…and it was shitty for the average worker/citizen in those two periods of times.
Which of course with you living overseas it doesn’t matter. Check your biases.
It was and still is far more shitty to be in places that was not industrializing at all. The industrial revolution was what created developed nations after all. You are arguing for the sake of argument in order to push the idiotic Western narrative that China needs to do some sort of stimulus because it is "failing."
1) A country that is growing 7% every year in electricity consumption is growing its economy no matter what West tries to tell you -- slowing economies do not increase electricity at this rate.
2) A developing country with lots of growing to do -- which China is -- will gain productivity far ahead of wage increases; developed nations are the ones where productivity gains matches or are lower than wage increases (this is basically inflation),
3) in China's case, inflation is almost nil, so the net effect of a 3% raise is an actual raise and not just a cost of living adjustment to match inflation; now are there some people unhappy even with this? Of course but no country grows at 8-10% forever,
4) Proper welfare -- which should include infrastructure that adds huge value as well as cost savings to people's lives -- are not something that you would see the results of this year or even the next five so it is meaningless to discuss the current situation as example why we need them; the current program of building out EVs, robotics, green tech, etc. could impact national welfare positively in the coming years the same way China's HSR and its highway system did,
5) Hoping China would pursue these ridiculous short-term stimulus spending so we could see "more" consumption in China is idiocy; it is far better to pour those funds into capacity for high value technological research, development and production -- hard assets that will drive growth and employment long term instead of a meaningless short-term spike from stimulus.
