[OPE-L] income distribution in China

[Gerald_A_Levy@xxxxxxx]

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