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Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

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Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#121

Post by [deleted] »

littletimmy wrote: post #46
rcarrigan87 wrote: post #11

Further down in the article, some interesting points about the motivations behind philanthropy. "philanthropy is about more than just social responsibility—it’s about social stability." So other than a genuine desire to do good or vanity seeking that can motivate philanthropy, you have a third element in China - preventing a revolt by the poor on the rich. If you give just enough, you'll keep the poor subdued. I wond…

I really liked this sentiment of Oscar Wilde on charity: “[Charity] is not a solution [to poverty]: it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible…Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by thos…

[deleted]

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#122

Post by MisterBastahrd »

littletimmy wrote: post #46
rcarrigan87 wrote: post #11

Further down in the article, some interesting points about the motivations behind philanthropy. "philanthropy is about more than just social responsibility—it’s about social stability." So other than a genuine desire to do good or vanity seeking that can motivate philanthropy, you have a third element in China - preventing a revolt by the poor on the rich. If you give just enough, you'll keep the poor subdued. I wond…

I really liked this sentiment of Oscar Wilde on charity: “[Charity] is not a solution [to poverty]: it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible…Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by thos…

Oscar Wilde was completely out of touch with the realities of the impoverished. He was a Kardashian with literary talent.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#123

Post by slg »

codyb wrote: post #116
AngrySkillzz wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the oil-rich nations have reasonably large sovereign wealth funds, so they have broad investment exposure to the rest of the global economy. I think the plan is to draw on those as necessary to transition their economies into something more diversified and sustainable.

And it looks (at least in Saudi Arabia's case) that they were trying to diversify towards renewables in a vast way [0], although my google search also turned up more recent articles indicating they're pushing that back [1]. The thing about the Saudi Arabian royal family is that they're all guaranteed allowances and the family grows at a near exponential rate since they all have multiple wives. I couldn't find any goo…

Renewables are great, but I'm not sure they would be able to support an entire economy. One of the few great things about fossil fuels and specifically oil is that it is a power source that can be stored in a dense and stable form. Renewables can't really be stored in this manner and therefore can't easily be exported beyond reasonably short distances. Saudi Arabia therefore can't rely on selling renewable energy to the USA, China, and the EU to support their economy like they do with oil.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#124

Post by Animats »

themartorana wrote: post #59
vvvv wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is exactly the control mechanism that was used by a number of Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, to prevent the Arab Spring revolutions from happening within their borders. They handed out billions of cash to the populace. "...the Saudi state began spending $130 billion to pump up civil servant salaries (paying two extra months’ salaries)" "In Kuwait, at around the same time, the state increased civil serva…

What will become of the already unstable Middle East when oil begins its inevitable (likely slow) decline as a dominant power source?

Probably what already happened to Egypt and Syria when their oil production dropped.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#125

Post by aianus »

iamcurious wrote: post #115
aianus wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could program 5 hours a month remotely and make more than a university graduate working full-time in Vietnam. So yeah, the vast, vast majority of U.S. programmers are ultimately doing it out of reasons other than survival, whether they realize it or not.

What stops said Vietnamese for working the same 5 hours a month remotely?

Nothing, if they spoke English and had programming skills.

But that's not a small if.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#126

Post by dragonwriter »

slg wrote: post #123
codyb wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it looks (at least in Saudi Arabia's case) that they were trying to diversify towards renewables in a vast way [0], although my google search also turned up more recent articles indicating they're pushing that back [1]. The thing about the Saudi Arabian royal family is that they're all guaranteed allowances and the family grows at a near exponential rate since they all have multiple wives. I couldn't find any goo…

Renewables are great, but I'm not sure they would be able to support an entire economy. One of the few great things about fossil fuels and specifically oil is that it is a power source that can be stored in a dense and stable form. Renewables can't really be stored in this manner and therefore can't easily be exported beyond reasonably short distances. Saudi Arabia therefore can't rely on selling renewable energy to…

Oil can be synthesized; to the extent it has desirable traits as an energy transport medium, that doesn't mean it has to be the root energy source.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#128

Post by dennyis »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #35
EliRivers wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bit out of context. The full quote radically changes the meaning: "There are two groups of poor people. One is, you don’t work hard. You deserve to be poor because you don’t work hard. Second is, you work hard but can’t succeed. I think we should help the second group of people."

I liked her next line: There’s a saying, jiu ji bu jiu pin —‘We’ll help you if you have an emergency, but we cannot help you if you’re poor.’ Which is something I think about every time there's a global appeal after an earthquake or tidal wave, yet that contrasts with general indifference or outright hostility to helping with general poverty. Just need to figure out how to pronounce that phrase correctly so I can dro…

Sounds something like "geeyo gee, boo geeyo peen"

More direct translation is "help emergency, not help poor"

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#129

Post by Animats »

rcarrigan87 wrote: post #11

Further down in the article, some interesting points about the motivations behind philanthropy. "philanthropy is about more than just social responsibility—it’s about social stability." So other than a genuine desire to do good or vanity seeking that can motivate philanthropy, you have a third element in China - preventing a revolt by the poor on the rich. If you give just enough, you'll keep the poor subdued. I wond…

"So other than a genuine desire to do good or vanity seeking that can motivate philanthropy, you have a third element in China - preventing a revolt by the poor on the rich."

Very much so. China is a communist country. Here's the China Communist Party's current policy statement.[1]

"The basic line of the CPC at this stage is to unite the people of all ethnic groups to, with economic construction at the core, adhere to the Four Cardinal Principles, adhere to reform and opening-up, and in a spirit of self-reliance and hard struggle, to build China into a prosperous, democratic and civilized modern socialist country. The Four Cardinal Principles -- adhering to the socialist road, adhering to the people's democratic dictatorship, adhering to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, and adhering to the leadership of the Communist Party of China -- have been established by the Constitution of the People's Republic of China as the basis to maintain the nation."

Well within living memory, China's government was sentencing rich people to death for crimes against the state. That's one reason many rich people in China try to get money out of the country and get out themselves. There might be a policy change, and they could be sent to labor camps in the western provinces. It's happened before, and might happen again.

[1] http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/45981.htm

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#130

Post by dang »

lordnacho wrote: post #42
raverbashing wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably also absurdly spoiled, never had to have an actual 9-5 job Also accustomed to being rude and being pampered all around the place

No, I never saw any rudeness from either of these fellows. And they never showed up with a bunch of servants, even though they could hire a whole army of them. The one guy is doing an ordinary 9-5 job. Other guy is managing his family fortune, so yes that's not a normal job.

What an exemplary reply. When we ask people to remain civil and substantive even when someone else has been provocative, this is what we mean. Thanks for making HN better!
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