Jul. 16, 2009
In April 2009 a commentary column appeared in the Chinese People’s Daily with the title “Don’t Hate the Rich, Be One of Them”. The columnist, Ling Hongmei, argued that “a society not creating wealthy people is never progressing on the healthy track”.
The author is an editor and columnist at the English-language version of People’s Daily. Since then this article has become one of the most discussed topics on the online forum of the paper. A fierce debate is raging between critics of the wealthy arguing for example: “The very rich can only become so at the expense of others. True Socialism should mean equality and should not encourage the accumulation of wealth.”
Other members of the forum take an opposite stand and opine, for instance, that: “Wealth is nature’s way of rewarding effort, creativity and productivity. It is what drives evolution of societies.” Some of the forum participants, however, have a balanced view: “I was very poor growing up and spent 10 years of my life looking for something to eat and a place to sleep. Making a few good decisions has made me comfortable, not rich, not poor. Rich would be nice; comfortable and content to me is better. The rich I’ve met and known are always stressed and worried about money.”
The hundreds of comments in the Internet forum of People’s Daily reflect a debate that today, almost with identical phrases, is taking place all around the globe. Wealth creation and the wealthy people are under fire for being rich, or more specifically, for the way they made their fortunes.
Though the interesting part about this on-line debate seems to be that a substantial portion (more than 30%) of the forum comments, as well as the original column, is in defence of wealth as a legitimate reward for a person’s effort and creativity. Whereas in many Western countries public opinion against the wealthy has now reached a fever pitch, it seems that in China the debate takes a much more even view.
It is true that this specific debate is in an English-language publication. We do not know anything about the happenings on native language Chinese discussion forums. But who would have thought 20 or even 10 years ago that the staunchest defenders of capitalism and its mechanisms of wealth creation will one day reside in the People’s Republic of China? You may wonder what this means for the long-term viability of the Western nations.