From: Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM
Date: Fri Feb 18 2005 - 11:20:15 EST
Hi Ian: Some time ago -- I don't remember when -- you expressed an interest in finding information about changing patterns of income distribution in China. I recently attended a workshop with Paul Bowles on "The Privatization of Township and Village Enterprises in China: Why, How, and its Impacts". Some of the papers that he wrote with others at the following site: http://www.newschool.edu/cepa/events/events_epwksp.htm Near the beginning of his talk, he remarked that inequality in China is currently comparable to "Latin American levels of inequality"! Some findings included that while real wages have grown significantly in the last few years at both private enterprises and state-owned enterprises, wage inequality was growing. One such reason was that the "returns for maleness" were growing: i.e. that the gap between earnings for male and female workers was widening significantly. It would be hard to believe that anyone who heard this talk would still believe that China is socialist but, as it happens, I attended a talk by Sidney Gluck last Saturday in which he claimed that China was -- no question about it! -- socialist. Obviously, people are bringing forward different understandings of what socialism is (no surprise there) and must be evidently looking at different statistics and studies. If you or others wish to find out more about Gluck's perspective -- which I do _not_ agree with -- I can send you by e-mail a recent paper of his entitled "Contradictions in Socialism With Chinese Characteristics." In solidarity, Jerry
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