The American Dream Lives: In China Where 70% of Millennials Own Their Own Homes
"The American Dream Is Alive and Wellin China," By Ellen Brown, Truthdig, June 13, 2019. EXCERPTS:
Home ownership has been called the quintessential American dream. Yet today less than 65% of American homes are owner occupied, and more than 50% of the equity in those homes is owned by the banks. Compare China, where, despite facing one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world, a whopping 90% of families can afford to own their homes. Over the last decade, American wages have stagnated and U.S. productivity has consistently been outpaced by Chinas.
The U.S. government has responded by engaging in a trade war and imposing stiff tariffs in order to penalize China for what the White House deems unfair trade practices. Chinas industries are said to be propped up by the state and to have significantly lower labor costs, allowing them to dump cheap products on the U.S. market, causing prices to fall and forcing U.S. companies out of business.
The message to middle America is that Chinese labor costs are low because their workers are being exploited in slave-like conditions at poverty-level wages. But if thats true, how is it that the great majority of Chinese families own homes? According to a March 2016 article in Forbes: *U.S.-China Talks Are About Much More Than Trade"* by Marshall Auerbeck, Independent Media Institute: "
90% of families in the country own their home, giving China one of the highest home ownership rates in the world. Whats more is that 80% of these homes are owned outright, without mortgages or any other liens. On top of this, north of 20% of urban households own more than one home."
Due to their communist legacy, what they get for their money is not actually ownership in perpetuity but a long-term leasehold, and the quality of the construction may be poor. But the question posed here is, how can Chinese families afford the price tag for these homes, in a country where the average income is only one-seventh that in the United States? In China the cost of living is significantly lower. The Chinese government subsidizes not only its industries but its familieswith educational, medical and transportation subsidies. According to a 2017 HSBC fact sheet, 70% of Chinese millennials (ages 19 to 36) already own their own homes.
American young people cannot afford to buy homes because they are saddled with student debt, a millstone that now averages $37,000 per student and will be carried an average of 20 years before it is paid off.
A recent survey found that 80% of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck. Another found that 60% of U.S. millennials could not come up with $500 to cover their tax bills. In China, by contrast, student debt is virtually nonexistent. Heavy government subsidies have made higher education cheap enough that students can work their way through college with a part-time job. Health care is also subsidized by the government, with a state-run health insurance program similar to Canadas. The program doesnt cover everything, but medical costs are still substantially lower than in the U.S. Public transportation, too, is quite affordable in China, and it is fast, efficient and ubiquitous...
Read More, https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-american-dream-is-alive-and-well-in-china/
Ellen Brown is an attorney, chairman of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including "Web of Debt" and "The Public Bank Solution."
NBachers
(17,007 posts)appalachiablue
(41,056 posts)Jane Austin
(9,199 posts)or small apartments with shared kitchens and bathrooms as was normal when I visited there in the '80s?
Thanks.
appalachiablue
(41,056 posts)the typical style is. Most middle class Chinese don't live in US-style single family houses, it's mainly apartments in cities. The Forbes article referenced above notes that reforms to enable home ownership for most buyers didn't begin until after 1995. And with so many people in China, properties are small of course. The interesting point is that the government is assisting home ownership, and also subsidizing education and healthcare. Something for us to look at especially in these times of growing income inequality.
I don't know the principal cities and have never been there. This Quora article features a variety of home types, urban and rural in the last two questions:
- [Quora]. "China is a very big country. If you want to know whether there are people who live in houses in China, the answer is definitely yes. But not every Chinese lives in a house. Most urban residents live in apartments. Only a few very rich people live in houses in suburban areas. This is very different from the United States.
Its a different story in rural China, though. Many rural Chinese have their own houses. Being an urban Chinese myself, Im not familiar with the rural half of the country, but they can build and live in their own houses mostly because Chinese government implements different policies in urban and rural areas. Individuals can build their own houses in the country, but the same thing is impossible in the city. The apartment buildings are all built by real estate companies."
https://www.quora.com/Do-people-live-in-houses-in-China
Apartments in Suzhou.
Apartments in Shanghai.
[Wiki]. Housing in China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_China
Igel
(35,197 posts)When I think "American dream" and "home" I think "house." I didn't buy a "home"--that's realtor-speak, you don't buy a place you buy a life.
One data source says 90% of Chinese own their own home, but only 64% of Americans do. I'd venture that most of the American "homes" are houses, with land and a building, as opposed to a smallish apartment or a house where you purchased land-use rights for a decade and where you'll have to repurchase the rights to the land in a number of years. You want to buy a 800-sq ft condo in a run down building, it'll run you a lot less than a piece of land with a 2200 sq ft building on it.
It's also worth noting that while urban apts. ("homes" are expensive, China's also had a government-supported make-work building boom. It's one way of making your GDP grow fast and keeping your population sufficiently economically opiated.
Response to appalachiablue (Original post)
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MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)For the reasons stated above.
Of course, after massive depopulation due to CV, there may be some listings.