Job Discussion Forums

[Milo.Minderbinder]

I'm primarily looking for guidance or hope here. Sorry to say that the tactic I used to use - ignore it - isn't cutting it anymore. How does one cope in what is apparently the world's most unequal society in terms of compensation? It's becoming a problem for me. Every day there seems to be another luxury car on the streets poised to run me over like a peasant yet my salary has gone down in the five years that I've been here. The classes are a mix of regular people (like myself) and children of the corrupt elite (or the corrupt themselves) looking to polish their English before jetting off to some horribly expensive foreign school and/or hitting Vegas with their spoils. It didn't used to bother me and progress seemed to have had been made but now I don't know what to do short of going home, which is probably the best recouse. Every day there are stories of corruption;
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/21/business/corrupt.html
and yet I would have an impossible struggle to send any kid I would have to a decent multi-lingual school here. The people I work for encourage me to take the bus? I don't see any professionals on the bus, do you? What's happening here? Any encouragement you could give would be appreciated, thanks.

[bdawg]

cool handle

[ChinaMovieMagic]

RE:>>the world's most unequal society<<

I was in #1--Sierra Leone, for 2 years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The problem is that they're "gifted" w/diamonds...which has led to corruption/civil war...

As you'll notice, China is not on either list BELOW.
It could be better...
It could be worse...

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0908770.html

Gap Between Rich and Poor: World Income Inequality
Percentage share of income (poorest and richest 20% of population)
Countries with
greatest
inequality Gini
index Lowest
20% Highest
20%
1. Sierra Leone 62.9 1.1 63.4
2. Central African Republic 61.3 2.0 65.0
3. Swaziland 60.9 2.7 64.4
4. Brazil 60.7 2.2 64.1
5. Nicaragua 60.3 2.3 63.6
6. South Africa 59.3 2.9 64.8
7. Paraguay 57.7 1.9 60.7
8. Colombia 57.1 3.0 60.9
9. Chile 56.7 3.3 61.0
10. Honduras 56.3 2.2 59.4
11. Guinea-Bissau 56.2 2.1 58.9
12. Lesotho 56.0 2.8 60.1
13. Guatemala 55.8 3.8 60.6
14. Burkina Faso 55.1 4.6 60.4
15. Mexico 53.1 3.5 57.4
16. Zambia 52.6 3.3 56.6
17. Hong Kong, China 52.2 4.4 57.1
17. El Salvador 52.2 3.3 56.4
19. Papua New Guinea 50.9 4.5 56.5
20. Nigeria 50.6 4.4 55.7
21. Mali 50.5 4.6 56.2
21. Niger 50.5 2.6 53.3
23. Gambia, The 50.2 4.0 55.3
24. Zimbabwe 50.1 4.7 55.7
25. Venezuela 49.5 3.0 53.2
26. Malaysia 49.2 4.4 54.3
27. Russian Federation 48.7 4.4 53.7
28. Panama 48.5 3.6 52.8
29. Cameroon 47.7 4.6 53.1
30. Dominican Republic 47.4 5.1 53.3
Countries with
greatest
equality Gini
Index Lowest
20% Highest
20%
1. Slovak Republic 19.5 11.9 31.4
2. Belarus 21.7 11.4 33.3
3. Hungary 24.4 10.0 34.4
4. Denmark 24.7 9.6 34.5
5. Japan 24.9 10.6 35.7
6. Sweden 25.0 9.6 34.5
7. Czech Republic 25.4 10.3 35.9
8. Finland 25.6 10.0 35.8
9. Norway 25.8 9.7 35.8
10. Bulgaria 26.4 10.1 36.8
11. Luxembourg 26.9 9.4 36.5
12. Italy 27.3 8.7 36.3
13. Slovenia 28.4 9.1 37.7
14. Belgium 28.7 8.3 37.3
15. Egypt 28.9 9.8 39.0
15. Rwanda 28.9 9.7 39.1
17. Croatia 29.0 8.8 38.0
17. Ukraine 29.0 8.8 37.8
19. Germany 30.0 8.2 38.5
20. Austria 31.0 6.9 38.0
21. Romania 31.1 8.0 39.5
22. Pakistan 31.2 9.5 41.1
23. Canada 31.5 7.5 39.3
24. Korea, South 31.6 7.5 39.3
24. Poland 31.6 7.8 39.7
26. Indonesia 31.7 9.0 41.1
27. Latvia 32.4 7.6 40.3
27. Lithuania 32.4 7.8 40.3
29. Spain 32.5 7.5 40.3
30. Netherlands 32.6 7.3 40.1

NOTE: Countries are ranked according to the Gini index (or coefficient), a measure of income inequality within a country. A country's Gini rating is between 0 and 100, with 0 indicating perfect equality and 100 indicating absolute inequality. (The U.S. rates 40.8 on the Gini index�the poorest 20% of its population receive 5.2% of income; the richest 20% receive 46.4%.)
Source: World Development Index 2002, The World Bank.


Information Please� Database, � 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

[Norman Bethune]

[bendan]

[Babala]

I have to say that after reading your last 2 posts, you seem to most upset about the fact that you didn't receive a raise for signing on for another year. You are going off about unequality and yet one of main points is that your school suggetsed you take the bus? That is not the Chinese being unfair, they don't spend their money frivolously (as some foreigners do on taxis). Are you really upset at the white-collar crime in China or are you just feeling that you deserve the red carpet treatment more than you are getting. Sorry to be harsh, but if you want to look inequality, look at our teaching salaries compared to the Chinese teachers.

[cj750]

I would think that in the standard of the North American Worker you change jobs to get rases..just like we do in the US....sign contract with a probation clause both you and the company and then when probation is over ask for the rase...if you dont get it,,make sure that you can go elsewhere..it is not hard tochange jobs if you write option into the contract.

As to the car..never sign a contract that transpotation cost are not allowed for..they will send a car instead of giving you more money...

[kev7161]

One thing I do notice here in China between the Haves and the Have-Nots is the car thing. I see many (certainly not all) drivers here as being very arrogant and certainly in their own little world. This stems from the speed in which they drive, the honking of horn to get people out of their way, the tinted glass so the masses can't look into their little world, and the lack of yielding when it comes to pedestrians or bicyclists (or even other cars!). With the crowded, congested roads and highways in major cities, it's every person for themselves (not much different than the rush of people trying to crowd onto a bus or forming the "waiting ball" at a post office . . . I love that term "waiting ball", I borrowed it from someone else here).

I am from such a different world where drivers must and do yield to pedestrians ("the pedestrian always has the right-of-way), where the speeding a$$holes are the exception and not the rule, where traffic signals are obeyed, and there is (often) common courtesy amongst drivers ("we arrived at this four-way stop together, no you go ahead, I insist!"). Yes, of course I know about road rage and drunk driving, but your average everyday driving experience (in the US) cannot even compare to what I see here.

Have you ever seen some of these drivers of the fancy luxury cars (the ones that don't have tinted windows that is)? They don't look at you. They act as if you don't even exist. It's MY responsibility to avoid them, not the other way around. Maybe they dare not look away from the road for even a second to prevent accidents, but I just have a feeling that isn't it really. I see a certain superiority there that just . . . bothers me somehow.

So, with luxury cars, upscale clothing boutiques, penthouse apartments, and other accoutrements making their way into Chinese society, I see this social gap. It's the way of the future, but it's a little sad and certainly frustrating for someone like me and maybe the OP as well. I miss having a car . . . *sigh!*

[Roger]

"the world's most iniquous country" - clearly hyperbole. Please, adjust to reality and don't make comparisons with your home country.
I would rather think that those of Northern American extraction should know how to survive in just such a society!

Here, the gulf between haves and have-nots is a relatively new phenomenon. There was too much "equality" going on for close to 40 years. Now, just 2 and a half decades into "white cat/black cat catches mice" we should not be too judgemental.

[Norman Bethune]

[ChinaMovieMagic]

The "Little Emperor" tendency is NOT just w/spoiled children.
Consider the restaurant private room syndrome...
All the Xiao Jie waitreeses waiting around...
...labor-intensive...jobs for the village girls
...but when they see how much is spent/wasted by govt. officials
...perhaps more than 6 months/year-or-more of their own wages
...then they go back to their village for New Years-tell story of
"official fubai"

All those Xiao Jie waitresses waiting around
It helps keep unemployment rates down
There's a much better ratio than Teacher--Students
in China's English Conversation classes

It's like a democratic Feudalism
In the restaurant private rooms
Everyone can be a Lord&Lady for a few hours
All those TV shows w/the Ancient-China Feudal opulence/decadence
Suggests that there's a powerful psychic archetype at work

BUT...with these generations of kids...it's all up for grabs...
TheTimesTheyAreA'Changin'

[ChinaMovieMagic]

-----------

[Road_runner]

Isn't it grand that after almost half a century, basically after the death of the Chairman that the Chinese began to taste what we take for granted for so long, luxury and the good life!
Underneath it all we are basically the same; striving for a better life, working for more than what we have today, and "gloat" some times, on what we have accomplished.
Under the watchful eyes of the Party many Chinese became millionaires and they live as though they were living where you and I tread. Given the chance the Chinese are as capitalistic as the rest of us.
After their revolution they are now capitalists, however, always with Chinese characteristics, whatever that means.
Come on, FTs, we know how to be capitalists, don't we? We can benefit from the riches some Chinese are enjoying, can't we?
Lets put our heads together!

[Sinobear]

Milo: I've dug up my favorite quote from 'Catch-22' that I find explains the nouveau-riche here quite well.

'Nately had been brought up to detest people like Aarfy, whom his mother characterized as climbers, and people like Milo, whom his father characterized as pushers...As far as he could recall, his homes...had always been crowded with only ladies and gentlemen who were not climbers or pushers.
...You are a Nately, and the Nately's have never done anything for their money.'
'What your mother means, son,'...'is that old money is better than new money and that the newly rich are never to be esteemed as highly as the newly poor...'

The nouveau-riche in China have no class, none of the good taste and sophistication that we stereotype our affluent countrymen and women to have. I see a lot of foreigners getting swelled heads here...feeding on the praise and adulation of their Chinese keepers; however, it is not we who the Chinese want to be like...it is our keepers with the house or houses, trophy wife (or husband), Mercedes, and apparent immunity from common law that they wish to attain.

I must take my medication now...I actually agree with CMM's post about waitresses!

Cheers!

[Norman Bethune]