China has more than 1,000 billionaires. At the same time, 40% of the population has a monthly income under $140. This growing inequality is worrying Xi Jinping.
, which Beijing believes are widening gaps in educational opportunity.
Disenchantment has spread among Chinese youths, who are increasingly vocal about limited upward mobility and long working hours. A new catchphrase—“lying flat”—has gone viral as a way of describing youths’ feelings of resignation and their refusal to pursue work they doubt will get them ahead. Historically, rapid industrialization often leads to higher social mobility, at least initially. The addition of new factory jobs creates opportunities for poorer people, helping them climb the social ladder. That happened in places like South Korea in the 1970s.The gains can stall or reverse later, as countries become richer. Policy choices, such as how much leaders emphasize education and healthcare, and how they tax wealth, can have an effect.
With market-oriented economic reforms in the late 1970s, many benefits initially flowed to poorer people. Rural migrants moved to cities where they earned more and got in on the ground floor of China’s boom. Rags-to-riches stories were common. A comparable group of children born between 1970 and 1980 had a 9.8% chance of rising into the top 20%—a difference of millions of people.
As of this June, the average home price was about 25 times the average annual household disposable income in Beijing and 20 times in Shanghai, according to calculations by real-estate brokerage firm Colliers International Group Inc. In comparison, the ratio was less than 8 times in London and about 7 times in New York City.Zhang Hang, 25, says that even with considerable help from his parents he hasn’t earned enough to buy a place of his own in Beijing.
Xiong Xuan’ang, a top scorer in China’s national college entrance exam in 2017, struck a nerve across the country when he said his success was largely the result of a privileged upbringing by his parents, both diplomats, as well as the educational resources that Beijing offers.
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