this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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A thread yesterday had a variety of people asking if the unemployment is lower because the youth are well cared for.

Please click through and read for additional context. Families are helping. Parents age and are not a long-term plan except for the most unusually wealthy.

Please remember: China is nominally communist. Functionally, they are capitalists with an usual side of excess infrastructure spending. A strong central government doesn't make a country communist.

Their land use rules... that makes them communist-ish. But that's a small part of a far larger picture.

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago (23 children)

Their land use rules… that makes them communist-ish

Wouldn't go that far...

It's hard to pretend China is in any way communist when they have rampant wealth inequality and the wealthiest run the government.

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[–] Jack@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 years ago

To view a text only version of CNN pages, replace "www" with "lite". https://lite.cnn.com/2023/07/26/economy/china-youth-unemployment-intl-hnk/index.html is about 50 kB, whereas the original is about 2.7 MB.

BBC article.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 15 points 2 years ago

It looks like there is two different things happening.

First is that the one child policy is causing problems with several grandparents being supported by one grandchild. In this case, it seems like the grandparents are paying a salary to their grandkid to support them in elderly care. It may not be a lot of money, but it seems to be enough for the adult grandchildren to live for what is effectively a part time job.

Second is that the economy going through issues, and grandparents are acting as unemployment insurance.

[–] lowleveldata@programming.dev 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You need to find Chinese parents first.

[–] PenguinJuice@kbin.social -1 points 2 years ago

Or parents. Period.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 13 points 2 years ago

Li, 21, now spends her days grocery shopping for her family in the central city of Luoyang and caring for her grandmother, who has dementia. Her parents pay her a salary of 6,000 yuan ($835) a month, which is considered a solid middle-class wage in her area.

That just sounds like a caregiver. Laura He and Candice Zhu can eat shit if they do not think that is a real job. Caring for someone with dementia is not a walk in the park.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Really weird phrasing by cnn, and strange that the Chinese youth take it upon themselves online, since they're performing work that is very common in China, being a nanny or a housekeeper, and getting paid in room and board. They aren't "professional children," they are professionals who happen to be the children of their employer.

Despite the youth working at home and being paid, the article keeps using the phrase" professional children" as if they're being paid to act like children.

Totally aside from that, what makes you think the land use laws in China make China more communist? The US has essentially the same rules, that if you don't name a beneficiary, your assets are often allocated to the state.

As far as I understand, as long as you name a beneficiary in China, the 70-year lease on your property/ real estate can be renewed indefinitely by any directly named beneficiary.

Is that correct as far as you understand real estate laws in China?

[–] APassenger@lemmy.one 0 points 2 years ago (7 children)
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[–] rustyfish@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Her parents pay her a salary of 6,000 yuan ($835) a month, which is considered a solid middle-class wage in her area.

So…they are unemployed?

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It says right there there's a salary. She's nepotistically employed as a caregiver.

If you think that's not a "real job", that's basically a cultural judgement, which I guess you can make, but then there's dudes that think only steelworkers have a real job.

[–] rustyfish@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Please go read the article and don’t try to get triggered by things I didn’t say. JFC.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 2 years ago

I did skim it. If you're not saying it's not a real job that just doesn't apply to you, sorry for bringing it up.

[–] Roundcat@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Shit, I've been in the wrong industry this whole time.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

That certainly sounds a lot better than the prospects young people living in US or Canada have. Also, why would you start with 16 years of age? I realize child labour has been noramlized in US, but in civilized countries 16 year olds go to school instead of having to work.

Finally, this seems pretty in line with Europe https://www.statista.com/statistics/613670/youth-unemployment-rates-in-europe/

So, basically this is a lazy propaganda story as can be expected from CNN when covering China.

[–] atlasraven31@lemm.ee -1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Is everyone just a Capitalist deep down inside?

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

No, and to paint everything this way serves to delegitimize alternatives to capitalism. China is not capitalist, they are socialist. They have their own problems, because no system is perfect. But there are alternatives to capitalism, and not everything is "secretly capitalism in disguise".

[–] steltek@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

There's no true Scotsman. China is both and neither. The US is both and neither. You need to talk about specific policies as one or the other.

[–] morry040@kbin.social -1 points 2 years ago

Greed and envy (the roots of capitalism) are basic human drivers that we all have. It takes a lot of discipline, ethics, and an altruistic moral code or belief system to negate that. Some individuals are capable of that, but there is no societal system that has been able to overcome it.
We would never be able to completely move away from a capitalist system because it's in our nature to want more, to be rewarded for our efforts, and to be jealous of others. It's also why alternative systems never work as intended - the greed turns into corruption and ends up ruining the system.
The best outcome is to establish guardrails that limit the extent of the greed that is allowed in the system.

[–] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world -1 points 2 years ago

Let’s not pretend how trust fund babies work in the US

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