How bad is economic inequality?
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The world is turning its attention to economic inequality. Welcome to The Bridge, enlightening conversations on world cultures, life, and everything in between. Hey everyone, this is Jason Smith, host of The Bridge podcast from sunny California. If you like the show, don't forget to subscribe. We love The Bridge. Oh yeah.

We have The View from China. Hi, everyone. My name is Jason Smith. I'm originally from sunny California, the Golden State, and now I'm living in beautiful Beijing. Today with me is Bei Bei. Hey, Jason. How are you doing? This is Bei Bei from Beijing. Hey.

And we have a big and exciting topic today. I'm ready to dive in. I actually really like this. It's probably the most, for me personally, this topic is one of those central to who I am as a person and why I feel like I'm on this earth. And that is about struggling to help the poorest people and to help build a society where we don't have people in extreme poverty. According to new research by Pew Research Center,

86% of respondents thought that, quote, rich people having too much political influence leads to inequality in their country. So we're going to take a look at political processes of countries around the world and the state of economic inequality in various states. Bebe, how does China keep money from corrupting its politicians? Oh, wow. What a question. That's a nice question to throw at like a tea party, right? Hey!

How does China keep money from corrupting its political system? Okay. I think the root understanding is that in a country, in a system, who is the ultimate boss? By who, I mean not like a person, right? Like a structure.

And then who is serving whom? So two big guys, let's say. One is capital and the other is the state, the political system, or let's say political control. Now, the dramatic difference we now see between China and the U.S., a lot of it stems from this difference. So in the U.S., it's becoming more and more obvious that capital...

that capital is in control, right? I think a lot of people didn't realize it to the degree they do now.

But it's becoming more obvious. It's the super, super rich. Now, beyond billionaires I'm talking about. We don't know these people. They're hidden behind the scene. But they are the ones controlling the government and what it's doing. So capital is at the top. I know you're saying it's not billionaires. This is the discourse that Americans have. This is what people think. If you're in the Republican Party,

You think it's George Soros and right. That guy is the main baddie who spying off the Democrats. And if you're in the Democratic Party, it's Elon Musk and some of the, you know, like the big tech boys. So either party, they have some billionaires that they blame. The regular people who are not politically savvy, they just think, yeah, it's the rich, but they can't like name names as much. Like I can't really name the really rich, like beyond Elon Musk or.

or Jeff Bezos. These are the people that are put on the stage, right, in front of the American people and the world. They are kind of like icons, you know, signifying that, oh, in our system, if you work hard enough, you know, you can go from having nothing to becoming a billionaire. They are puppets themselves, too. They don't really call the shots. Why doesn't China have this problem? If the United States...

And even Americans agree that it does have this problem. Why would China not have that problem? That comes back to the first question. Who or what has the ultimate control? Who is the ultimate boss? The difference is in China is the state that is the ultimate boss. We do have really, really rich people. There's also immense inequality in China, but only to a certain degree.

They are still under the whole state and the whole political structure. They don't go above it. You know what I mean? They don't go and start twinkling and start changing and manipulating the whole political system.

So that's the ultimate difference. In China's system, from my understanding, capitalism and capital and the super rich, they can be, I guess I can use the word, utilized, used to make the whole country and its people more prosperous. But they are not like

The word we like sometimes we use is what do you call them? Those little animals that sucks blood on your legs. If you like in a mud puddle, mosquito leashes, leashes. You know what I'm talking about, right? Yeah. You said it correctly. Yeah. But we don't want someone above the whole system sucking the blood of everybody in the system, especially at the, you know, the middle class or the lower class.

So in China, it's the state representing all of its people who is the ultimate boss. Well, let me ask a different question because I kind of I want to get a different answer. What happens to a politician in China if they are caught accepting bribes? Oh, OK. So I was going to talk about that. There is corruption in

in China, but I think it's a corruption of a different nature from the corruption you're talking about in the States. In the States, money can be used to influence politics. So in a way, it can be used to override the whole political structure. It can manipulate the whole political structure. In China, the corruption you're talking about exists inside the whole political system.

So it's like, just think of a structure, right? One kind of corruption is changing the structure, trying to influence the structure. In China, the corruption exists within the structure. And of course, in recent years, over the past decade, a lot of effort has been done to catch these, we call them tigers and flies. Like the tigers meaning the bigger corrupted officials and the flies means the smaller ones, right? Maybe they've...

They've accepted less bride and just smaller cases. But a lot of work has been done and the people can see it. So they have more and more confidence in the ability of the state and the government to do something about it. So, yes, corruption exists in both cases, but at different levels.

And the level that's not. Actually, I would say I think you've mischaracterized the United States system because the U.S. system actually you did mention that it's legal, basically. So actually, it's very difficult to become a corrupt politician in the United States because basically all most of the kinds of corruption you can think of are not illegal for politicians in the United States. So you want to become an official. You want to take office. You accept money.

So your campaign accepts money from rich people and poor people, whoever wants to give you money, corporations, and you use that money to...

To run a campaign to get yourself into office. In China, if you want to become an official in politics, you can't accept money to... Basically, all other countries in the world except the United States, basically, you can't take money to use that than to run a campaign publicly to make yourself an ideal public official and then become an...

Officer of a particular political level. Also, oh, I'm not finished. Hang on. In the United States, then once you are in office...

They have something called lobbyists in the United States, which is illegal in all other countries in the world. So, for example, in Chile or China or France or wherever, if someone was going to say, oh, we really want you to pass this law, here's some money in Winnebago, you would be in trouble. You would be going to jail or whatever the consequence is in whatever country it is around the world. Whereas in the United States, it's like, yeah, that's an official job, lobbyist.

And you can have access to our politicians and you can go to their offices and offer them things and exchange that they will pass laws that are in your favor. And then if you want – in the United States, another thing you can do is –

trade on public stocks and then change laws to benefit the companies that you own stake in. So basically almost every single kind of thing that other countries consider corruption in the United States, that's just the law. That's how we do it. See, that seems a little mind boggling to at least to me and a lot of people like me. Like, how did you guys accept a system like that in the beginning? Yeah.

I don't know. Like in China, as you mentioned, in a lot of other countries, this is obviously not the way to do it, right? And like the way I imagine things happen, corruption happens in China is like you work really hard. You start as a humble public servant.

And then you go up the ladder, right? And you go up the ladder from your previous achievements, right? As a public servant. And maybe, let's say, you become an important figure, like a mayor or even, you know, something more important. And then you have power and people ask you, like, I have a billion dollar project. I want to build a highway here, right through here. And maybe you use the money to influence this official, right?

And then corruption starts, right? And then they get caught and then the whole thing just, you know, it get exposed and everything. But usually the corruption is not before they become this official. You know what I mean? Like they can't use money to buy an official post, maybe in some parts of ancient China, but like not now. So.

So I think corruption, there's just different kinds of corruption. But the kind that's in the US that's so out in the open, it's unthinkable here in China. So I don't know why people agree to this deal. Or maybe people never really had a say in how the system was formed back then. Like it was just set up and people didn't think much about it and kept running.

And eventually people are going to figure out this is not the way it's supposed to be. Right. The other day I saw Red Note, which is, you know, it has been pretty popular with some American users. And one guy was saying how he was shocked that

You know, in China, billionaires can't just go into politics and start calling the shots like, you know, what's happening in the U.S. I think historically in China, the government has been pretty guarded about having money to influence politics.

I think most countries, that's normal to not want your politicians to be unduly influenced by the wealthy class. I think in China, emperors from so many dynasties, they've learned their lessons, right? In the end, they think that businessmen, really wealthy people, like wealth and businessmen, they can be used to help the whole society. But they shouldn't have so much power that they start to influence people.

politics and the whole society. One of the main reasons, I think, is because human nature, right? Becoming a successful business person, you need a little bit of greed, right? More than a little bit of greed to become really successful in business.

And if you have too much personal greed, it's not really good for the benefit of the common people. And that's understandable, right? So the solution is, well, you just do business, right? And we will do politics. So I remember...

This one video where President Xi said, I think it was at a meeting, at a talk, he was talking to other people. He said, if you really want to fa cai, which means make a lot of money, then just, you know, don't become a public servant. He just said it very, very plainly. I mean, there's so many other ways to make money, right? If you want to be a successful business person, go start a company, go start a shop and, you

But don't have the mindset that I'm going to become a public servant and I'm going to become super rich from that. Hey, everyone, this is Jason Smith, host of The Bridge podcast from sunny California. If you like the show, don't forget to subscribe. We love The Bridge. You're listening to The Bridge. Could we switch away from politics for a moment? Because you mentioned before that...

that China also has billionaires and it also has people who are just barely getting by. And this sounds like basically the same as the United States if we put it that way. So what differentiates how China's system works in terms of helping people with inequality versus the United States? What checks or balances or tools are available in China to help the least well off? I think one major difference is that

Like even poor people, they have land. They have a home, right? That's built on the land. So people don't talk about this much anymore. But the land reform in China, its significance, I think it's because people don't talk about it anymore. They don't think of its significance. From the early 1920s through 1949, that's when People's Republic of China was founded.

You're familiar with the revolution under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, which targeted domestic feudalism, bureaucratic capitalism, and foreign imperialism, and also started the land reform, which ensured the equal distribution of land to all who labored on it.

Can you think of the significance of that? If you have nothing else, you have land. You can work on. You can build a home on it. And back then, also in the ancient times, land was capital. You have land. You have your way of survival. So even for really poor people, let's say, people ask questions. Why don't we see a lot of homeless people in China? And I actually haven't seen one in Beijing or any other major city I've been to. I see them, but...

But I'm out a lot. And they're very rare. Yeah, they're rare. They do exist. They're very rare. So the first thing they can do is they can go back home. They usually have a hometown. In their hometown, they have land, they have family, and they have a house they can live in. Maybe they don't have employment. And that's a problem that also the government can help them. There's free training, free vocational training that you can get to help you get a job.

So I think that's some difference. I don't know if like in the U.S., like a lot of homeless people, can they go back to where their grandparents lived, where their parents lived? Do they have like a farm? What's the different culture in China, for example? One thing I noticed, and I think this might have something to do with it, is you guys value family a lot. Now, Americans value family a lot, but not in the same way. Usually, or I wouldn't say usually, but...

It is not always acceptable in all families for your kids to just show up and live with you again. So whereas in China, if your kids showed up, you'd just be like, move in. In the United States, if your kids showed up and they're adults, some families would be like, why are you here? Well, really?

That is a big difference. And in China, if you show up with a grandchild, they'll be even happier. Yeah. I also want to talk about the tax system. For example, in China, I used to be a renter five years ago. I was renting in China. And at that time, because I was a renter, I got money from the rich people every year. I could claim, I don't remember how much it was. It was like 8%.

800 RMB per month, something like that, that the government would give me for all 12 months of renting because I could prove that I had a lease and that I was paying rent and I submitted that to the tax office. I got compensated by the Chinese government, 800 RMB per month

every month the entire year because I was a renter. Now, this is, you know, a lot of people think, oh, that's great in America, but it's actually not as useful for Chinese society as you might imagine because 90% of Chinese families...

own their home. So it's actually only looking for looking out for a minority of people who don't own a home. And it doesn't apply to renters who own a home. So if you own a home and you're renting, you don't get this. But if you own no home and you're a renter in China, in the tax system, you're compensated from the money that comes from other places in China, like

the rich people who are paying taxes or wherever that money is coming from, you are compensated for being a renter. Yeah. It helps some families. The thing is, most families own their...

their own home. And most families don't have a mortgage in China, which is very different from the United States where you think, oh, there's some degree of inequality. But in America, you know, even for the families who do own their own homes and that 65% of adult families do own their own homes, 50% of the equity in all homes that are owned by that 65% is owned by the banks, which is not the case in China. Yeah. So that's a huge difference. And that explains why I

There is much less homelessness in China. Also, I want to point out that some people might become confused, right? They say, oh, if there's over 90% of home ownership in China, why are so many people still renting? Now, for example, maybe you just graduated from school and your hometown is in, let's say, Hebei province. You are here in Beijing to work.

Then you need to rent. But back home, at least your parents has an apartment and they might have bought an apartment for you too. Or you might even have an apartment back where you were from. But you're working in a different city. So you rent and then you start saving money to buy a home. And also like in the case of my helper at home, my auntie, you know, who comes in for two hours every day to help me with my domestic work. She's from...

a village that's close to Xi'an.

Xi'an is a huge city. So back at her village, she has a large house. It's like a mansion. You know how farmhouses in China, right? They're actually pretty nice. They're not pretty, but they're comfortable. You can paint it. Yeah. She has a house in the village. Then they saved up money and bought an apartment in Xi'an. And they don't even live there.

They bought it years ago for their son, who was like five. Wow. You know, because in their mind... Did you hear that, guys? Five-year-olds in China own their own homes. Well, it's still in their parents' name, but they bought it for him because in their mentality, he is a male and he's going to have to get a wife in the future. And it's hard to find a wife without a house. So they just prepare ahead of time.

Because they have their house. I think you're raising the bar for American males way too high. If American women knew that in China, all marrying Chinese males have to own a house, I think you're going to see a lot more immigration of American females. Well, that's just the mentality here. People feel like the parents feel responsible for, you know, offering their child a home for them to get married in. In the case of my domestic help,

She can do that. I mean, she makes a decent salary, but, you know, for as a domestic helper, she makes less than, I think, $15,000 per month. And her husband makes maybe a little less than that. But they've been saving for years and they still own both a house in the village and an apartment in a big city in China. They don't get that. Here's the thing, because they own a home, even though they're renting, if they own a home, no tax incentive. Yeah, but that's fine.

They pay like maybe a thousand RMB. So what's that like less than $200 renting a place near here. So, you know, they live in Beijing. They have a house in Xi'an. They have a house and they have apartments in Xi'an, a house in village. So even for someone who is, let's say, so like economically closer to the bottom, not really the bottom, but closer to the bottom.

That's their situation. So that's why the basics are taken care of. And thinking of it, I think humans actually have a pretty high tolerance for inequality. Like all people in China, rich or poor, they understand that there are super rich people in China, right? Like multi-billionaires.

And, of course, sometimes I guess they feel it's unfair how they become so rich. But I think as long as people, they have enough to live on themselves, they have a place to live, they have a decent salary, they are relatively comfortable, and they are mentally cared for, as in they know that the government is doing something to help the poor. I think they are very...

tolerant of this inequality. But it's when... Well, let me ask you another question, a different kind of question. Let's talk about health care for a moment, because I want to talk about things that are relevant to Americans. Health care in the United States is one of the most expensive...

Parts of an American's life, not in housing, I would probably say is number one. But for if you're in the United States, you call an ambulance. Just the cost of the ambulance could be thousands of dollars. So it's like a very expensive taxi. Yes. What is health care like in China? Is it affordable for not? Let's not talk about you and me.

Is it affordable for a farmer? Is it affordable for someone who makes less than 3000 RMB a month, which is like $500? Is it affordable for the people living on the edge of society in China? Can they afford to go to the doctor? What's it like for them? I think for most general problem, for most general problems, they're covered. You know, they're, they should be okay because like even without the,

Health insurance for like common problems. It's not that expensive because I know that in American hospitals, like the numbers just don't make sense. You go in to see the doctor for two minutes, you get a bill for like hundreds and thousands of dollars. It's just like mind boggling. I really don't understand it. But in China, the prices are like a lot more. It's like reasonable. You know what I mean? And then basically everybody has some form of social security.

Like program. What do you call that? Social health insurance or national insurance. Yeah. So like, for example, my auntie, my who comes in for two hours to help me with domestic work. She I guess her hukou, which means her registration is still in the countryside, but she has been working in the city for like decades.

And I know that she has some form of health system that reimburses her if she goes to the hospital. Like, I'm not too sure about the percentage, but this is not something she worries about because she knows that she's covered. And sometimes I remember her telling me about her parents and parents-in-law who are in their, like, 80s.

And they live in the countryside. She was telling me about how they got sick and how a large percentage of it was reimbursed. And they still have to pay a few thousand RMB. And that's for something like major, like lying in the hospital, like close to death, something like that. So it's not something that weighs on your mind so much. Like if I go to the U.S. now without travel insurance...

Like, I don't think I would dare to do that. If anything happens, the number on the bill is going to be crazy. I have friends who went there, you know, for fun and then had some kind of a rash just out of nowhere. And they went into the hospital. The bill came in how many digits? Like over $10,000.

And not even much was done because it was like an emergency. So I wouldn't travel to the U.S. without some form of health insurance. So that's a tough point to talk about because I don't think the health system is normal, you know, in the U.S. in my eyes.

And also another thing I want to mention is here in China, like the healthcare is really convenient. There are so many different choices. You have your community clinics, both Chinese medicine, Western medicine. You have the local clinic for the region, the small region locality that you live in. And then there are like a bigger regions have a little bigger hospitals, Chinese medicine, Western medicine, you choose it. And then in a big city like Beijing,

There are so many famous, huge hospitals. Well, the only thing is, if you go to these big hospitals, they get pretty crowded because people did just a lot of people. Chinese people, they go to the major hospital even for a cold. I think Chinese people get spoiled in this way because there's like such abundance and health care resources.

Like in the US, you just stay home for a few days, right? Take some medicine. But here they're like, oh, I need to go to the hospital to get a blood draw, to get an x-ray. I think it's overdone here. People go to the hospital too much. I agree with you. But the resources are available. But I mean, it's not my culture. I know all my co-workers are like, I sneezed. Oh gosh, I need to go to the hospital. Yeah, it's just too much. We're so slow. Unless there's like blood squirting out of me, I probably won't go myself. Oh yeah.

You're listening to The Bridge. I want to change the topic again to ethnic groups. In the United States, one huge problem that we have is because of massive historical problems like slavery, where

We have different ethnic groups have different income strata. And this is something we've been trying to correct in different ways. And it's not working. Sometimes it's difficult. But, you know, China has 56 ethnic groups, 55 of which are ethnic minorities, including Hui and Kazakh and Uyghur, Russians, all kinds of different groups. How does China ensure that these ethnic groups are encouraged?

included and taken care of in the national economy. Man, you ask big questions, Jason. I'm not deep-seeked.

Well, I could go first if you'd like. Sure, you can go. It's a huge question. I think one thing that I've noticed that China does is its university system. It gives additional points if you are a minority. And it gives you additional points if you are from an impoverished part of China. So if you are a minority from an impoverished part of China, when you apply to one of the more prestigious universities, you have...

a higher chance of getting in if you have good grades than a Han person, which is the ethnic majority in China who lives in Shanghai. So if you got the same score on your Gaokao, which is your high school SAT exam kind of

As someone in Shanghai who is Han and you are from an impoverished part of the country and you are an ethnic minority, both have identical scores. Guess what? That ethnic minority is going to get your place at one of the most prestigious universities in the country. And I think it's a great system.

Because it allows for families who have been historically less well off to have a better shot at a better future. Yeah. So that's a really good point. And also another example I can give, you know, I can offer some personal examples. So I went to Tibet. Wow. That was what, 15 years ago? I'm so old now. Everything happened long ago. Yeah.

And so we were talking with co-workers there. Like, we don't really work together, but we visited like a local radio station. And they actually visited us later on in Beijing. And it turned out that they actually made more in salary than like my co-workers were making here in Beijing. Wow. And, you know, through chatting, we realized that the local salaries are really good.

Let's say if you work for a company and you were stationed in Tibet, for example, because I have not really been to a lot of other places. You

you're compensated more. So not just in the national Gaokao system, but in other ways, I think minorities are in a way they're compensated for being the minority in a way. And I remember this one coworker from the local radio station. She was here in Beijing for a few months and she was, she was such fun to be around. She spent so much time shopping.

When she was in Beijing, they were relatively comfortable. They lived comfortable lives. And there was so much out here, like markets and shops, everything. When she went back, she's like, I should hire a segment of the train carriage, however you say it. Really? A whole car? Because I have so much stuff. It's an exaggeration, but that's how much stuff she bought, especially clothing.

There's so much she wanted to bring back, you know, from Beijing. So she had the money to spend and they serve as great gifts too. So I think that's another reflection of how minorities are treated. And I think China is very careful about balancing, about equality. So one of the ultimate answers is that in China, like the government really cares about equality. Even

though there is huge inequality ever since the reform and opening up, but that is expected, right? You want everybody to become better off. You stimulate the economy and you let it grow. And as the economy grows, there's going to be increased inequality. So some get rich first, others will follow along. And it's not perfect.

But it's one of the better ways. But the Chinese government keeps thinking of ways to plow that wealth back into the system. And in a way that's very obvious to everybody is the building of infrastructure, right? Chinese people believe that if you want to become rich, you build roads. That's the first thing you do. You have to become connected to other places.

So you can imagine, you probably can't even imagine how much money China, the government plowed into building the highway, the high rail and all the other things and even beyond China. And the ultimate purpose is so that everybody benefits.

And plowing back into education, plowing back into the healthcare system. We talk about that a lot in our past shows too. So that's one difference. Although there are inequalities in both cases, but what is the government doing about it? One government wants, really wants to do something about it. It's central to what they want to do for the Chinese people. And in other governments, maybe they don't care as much about controlling inequality.

I don't know. Maybe it's just their choice. But I think in China, every Chinese leader spends so much time studying Chinese history, so they've learned their lessons. And in the past thousands of years, so many dynasties have. And usually, the reason why most dynasties don't last over 300 years is because there are cycles, economic cycles.

And like, if you don't control it, inequality is going to become so bad that wealth will become concentrated on the very top.

back then wealth was land, right? And then capital, other forms of capital. And things would get so bad that the people at the bottom, farmers and other guys, they just didn't have enough to live on. And they would rise up and overthrow the government. So the economic cycle usually is, you know, less than 300 years. And that has a huge influence on how long a dynasty will last.

So, you know, the Chinese government knows this pattern really well. So they want to deal with inequality before it gets really bad. Well, I want to actually talk about adds value to one of the things you said in Pivot.

So you mentioned high-speed rail. One of the things that some people in the West like to criticize China about is high-speed rail. And I want to debunk their attempt at debunking your infrastructure. So the high-speed rail sometimes loses money. So people buy tickets and it makes money, but it doesn't make enough money to pay back all of the money that the government spent previously.

to build it. So a lot of people in the United States are like, oh, this is terrible. We could not have that because it doesn't pay for itself. And I think this is a ridiculous statement. And actually what China has done is provide every person in China the means to travel around China and give mobility to people and to give power to companies also who want to deliver goods and increase logistics.

and to boost the economy. Because when the government of China subsidizes building infrastructure that is not purely profitable, the way that an American infrastructure would need to be to be privatized or to be a private enterprise, then it's actually lessening inequality in the country.

By taking the taxes, mostly from the rich and the big companies, and investing that in infrastructure that benefits everyone, this is a way that China is tackling inequality that is oftentimes overlooked or invisible. Because you or I or a farmer in Anhui could buy a ticket.

And we all get the same treatment and we all are costing the system a little bit of money, but it benefits the entire country. I also want to talk about that in light of state owned enterprises. In the United States, we used to have something called utilities.

So water and electricity and transportation and basic things like that, even rail, used to be more controlled by the United States government than it is now. The United States is under this philosophy of privatizing everything, giving it to a company because they'll run it more efficiently. Well, guess what? They want profit. That is what a private enterprise wants. They don't want to make things better. They want to make more money for their shareholders. So one thing that happens in China, and this benefits everyone,

is you and I and the company down the road who has a giant factory all get water very cheaply. We all get telecommunications very cheaply. One gigabyte of telecommunication costs about a 20th. 5% increase

in China as much as it costs in the United States. Water, electricity, telecommunications, transportation, all of these things that regular people and big companies need to live their lives and for their businesses to succeed are cheaper in China because China controls the most basic and essential parts of the economy. And it controls them for the benefit of everyone, including people, including farmers, and including companies.

And one of the reasons Chinese companies are so competitive is because the cost of setting up shop, water, electricity, telecommunications, logistics, is cheaper in China than it is in the United States, where all of those aspects of your company are...

And all of those privatized companies are trying to get as much money from your company as they can and as much money from the regular person on the street. So the SOEs in China are an incredible boon for China's economy and for regular people and for quelching China.

An inequality. And I personally, as an American, when I do this show with you, my goal is to say, what really cool ideas can my people steal from your country and copy back home? And this is one of them. I really think...

The United States needs to take control to nationalize certain key industries and to run them for the benefit of the American people. And I really love that China is doing this. I'm very fond of it. I can see why it works. And I think that the United States should be copying China on this. Wow, what a rebel, Jason. Well, here I want to point out that's something that most people probably don't think about. People's Republic of China.

and China Telecom or People's Hospital, right? There are a lot of these huge institutions or government agencies that start with people. And there is a reason for that because in the end,

you know, under Chinese system, everything goes back to serving the people. And we sort of like think of it as a like a model, right? Some like a slogan. But if you really study it and you go into the details, you realize that that's how the system is built. That's what Chairman Mao fought for, you know, for the people. And

And if you ever wonder why Chinese people respect Chairman Mao so much, it's because he really stood behind the people. When I think of the significance of that and the power of that, I get emotional. Think of someone, poor farmer, especially back then when people were really poor, let's say 80, I don't know, 60, 80 years ago. And a poor farmer had nothing, maybe just a small plot of land, but still a small plot of land of his own. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And there's this huge figure who dedicated his whole life

So that you could have your land and you could start building your own life. And you could have a hospital to go to when you were sick. Your child can go to a public school, right? They can rise up in the social ladder later on in life by working hard. And that's why, you know, people respected him so much because that's what he did. He dedicated his whole life to this so that people can really stand up.

You know, and make sure that they have a better life in the future and work for have the chance to work for a better life. But, you know, nowadays, because I go on Red Note and you know about TikTok refugees, right? Oh, yeah. I spend an hour a day on show talking to them. And one issue I found is that people are paying so much for rent in the U.S.,

It's just unbelievable. Maybe a small apartment will cost over $2,000. And in major cities, it will be even more. And that's after tax money they use to pay for rent. So people, even if they have an okay job or even a decent job,

They spend probably over half of their salary. A lot of people spend over half of the salary on rent. And then food is becoming more expensive. Everything else is becoming more expensive thanks to all kinds of tariffs. They put on goods from China, from Mexico, other places. All that's going to do is make things more expensive for American consumers. So that's the number one drain of people's wealth. They're paying for rent.

And I see a lot of people struggling. This might not sound good. It reminds me of the end of Chinese dynasties back then, when people, the working class, are struggling so much. They're trying so hard to make ends meet, and sometimes they still can't, and nobody seems to care. And that's like a double kill. They're being hurt, both physically and mentally. And in China, even if you're poor, you know that

First of all, my family really cares. I can go back to my family. And then you know that the government has been trying hard to make sure that wealth and opportunities get redistributed inside the whole structure, the whole system. And the culture cares about equality. So something is doing something about it. But I don't know, maybe the case is a little different in the U.S. now. You're listening to The Bridge.

Well, I think there is a sense in China that life is getting better and because life is getting better qualitatively. Actually, if you just look at disposable income per capita, you can look this up. Anyone who's listening, it's really easy to find it. You can go to like trading economies dot com or a bunch of other websites and just look at disposable income per capita. That's how much money people have left over after they spend on all their bills to spend on either saving or just frivolous spending, which is

I know Bebe's against. Somewhat. But if you look at disposable income per capita, which means for every person in China, it is increasing year on year, year after year, and has been for 20 years and continues to do so now. What this tells us is the average just average

Chinese person is better off every single year than they were the year before because they have more spending cash, even though inflation is relatively flat, which means that money is actually going further. So in the United States, I don't even need to make the case for our American listeners. They know how bad it is. They know going to the grocery store hurts. It's like not, it used to be fun when I was a kid going to the grocery store. Yay. Now it's like, Oh no, I have to go to the grocery store. Will I have anything left? Yeah.

And so I have a piece of data here I want to share. It's from the Eidelman Trust Barometer. This is done every year. And they ask people in many countries around the world. And this time it was 28 countries. And they asked people in all of these different countries, how do you think you and your family will be doing in five years? And it's a five point scale. And they asked all these different countries. And in...

It's lowest in Japan, France, Germany, where only 9% of people in Japan think that their family will be better off. Yes, 9%. In the UK, only 23% think that their families will be better off. And for Americans, 36% of Americans think that they and their family will be better off in five years versus China.

65% or roughly two out of every three people think that they and their family will be better off. And the winner this year was Kenya, where 80% of people in Kenya believe that they and their family will be better off in five years. So this gives you kind of like an insight into how things are going in different economies. And so when I... 9% in Japan? What happened?

I don't know. Actually, I'm not an expert on Japan. That's a curious number. Yeah, they're at the bottom. Yeah. I think it's really interesting. But you know, if I have to answer that question, I think the answer, the thinking process is a lot more complicated now because I am, frankly, I'm not thinking about, uh,

I'm not thinking. I'm sorry. You only get to give me five points. How many points would you give us? What do you mean? Oh, five points. It's going to be great for your family. One point. Horrible. Five. Five for me. OK. Yeah. Because five years I can still envision like what that's going to be like. But what I'm saying is, how do you define better? Right. Back then.

Maybe most people would think, oh, we will have more money. And that's a simple way of defining better. But I think it's just we are riding into an era of fast changes, right? Especially with AI. How is the society going to change with it, with all the new technology and also with, you know, changing international global political scene? You know, is it going to be safe? Will there be more wars in the world?

So I'm not even thinking about that in economic terms, because I think we're going to be OK in that aspect. But what will the world be like five years down the road? I can't really quite envision it. But economy wise, I think I'm not worried. Yeah. As long as I stay in China. Yeah.

Well, yeah, actually, I feel the same way. Given all the incredible struggles in the United States, I feel very fortunate that I chose to move to China about 12 years ago. And looking at the way that China's economy is going, I don't want to leave. Please, please just keep renewing my five-star card, my green card, so I can stay here forever. Please, please, please. I was going to say that. I think people, especially in the U.S., maybe should pay more attention to tariffs.

because, you know, the president could go on the podium and say great things about tariffs as if it's a great thing for everybody. Like, I don't even know why he's saying that. He's just like pretending to make it a happy thing, a good thing. I mean, prices are going to rise because of these tariffs for American consumers. Yes.

Of course, the government will make more money. The Treasury will have a lot more money. Yeah, we did a show on this. And maybe, you know, I recommend that our American listeners either listen to this show or just need to do some research when it comes to tariffs to see that who will actually be paying for these tariffs. It's actually not the Chinese government or the Chinese companies. It's the American consumers.

So if you want you to help with inflation, maybe you should do something about all these tariffs that the politicians are raving about. One thing I think America needs to do is move away from the idea that everything in the free market is your friend and start where the government needs to take actual steps to

using the government's enormous powers in the United States to help the working people. Do they want to? I think that's the key question. Do they want to? So one thing that the United States used to do before Reagan was build low-income housing, and it doesn't do that anymore. And it's a huge problem. In China, there's still low-income housing being built. For people below a certain income threshold, they can either buy or rent a home for much cheaper than a regular person.

And then they can buy it in very nice parts of cities and stuff. And this is something they used to do in the United States. And then around the late 70s and early 80s, they ended these programs and stopped building low-income housing. And the outcome is we live in a landlord economy now in the United States where a few very wealthy individuals and companies went around buying up all of the homes, raising the prices,

raising the prices for rent, and now they are basically bleeding the working class dry for rent and

This is not helping Americans achieve the American dream. One thing that would help Americans get back on track is if real estate prices could be reduced because we increased the total amount of homes available through the government specifically for the people in the lowest income brackets of American society. Let's say...

If enough affordable apartments are built by the government for sale, but for rent, that rent will come down in general, right? Because people would have more choices. Yes. So, but I don't know if the U.S. government is up for that. I don't know.

They seem to be concentrating on other things. Right now, we live in a bizarro world in the United States where the working class is worse off than ever before. And yet they are worshipping billionaires, expecting the billionaires to solve their problems. And I think this is not healthy. Well, let's see how all the fanfare will unfold in the future. It's like what's happening is actually beyond my imagination. Yeah.

So I can't even predict what's going to happen. So if you guys want to read some of this information, you can go to read this article. Economic equality seen as a major challenge around the world. Pew Research. There's a lot of really interesting information. And most people around the world do think that rich people having too much political influence leads to economic inequality. So just this one question, 60% of respondents globally said 60% a great deal. That

That means about two-thirds of people in the world think rich people having too much political influence leads to an economic inequality. And

And 26% more said a fair amount, which means 86% of people, or almost 9 out of every 10 people, think rich people having too much political influence leads to economic inequality. When I read this, I am just picturing Elon Musk standing in the White House. Yeah. It's just like, most people know this is not a good thing. Well, we'll see how things unfold. It's just too exciting to...

Even draw conclusions now. Because what's happening in the U.S. is beyond imagination. Beyond fiction. I have a question. What do regular Chinese people think about American politics right now with a class of billionaires filling the cabinet and it's run by Donald Trump, who himself is a billionaire? We're just sitting back in awe. Yeah.

and wonder how things got here and what's going to happen. But one thing I can tell you is that through the communication we have on Red Note, like a lot of Chinese people, at least Red Note users, get to know the truth about American working class.

Because before this happened, America, in the minds of most Chinese people, is the land of the wealthy and the land of the free. Right. Everybody has a nice little house with a white picket fence and a couple of kids, you know, water sprinklers going on and everything is nice and pretty. And that image has been shattered.

We heard a lot of working class Americans telling us about how expensive rent is and even how expensive eggs are. Can you imagine? A lot of people can't afford to eat eggs or fresh vegetables. Luxury items. Yeah.

For various reasons, of course. Maybe it's the bird flu or this or that. But inflation has been really bad in the past few years, it seems. And health care is crazy. Cost for health care. Yeah, health care is crazy. I really don't understand why there isn't a larger movement on the ground among the lower and middle class to see things change. How? I really don't understand. How has the United States managed to keep the working class alive?

largely just silent in their home and not out on the streets like just losing it. I just don't get it at all. Well, they've been busy.

They've been busy trying to live. You're right. They're busy with their three jobs. Okay. If you want to tell us why we are completely wrong or you want to agree or just say anything at all, please email us. If you want to fight with Jason, please email us. WeLoveTheBridge at gmail.com and we'll be happy to read your comment on the air or if you send us an mp3 file, we'll be happy to play your audio comment on the air. Thank you so much for your time, listeners. Thank you so much for your time, Bebe. Oh, yeah.

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