At 53, Guan Junling is too old to get hired at factories anymore. But for migrant workers like her, not working is not an option.
For decades, they have come from farming villages to find work in the cities. Toiling in sweatshops and building apartment complexes they could never afford to live in, they played a vital role in China’s transformation into an economic powerhouse.
As they grow older, the first generation of migrant workers is struggling to find jobs in a slowing economy. Many are financially strapped, so they have to keep looking.
“There is no such thing as a ‘retirement’ or ‘pensions’ for rural people. You can only rely on yourself and work,” Guan said. “When can you stop working? It’s really not until you have to lie in bed and you can’t do anything.”
She now relies on housecleaning gigs, working long days to squirrel away a little money in case of a health emergency. Migrant workers can get subsidized health care in their hometowns, but they have little or no coverage elsewhere. If Guan needs to go to hospital in Beijing, she has to pay out of pocket.
As China’s population ages, so are its migrant workers. About 85 million were over 50 in 2022, the latest year for which data is available, accounting for 29% of all migrant workers and up from 15% a decade earlier. With limited or no pensions and health insurance, they need to keep working.
This makes me question what it takes to be a super power. Between this and the leading cause of US bankruptcies being medical related, it's almost as if super powers can only be super powers if they don't give any of their citizens healthcare. It's as if working their citizens to death is the only way for them to maintain their hedgemony.
High levels of growth can be had by extracting as much as possible out of the working population and then not supporting those that are discarded when they have been tapped dry. That is why imperial countries like the Romans, the US, and China can have massive growth at the expense of slaves and immigrant work.
The modern world setting expectations of taking care of the elderly means the US and China will probably decline faster than Rome once the general population pushes back on the exploitation again, then it will likely end up as a roller coaster of growth and decline.
I think there is a disconnect between classical superpowers and modern superpowers. Modern nations use the US and Chinese model of using people as a resource to build as fast as possible with minimal ethics. Classical superpowers, like European nations, use a slow growth and inclusive model that includes a lot of people but takes hundreds of years to establish.
Modern superpowers use capitalism. Classical use a more socially inclusive approach.
Ah yes, let's disregard centuries of occupation accompanied by brutal exploitation of the local population, dismantling and dismemberment of native social hierarchy and 'population transfer' for the benefit of the few white man and their collaborators. But hey, they built churches and trains and shit! Let's conveniently forget how countries that barely got their independence had their chance at economical and political sovereignty hijacked from the same colonial masters now dressed in business suit.
China is absolutely not a free capitalist country and I don't know where you guys get this idea. Last I checked, the western capitalist economies do not have governments that set five year plans and funnel economic development into distinct economic sectors.
2nd Edit: I'm not saying China is a socialist country in the classic sense. I'm using terms used by contemporary economists in terms of how they classify china's economy. While a big chunk of china's economy is private the government still plays a pivotal role in planning certain aspects of the economy.
3rd edit: to everyone downvoting, please tell me with a straight face that the entire private sector in China runs completely free of all interference from any governmental actors? Or maybe provide a counter to the general consensus among current economists. Is there something you know that they don't? 😐
4th edit: State Owned Enterprises in china own 22% of the labor force (as recently as 2010). In addition to state owned enterprises, also know as SOEs, the state dips its toes in hybrid business:
They often look and behave like
private enterprises, but their ownership pattern may involve a considerable government stake.
To complicate matters further, in the official statistics, they may be counted either in the
state-owned or in the private sector,
-Witt, 2010
Do you also think the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is democratic or that the National Socialist German Workers' Party was a socialist party in support of workers? lol
No but China is run by the communist party. I would’ve thought an organization like that would have had a plan for ensuring everyone can retire. That is the point of my comment.. these Chinese do not seem like true communists. But, no one likes to hear that on Lemmy because everyone licks the boots of Xi apparently.