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echoing what vpalan2 said below: "If I wanted to do massive, irreparable harm to China, this is the law I would pass. And yet, they have done this willingly to
by sharetea 11y ago
echoing what vpalan2 said below:
"If I wanted to do massive, irreparable harm to China, this is the law I would pass. And yet, they have done this willingly to themselves, without hesitation or incident."
These aren't the smart engineering politicians with a 10 year view China has foisted its fable onto the world. These are the corrupt paranoid politicians who know they are one mass protest away from having all their families disposed. These are fat and lazy billionnaires who have siphoned off local schools, hospitals, people, environments, and is about to abscond with riches. These are the people that see their debt-fueled economy collapsing, and know there's no more workers to be paid in pennies to be exploited.
"In total, 106 members of China's National People's Congress and 97 members of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress, are on Hurun's China Rich List. Their combined wealth hits $463.8 billion. By comparison, the median wealth of American politicians was just over $1 million in 2013, according to CNN Money. "
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-politicians-are-rich-2015-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-politicians-are-rich-...
- mkaziz 11y agoYour quote compares the combined wealth of Chinese politicians with the median wealth of American politicians. That's a misleading statistic if I ever saw one.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- tomtang0514 11y agoIn addition, it's the wealth of the very top level politicians in China vs median wealth of all politicians (If I understand correctly) in US. A fair comparison should be the senators and representatives.
- chrischen 11y agoThe OP must have worked for the Chinese propaganda department!
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- mey 11y agoFor those who don't want to do the math 463.8/(106+97) = avg of ~2.28 billion per china congress critter Edit: as pointed out below, the math is more complex as there is 2987 seats in the NPC and I can't quickly find numbers for the number of total seats in the CPPCC, so the average is certainly drastically lower than the above.
- skewart 11y agoThose are the numbers of people who are on the rich list, not the total in those political bodies. To get the average per "congress critter" you'd have to get the total in each body, and get the net worths of the ones not on the rich list. I suspect it's less than 2.28B, but still a good bit higher than in the US.
- gohrt 11y agoUS Congresspeople aren't nearly as wealthy; not billionaires: http://www.rollcall.com/50richest/the-50-richest-members-of-congress-112th.html http://www.rollcall.com/50richest/the-50-richest-members-of-...
- ytpete 11y agoYou could put a lower limit on it by assuming the rest of the NPC members are flat broke: 463.8/2987 = $155 million per congress critter, or about 150x the average for US Congress critters.
- gohrt 11y agoIt's absurd for Chinese government to call itself Communist whilst its leaders have such immense personal wealth publicly visible.
- effie 11y agoIn the original sense of the word, yes. The sense has evolved with the self-described communists though...
- adventureartist 11y agoThey are un-democratic single party capitalists. Like Singapore.
- sdm 11y ago> In total, 106 members of China's National People's Congress and 97 members of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress, are on Hurun's China Rich List. Their combined wealth hits $463.8 billion. Ummm... The NPC has 2987. Put in context 97 of 2987 are rich or 3%. That's a far better stat than you'll find for the US senate or congress. The CPPCC is larger. Add to that the comparison to the median wealth all American Politicians, your comment is all smoke and mirrors. Compare likes to likes.
- vacri 11y agoI chased down the link train, and by 'american politicians', they actually do mean congress. The link train stops here: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/01/one-member-of-congress-18-american-households-lawmakers-personal-finances-far-from-average/ http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/01/one-member-of-congre... A senator averages about $3M, a house rep is about $800k.
- bzbarsky 11y agoI would be interested to see what the numbers look like for the average person with equivalent education and of equivalent age to a House rep. For example, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2013/01/average_age_of_members_of_u_s_congress_are_our_senators_and_representatives.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/20... claims that as of 2009 the age of US House members averaged 57. I doubt they've gotten younger on average since. I'm having trouble finding these numbers for our current congress, but in 2009-10, out of 435 House reps 168 had law degrees, 83 had a masters degree, 23 had a PhD, 17 had a medical degree. 32 had nothing beyond an associate's degree; that leaves 109 with just bachelor's degrees. All numbers according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Members_of_the_111th_United_States_Congress#Education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Members_of_the_111th_United_St... Your typical person with an advanced degree in their late 50s probably has some retirement savings. And note that the cited article says some of the numbers (but not all!) include the values of the House members homes. It's really not that hard to hit $800k if you count home equity and retirement savings, assuming you have any reasonable amounts of either...