China Tells

There is an old saying in China that: it is fine to have little, but it is problematic to distribute unevenly. The Chinese wisdom is powerful in explaining the world that we are living in. According to a study by Bank of America, the labor income as a percentage of GDP in China has continued to decrease despite the fact that total income has increased in the last 20 years. At the same time, the capital income has steadily increased at the cost of labor income. Such an observation is consistent with Michael Pettis’ argument that for the past few years the government policy is actually forcing the savor to subsidize the borrower through an artificially low interest rate. If such trend is not managed properly, it is likely that we will see a further widening of wealth gap in China and an elevated level of unhappiness from the mass population.

中国有句古话，叫做不患寡，患不均。言简意赅，字字千金。根据美国银行最近的一项分析表明，中国劳动力收入占国民生产总值的比重在过去几年逐年下跌，而同时资本收入占国民生产总值的比例则节节上升。这样的研究结果和中国近几年贫富差距扩大的事实互相吻合，折射出目前中国社会一个需要政府解决的问题。否则长此以往，即使绝对收入提高，人们的幸福感可能会反而下降。