transportation systems and well-laid infrastructure. Wealth inequalities also undermine the most fundamental human rights and freedoms; for instance, human beings are entitled to at least a decent life with access to basic human needs such decent housing, food, clothing, education, healthcare, among other crucial needs, which the poor cannot access due to wealth disparities. Furthermore, it is the duty of the government to promote the wellbeing of its citizens by establishing a level playing ground where individuals have equal opportunities for upwards social; by virtue of their deprivation, the poor in the PRC cannot be considered citizens since their citizenship rights are undermined. In view of all this, wealth inequalities inevitably undermine the fundamental human rights of citizens in the PRC as if they were second grade citizens; without access to quality education, housing, transportation, and employment, human rights, and citizenship in the PRC are thoroughly undermined leading to poor living standards. Over the years, sexual, racial, as well as class discriminations have often influenced the patterns of consumption in the PRC and the manner in which the different social groups in China define and promote popular culture in the consumption patterns varies drastically. The consumer market is highly fragmented because consumption is an upwards spiral movement (Wang 534); the consumption process is subject to sexual, racial, and class discriminations that determine what the different consumer groups can consume. For instance, different social classes, sexes, and races can consume certain products and services while others cannot; each of these groups have varying capacities to consume medium-range and medium goods. The middle-class can consume lifestyle goods from necessity appliances such as refrigerator, to medium-level consumer goods such as air-conditioner, to luxury goods such as computers and automobile. The more affluent social groups are most likely to define and promote popular culture in the consumer patterns; for instance, dog ownership in the PRC has long been considered a status symbol, as well as living in certain places as a result of residential discrimination. In that case, the middle class lifestyles are passed as the cultural ideals and the rest of the classes emulate these trends thereby not only spreading, but also transforming these trends into the mainstream societies. Presently, the development of life spectacles responds on the need to establish a society that is harmonious with the middle class ideals (Ren 71); for instance, the countdown clock shaped the Hong Kong countdown government policy for the incorporation of the neoliberal perspective of entrepreneurship in society. Ultimately, the PRC is indeed the country with the most widespread wealth inequality in the world, which is tolerated on the premise that access to property and wealth cannot be available to everyone at the same time, thus, justifying the construct that some people are generally expected to get wealthy faster than others will. The ever-growing wealth disparities in a country where the average disposable income still remains very low is, without doubt, a worrying trend for the PRC, particularly because it results to extensive social inequalities in the country. The implication for the pervasive wealth disparity is that access to fundamental social opportunities such as education, housing, transportation, as well as basic human and citizenship rights is thoroughly constrained. The emerging social wealth disparities are visible even in neighborhoods since the rich tend to live together in affluent estates where they have the best services while the poor are condemned to live in poor villagers with poor infrastructure and poor or no services at all. The consumer market is highly fragmented since there are various consumer groups, who display different consumer behavior in the PRC; the consumption process is subject to sexual, racial, and class discriminations that determine what the different consumer groups can consume. The middle-class can consume lifestyle goods from necessity appliances such as refrigerator, to medium-level consumer goods such as air-conditioner, to luxury goods such as computers and automobile, thus are more likely to define and promote popular culture in the consumer patterns. References Tomba, Luigi, Creating an Urban Middle Class: Social Engineering in Beijing. The China Journal No. 51 (2004): 1-26 Wang, Jing. Bourgeois bohemians in china? Neo-tribes and the urban imaginary. The China Quarterly (Impact Factor: 0.96). 08/2005; 183:532 - 548. Ren Hai. Life Spectacles: Media, Business Synergy, and Affective Work in Neoliberal China. Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. 6(2) 2009; 68-160. Erwin, Kathleen, “Heart-to-heart, phone-to-phone: Family values, sexuality, and the politics of Shanghai’s advice hotlines (Chapter 7).” (n.d). Print. Chandler, Clay., In china, the rich keep getting richer; new forbes list points up growing wealth disparity. The Washington Post. 2001. [Online]. 9th Dec, 2013. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/409244485?accountid=1331 Doray-Demers, Pascal., Inequality and public policy in china. Journal of East Asian Studies, 12(2), (2012): 297-299. Read More