Thought I’d share this with anyone interested. It’s kind of long. Basically, it’s a video on one of the channels I follow (laowhy86) where he’s discussing the social benefits if you live in China. It’s pretty interesting what social services the CCP offers (and doesn’t offer) if you aren’t that familiar. I think a lot of people make a lot of assumptions about social programs in China that aren’t accurate and aren’t based on reality. I know much of this, but I was surprised a few times.
One thing to be aware of, the guy who runs the channel is from the US, but he hasn’t actually lived here in years, so you might catch a few disconnects when he’s talking about things that happen in the US (for instance, at one point they are talking about social security and how some of the Chinese funds aren’t paying anyone at this point, and he says something like ‘oh, that happens in the US too’, which of course isn’t true…social security hasn’t defaulted as yet, and it’s still paying people out at the going rate).
Anyway, if you are interested in social programs in China from the perspective of someone who lives there you might find the video interesting.
I can’t watch the video right now. Does it address the disparity in the delivery of social services between urban and rural? I.e. what services are available in theory vs. what happens in practice.
Not specifically, though by implication. They talk about the differences between 1st and 2nd tier cities and smaller cities and how you can’t judge the rest of the country based on what you might receive in a 1st or 2nd tier city. They do talk about what services are available in theory verse those you can get in practice…basically, they touch on the fact that there are many services they COULD (or have tried to) get but just aren’t worth the amount of red tape and hassle to actually get them.
This isn’t a lecture, however…it’s basically a vlog or discussion between the main guy on the channel and his wife (who was born in China) and just gives a thumbnail discussion on the topic. Much of his channel is like that…just light discussions about aspects of living in China. If you have the time to watch it, let me know what you think.
My understanding is that social services of the kind available in Scandinavia are still a long way off in China. Huge amounts are plowed into infrastructure, which includes effectively building a city for 20 million people every year. That is a lot of housing, shopping malls, roads, hospitals, schools, power plants, water and sewer systems which need to be built from scratch. Arguably, this is the worlds biggest social service project of all time.
Note that if you are a rural person who moves without permission to a city to find work you are ineligible for a lot of services. And since a ton of people have done this there’s very many people outside the system.