Comments on: The Chinese Are Becoming Wealthier, So Why Aren’t They Happier?

By: Victor

Victor — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:06:06 +0000

Well i believe the Chinese are working like Americans. Their governments have set goal and they are slowly and steadily moving towards it, no matter if they are not able to generate common conscience among citizens. I guess what they plan is their supermacy over the world; economically and militarily . Could be the main country leading world war 3

By: George Thistle

George Thistle — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:50:31 +0000

China will soon take over the world, mark my words

By: Winton Bates

Winton Bates — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:50:17 +0000

Mark:
Capitalism seems to have worked quite well for the Chinese in Hong Kong.

By: mark harrison

mark harrison — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:08:12 +0000

My wife is chinese and she was never happy living in Bejing because the rush by the Chinese government to embrace their form of western capitalism left many regions in despair. Buildings would be put up within weeks not years and the toll it took on the environment and in particular, rural village life was and is immense. The chinese by their very nature are a frugal people and capatilism (in my view) does not work for them.

By: Winton Bates

Winton Bates — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:46:23 +0000

Dan: You are right that happiness is subjective. But that doesn’t mean that the information that people give in response to surveys is of no value. Some private firms actually buy the information from other private firms e.g. Gallup.

By: Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:14:10 +0000

Happiness research vainly tries to measure the unmeasurable, much like macroeconomics. There is no objective happiness or misery, any more than there is an objective utility or value.

The fact is that most societies throughout history have liked the security of slavery once they have been subjected to it for long enough. It takes a courageous and self reliant population to rise to the challenges of personal freedom. Freedom means responsibility and many people would rather be told what to do, especially if they have gotten used to it..

What China is imposing cannot really be called capitalism if there is no real economic freedom, because that is the very essence of capitalism. Private property and the opportunity to reap the benefits of using it for personal gain is the only way for a society to share real long term growth and prosperity. Wishy Washy capitalsm of the European variety, and the new American variety, is the way to make people dependent and unhappy. They get the responsibility without reaping the benefits.

By: Winton Bates

Winton Bates — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:37:33 +0000

The Gallup poll suggests that the Chinese are about as satisfied with the amount of freedom in their lives as the French, and not too far behind the Americans in that respect.
If you say that the Chinese have been brainwashed, I agree. But that is not consistent with the view that they feel that the government is imposing capitalism on them and that is making them unhappy. I think the evidence suggests that most Chinese actually like the limited economic freedom they have been given – and they like economic growth.
This is more apparent in a follow-up post, which can be found here: http://wintonbates.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-economic-growth-causing-chinese-to.html

By: Hilary

Hilary — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:32:24 +0000

Why aren’t they happier? Capitalism imposed at the barrel of a gun is no reason to celebrate.