Quote from asiaprop:
strongly disagree. Why? Because unemployment hits the masses, the poor, the untrained and uneducated. However, the real wealth that is currently built and maintained is by the middle to upper-middle class, and this class consists almost entirely of a white collar workforce in tier 1 and 2 cities. Employment in this segment is very inelastic to global demand because most of the more skilled, non-manufacturing, labor force works in domestic businesses, companies that service and serve the domestic market.
You cant look at western societies and labor markets to try to explain the Chinese market. Chinese society is cut into at least 2 segments, those who are left out, those who toil in factories or are employed in farming or sit around in government owned or sponsored "not interested in profit" entities, without the slightest prospects of promotion or further training. And then you have a white collar work force, entrepreneurs, foreign trained returnees who represent most of the wealth that is current generated. There are a number of "business men" who own to the tune of 30-40 apartments in Shanghai and struck it rich that way. Some of those never saw a university from the inside, nor are trained in anything. They may have been lucky in their timing, some used gray or outright illegal channels and relationships but nonetheless they built their wealth, something that cannot be replicated anymore compared to several years ago.