Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe
I am curious about the workers cost of living and living conditions. I read a fair amount of Asian fiction. Inspector Chen Cao comes to mind.
I have read that the majority of people live in government assigned housing, up to 5 to a single room. This is whether they work or not. Some have running water, most have electricity, but cooking is done on coal or charcoal burning stoves that are stored on the landing as there is very little room.
Can an average family with two employed factory workers working 60 hours a week enjoy a comparable lifestyle to those in Western Nations. Or are the living conditions more comparable to people on low level social assistance, vermin infested rooming houses, loud noises from neighbours, communal bathrooms, or living in a cardboard box or under a tree.
I am not asking this to be argumentative, I am curious. I have several young Asian friends who tell me stories of trips back to mainland China. One in particular travels to China with her parents every second year. She loves to travel, but is always appalled by the lack of indoor plumbing, the inconvenience of travel within the country, the crowded living conditions and how hard the people have to work. She has lived in some pretty poor conditions in Canada but figures it is a million times better than China(her words)
Helen
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Regular working hours in at companies like Foxconn are 40 hours per week. Maximum is 60 hours, with overtime. Overtime pay doubles if they have to work Sundays. They work a lot longer at local Chinese companies that produce cheap products for the local market and/or export.
Yes, lots of places in rural China are extremely backward, and those are the places were tourists like to go. No tourist visits the industrial areas we are talking about here, there is nothing to see but factories for 100s of miles.
In the big cities living conditions are quite good, though definitely not yet on par with the west. But no communal bathrooms or vermin infested living quarters! Forgot what you have seen in Africa or the slums in South America. Though build quality of houses for the average Joe is quite low (as most Chinese things go in general), but acceptable. Something Westerners usually miss is the gigantic "black economy". There is a lot more money out there than just what people make through regular work.
In the factories living quarters are cramped, but staying there is part of the wages. Since most workers come from far away and don't plan to stay they prefer to live in factory housing rather than buy an apartment. (Housing prices also have gone through the roof during the last few years)
People in general are quite happy with the progress that has been made during the last 2 decades. I speak the local language and the general consensus these days is "it is better in China". This is especially noticeable when running into Chinese tourists abroad.
Anyway, China these days is a far cry from what you imagine it to be. You are describing the situation in China until the late 1980's.