Chinese Economics Thread

[vincent]

 

[vincent]

Kids who can't afford to go to school

 

[vincent]

 

[B.I.B.]

One thing that pissed me off when white folks keep on harping about the lack of freedom as it can feed people. Why focus on the type of governance instead of the effectiveness of a government?
I'm sure there are still lots of schools like the one depicted in the following pics, but in general conditions are much improved

Village schools in the 90's

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

On the way to school

Really Interesting Hard to imagine it was the 90's. If I was not told I would have picked the 60's as the photoes are so reminiscent of the ones he took of China which he visited around 1960-2?

 

[Hendrik_2000]

Vincent is correct in general thing has improved a lot but there is still poverty in China even though the government make serious effort Here where the private foundation like Jack Ma is proposing can help because the scale is just too large government alone cannot solve all the problem
It is about time that those tycoon step up the plate They have profited tremendously about time they give something back

I know some people did but more can be done there are so many rich people in China Government social spending is meagre 1.5% of the GDP too little

 

[B.I.B.]

In the USA wealthy people helped by tax breaks have consistently made donations to the community.

 

[plawolf]

In the USA wealthy people helped by tax breaks have consistently made donations to the community.

Donations are volentary; selective; on the whole, less than the amount that would have been gained through taxation; and tax deductible.

Often, by donating a small amount, rich people can save a much bigger amount from tax deductibiles.

In addition, most of the donations goes to the rich’s pet charities, some of which use that money for questionable if not downright harmful activities, and even the ones aiming to do honest good are often run by family members or friends of the rich donors, who usually have zero experience never mind expertise in running charities. So not only do you get less resources from donations than from tax, that resource is very inefficiently used in many cases.

There are good reasons why key public services are funded through taxation and not voluntary donations.

 

[B.I.B.]

Donations are volentary; selective; on the whole, less than the amount that would have been gained through taxation; and tax deductible.

Often, by donating a small amount, rich people can save a much bigger amount from tax deductibiles.

In addition, most of the donations goes to the rich’s pet charities, some of which use that money for questionable if not downright harmful activities, and even the ones aiming to do honest good are often run by family members or friends of the rich donors, who usually have zero experience never mind expertise in running charities. So not only do you get less resources from donations than from tax, that resource is very inefficiently used in many cases.

There are good reasons why key public services are funded through taxation and not voluntary donations.

Ok but USA had its philanthropists Andrew Carneige of the 19th century and probably rated as one of the worlds richest men anhe believed in using his fortune for others and doing more than making money. He wrote....

"I propose to take an income no greater than $50,000 per annum! Beyond this I need ever earn, make no effort to increase my fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes!" (source wiki)

and in the 21st century we have Bill Gates. and there's probably hundreds of like minded folks in between them.

It would be nice to witness a Chinese gazillionaire have a similar mindset.

Meanwhile In NZ we had a businessman, sick of government dithering make an offer which was accepted to build and donate a new Hospital ext at a personal cost of 50-60 million dollars.
Now thats a lot of after tax money he is offering to give away. During the same period the govt which had difilculty in allocating money for the ext/build wasted 40 odd million dollars on a referendum about changing our national flag.

 

[broadsword]

The uber rich in China must cease their showboating donations to their foreign alma maters. We are not talking about 5-10 million dollars. Those who do that ought to be shamed and humiliated.

 

[B.I.B.]

A couple of years ago we had a rich Chinese national business man settle his differences with the Chinese and NZ govt by handing $40 million over to be split evenly between the two governments. In return the PRC would drop all attempts to have him repatriated back to China to face charges of stealing half a billion from the Chinese govt.
Theres lots of stories about Chinese citizens stealing billions from the government and doing a runner How can they consistently get away with it as that's money that could be put to better use than remaining in the hands of the criminals family.