Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: The Conditions of Labor in China
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- čas přidán 13. 03. 2019
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[S1 E08] The Conditions of Labor in China
Prof. Harvey continues his discussion of the exponential growth of the Chinese economy and particularly its effect on the labor force.
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Finally!
Ive been waiting for this like a kid on Christmas eve.
Merry Christmas!!!
thank you thank you David Harvey. No one has made China clearer than you. Everything is easy to understand, logical and definitely advanced, in spite of the drawbacks. You are a miracle.
Mr Harvey has obviously spent most of his career on Construction Sites...Like me.
Hong Kong is the former British colony that was integrated into the chinese system but had capitalism when it was a colony. Would you trust information coming from there? Anyway I lived in China. The reason that regime has legitimacy is that it's lifted hundreds of millions out of abject poverty
In my opinion China is the wealthiest country in the world, far wealthier than the United States which is on the brink of collapse
@@davidschlessinger9945 On average the US is wealthier but the top 1% owned 40% of the wealth.
We'll just wage another war and history will repeats itself allover again.
@@davidschlessinger9945 no, we are still in the middle between developing and developed. but thank you , we work hard to get what we want. and yes, communist party's legitimacy mainly come from it's struggle to lift the living standard of everyday people AND keep China as a single, strong nation，that's why HongKong, Macou and Taiwan MUST get re-unioned again, that's part of the legitimacy ,every Chinese know that.
To a degree, yes. Yet I for one am really skeptical to this legitimacy thing. Keeping them on edge is the best way to keep them in check.
his comments on the migrant workers not thinking they were working class makes me wonder if the meaning of words had been changed so that the workers understood themselves to be other than working class laborers.
The working class in China before 1980 means life long employment, fully covered housing education and medical care.
@@arrowshade8700 In America we have debt and fear and insecurity with regard to most of the things we really need to keep body and soul together.
We have a government who has just left us out to hang.
We're screwed unless Bernie Sanders takes over as head of state in 2020. Even then success is not assured for the American People because the the Republican and Democratic power structures have lots of money behind them and are capable of immense amounts of violence and ill will as we have seen in the Trump Administration.
Please pray for us. Please pray. czcams.com/video/qZ0RkMcPbQA/video.html
Because the migrant workers have their own private property, which is a sector of land they can farm on when they don't want to or cannot find jobs in cities. The land is distributed by the country. So theoretically they are petty bourgeoisie. In China they are called peasant workers, which is pretty accurate.
One Belt One Road helps solving the labour problems in China to some degree while exporting low-wage workers abroad with state-owned enterprises and transforming local industries to hire more high-paid workers. You gotta admit that the Chinese government is very smart.
To be "smart" is relative. Smart for government authorities. Not so smart for every person under the "authority" of China. And, for the disenfranchised, perhaps "smart" is tyrannical. One Belt One Road is an financial trap, a trap by empire.
Laurie Anderson - Language Is A Virus
czcams.com/video/8bhldlJ0Aus/video.html
How can any US city or town implement the same systems that work for the chinese township? What ideas can we steal from the way the chinese economy works?
steal? how about how can we "adopt similar ways"
We should adopt the sucide nets that they have under the windows to keep workers from killing themselves in foxconn factories in china
What book is Professor Harvey reading?
wow ，the song, so familiar to us, we call it international anthem
Currently China is trying to create new jobs to replace the old jobs. One of them is the delivery service. Because of the booming eCommerce and mobile food ordering there are huge numbers of population doing this job and they can get decent wages if they work hard. Another is entertainment industry such as live streaming on internet and that is depends on the high coverage rate of mobile network (even Tibet got 90% 4G coverage). Another is the personal care industry such as housekeeping. With the income increase the middle class people will spend more time in work and more money to housekeeping services. On the other hand one child policy also decreasing the new labor population. That means in the future after old generation retired there will be not that many labor in the market which is already happened in some major cities. And the new generation labor with better knowledge level (China has increased invest in education these years) will be able to handle high tech machines or maintain AI equipments. I think China is on transforming its economy which of course will cause slow down but for the long run you have to pass this challenge otherwise you will be left over by other countries. Infrastructure invest before actually created some of the new jobs such as delivery and live streaming. I've heard some people doing job as travel live streaming which is like travel vlog but they can travel to remote areas and get audiences' response immediately such as change camera location or talk more about the particular location even buy souvenirs straight away on screen using mobile transfer money and mobile payment and send to the audience after streaming. Without good transportation infrastructure and high 4G coverage you can't have this kind of business. Build infrastructure in remote area is not profitable itself which will impossible in pure capitalism country but in China it's not considered as a standalone business but a catalyst of whole economy.
How about giving Tibet back their country as against giving them 4G.
The entertainment system is a bit weird. Its like cam girls, but not sexual. Maybe it helps with the gender inequity i guess. Alot of lonely men in china, with insanely expensive beauty standards! :) ok that might not be fair.
Jesus SavesUS not just girls but also people doing short comedy clips or some people making hand crafts. It’s like people having short and quick entertaining during work breaks.
@bj2690 My ancestors never reached the USA
@tiglath pileser yep lets go crazy and think the CIA is behind free tibet.....
Of course we know what happened in Tiananmen square Proffessor. Great video by the way.
Few points I want to talk about.
1st As the champion of regime change after WW2, your country, you can't be naive about things in China.
2. The problem before late 1970s is that we don't have chemical fertilizer, the technology is locked. So we don't have surplus to feed to many urban population, that makes the rural communes somehow enssential.
3. Then the rural labor released, lucky secondary education aslo prepared, and state owned enterprise started reforming, these have consquences.
·A great number of people lost jobs, actually they lost everything with the old system rural and urban.
·Farmers faced extramly proverty, considering the market price. Until the early 2000s, they earned ten times more in those sweatshops which heated so much today. I think you know what's that means.
·Local governments were broadly in deep debts.
So, what can we do? We did everything we can to develop as we did.
4. Here comes today but I run out of time. To be straight, do some reseaches comparing Guangdong and the NorthEast, you'll get what I want to say.
"Of course we know what happened in Tienanmen square Proffessor"
Don't give me this "We" BS, you can only represent yourself if that!
So what is your OPINION on what actually happened in Tienanmen square?!!
@@robertyw2842 Its literally a tourist attraction for Chinese and immigrants. Maybe you are the one who thinks BS? That said yes lots of Chinese never leave where they grew up. Yet not to that extreme, as they love taking pictures of themselves everywhere. It actually is really strange when you as a white person become the local celebrity to be photographed with. and "WE" is everything to chinese, they think VERY differently from westerners. Maybe go to china and try to get to a beach sometimes or a moment to yourself? WE is only the beginning of the shocks. "face" is the other, non confrontation, or not complaining about immovable mountains in regards to problems like Tienanmen square the other...it is frustrating actually.
50 cent army back at it with the misdirections. They want to spread uncertainty fear and doubt but never have any real substance
@@robertyw2842 everybody knows about it. dumb ass college hotheads manipulated by CIA operatives did some stupid shit. Only naive dumbfuck like you in the State don't know what happened. Everyone outside of the State knows exactly what happened in China, Middle East, South America, etc.
thanks
Idk I always love the intro
Its the score of 'International'.
Bosheng Jones I know the song but he has a nice voice and the words are fluid
@fizywig because people controlling YT don't particularly want you to see it..
why do i not get e-mail notifications for this podcast?
Be sure you're subscribed and also hit the "bell" to get email notifications every time a new video is posted.
CIA
I hope David Harvey is doing well
That Dutch dude at trevor noah CZcams'..
You can talk with anyone in China about Tiananmen square. Regardless, interesting commentary. But I love western people that know some stuff about China, yet they miss the mark.
i love this shiz!
No More War
@ fossil fuel ... Vs Everyone..unions. Etc
You blame the lack of actions from the local government on corruption and this is not entirely true.
What happened is the local government is despirately trying to get foreign investment.
And this is also why even though the workers complaints, the workers still decide to stay in the city leaving their home.
Because there is no jobs in majority of the countryside. You either work for small amount of money in city with less rights or having no income at all. This is caused by the population boom in the 60s, where most of the baby born at that time reached their maturity in the 80s and will need a job.
Labor is cheap, because there is a lot of it. The same supply and demand.
The Chinese government would have to create 20 million more jobs per year for the graduates due to baby boom. Yes, the number I got here is correct..... more or less 20 million jobs per year.
If the government does not making it looking profitable for the company to invest in China, there will be no investment in China. And as Chinese does not have money or technologies to create employment at the time. Although the labour is cheap, but the quality of the goods were not as good. And if there are no profit, there are less chance of foreign company investing.
Otherwise the young people would not riot for the ill working environment, but riot for unemployment, which I think is much difficult to deal with.
I am Chinese and remembers news on TV everyday talking about orders from central government to push the local government to attract foreign investment and create more jobs.
Sorry, I got the numbers wrong before, it is not 2 million new jobs per year. It is 20 million new jobs per year.
This is very true and something most any economist in the US would know. As deals were made to do just that! And now we are calling it theft! We demanded cheap labor and for our companies to do it...in return for our tech. Now we are calling it theft, yes really.
VIVA communism
Little knowledge is dangerous.
I have to say, I’m very happy that his voice doesn’t seem to carry weight on the government decision. And to gain perspective to say the least, NPC should invite him to give some talk about economics.
v top
目前是修正主义，未来如何并不乐观
This totally explains why people in the north think badly of the south. And the coastal cities too a bit.
almost inaudible! make him speak close to the microfone
It's all capitalism whether it's Marxism socialism crony capitalism corporate capitalism or ancient free markets it all involves utilizing resources to turn it into a final product to sell at the market in return for something else of equal or more value. So if you are anti-capitalist you're basically anti-marxist, because Marxism relies on Capital relies on resources both human and non-human to produce something of value for exchange of something else. So unless the anti whatever it is is really related to something else well then they should clarify what they mean oh, perhaps there's something else there meaning to express about capitalism that is wrong in their View, for instance if they're trying to suggest that there is not an equal opportunity to access the markets because of the massive globalist monopolistic capitalist system that prevents individuals from being able to open up their own business due to all the overwhelming regulations red tape bylaws and laws and general licensing fees that makes it largely preventive and prohibitive from starting a business oh, if this is the argument that I can see the validity of the arguments and the point, on the other hand if we're talking about creating jobs and giving people Fair wages well this is ridiculous because those that start the businesses have to put up the capital and risk it all, and if they are being pressured by the point of a gun to pay people what they think they should be paid while they just we'll just shut down their business, and bye-bye jobs oh, yeah by the same token the big conglomerate monopolistic businesses they will probably continue to improve wages and working standards but they'll never be able to keep up with inflation because your monetary system is based on fake Monopoly money oh, a lot of that money is Borrowed by your government on an interest that could never be paid off, and guess who's on the hook for that money oh, you, they took out a massive credit card under your name are buying stuff under your name I don't interest by which you will never be able to pay off and your lifetime this makes sure that you remain a Slave, but I digress. Check out the slavery index, misery index u.s. Debt Clock. Org or the one relevant to your country
@SunnyFish "FREE" Markets? nothing is really free, markets are controlled or manipulated for many reasons but they are never truly free.
Indeed capitalism is a system of property ownership to facilitate ownership rights and profits, the mechanisms have been exploited to reduce the overall benefits and much of this comes from the difficulties\greed with balancing the flow of profits and incentives.
Currently, we have a whole class of people who benefit from rents while producing nothing, they are preventing the distribution of profits into innovative production, once we have a concentration of power/wealth the efficiencies diminish.
We are loosing small innovative entrepreneurs with the consolidation and financialization of the market, rent-seeking eclipses all through feeding off the host.
China is pushing innovation albeit with a state-controlled model, the advancements are astonishing and the potential is there to eclipse the western world with advances in technology. Whether we can really see the fairness in China is impossible to know but one would imagine its as corrupt and abusive as anything before it, without transparency no system can be held up as ideal in any way.
What's needed is an educated population that allowing decentralized decision making, encouraging innovation and productive use of capital for the whole society. Removing rent seekers is key :-). Money must be invested back into future productivity and innovation not locked into speculative asset bubbles like property.
Banking should support production not completely drive an economy for periods with money creation and speculation/greed.
This guy might think he understands Marxism. In a sense, he does. But he is more like a book smart. He can't really put that into practice. In other words, he understands the book Capital very well. But he doesn't know how to use dialectical materialism and historical materialism to analyze the world.
He understands just that, and far better than most.
Sanitised history
Imagine the CCP outrage at this. They tell student party members to read Marx ironically.
It is CCP Chinese Capitalism Party.
This „The Party is sacrosanct „ reminds me of the German saying „Wenn das der Führer wüsste“ („if only the Führer knew“)... Sad!
Ask Finland how they like socialism.
How would they know?
@@Cozzra Because their socialist government all resigned last week.
@@ricchildress8123 The government that resigned was trying to push for more privatization of healthcare. So basically the opposite of what you thought, happened.
Finland also isn't socialist, it's a capitalist, social democratic parliamentary republic.
As complicated as it all is, just spend some more time in wikipedia, to try and figure out all these different terms and stuff, it can be kind of rewarding to have a better idea of the big picture and how all the pieces of the puzzle fit. Even if it's wikipedia, it's still better than nothing at least. Regards: a Finn.
A typical presentation which is clearly biased to a specific point a view. Important facts are ignored, Harvey is doing his best to hide the fact that the CCP is extremely popular in China. Labour disputes are often used to solve unrelated labour issues. The numbers quoted are relatively insignificant if you assume that the Chinese labour force is anywhere between 500 to 800 million in size. Wages are controlled. The labour migrant system is extremely complex and is related to land right, not land ownership. You are not saying anything about the inhumane conditions that were created and maintained by Maoist policies. Food shortages that existed because of the most fundamental issue that is at the centre of socialists dreams, land ownership or property rights. When this issue was addressed by Deng Xiaoping food shortages disappeared. Miraculously, when people work for your own interest, the community benefits, or they do not die of hunger. Your word play of a new class emerging that will change China is neither here nor there. The only class that is developing is the migrant worker class which in many millions strong. Your agricultural workers class will reduce and become relatively unimportant in the near future. There are so many fact about China that you ignore, or portrayed as half truth that cannot be discussed here. Suffice it to say that you are simply out of bounds with respect to the reality of China. In fact China my have a part solution to the very weaknesses of democracy.