From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: CHINA'S HISTORY SHOWS DANGERS OF SPREADING POVERTY
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 00:47:26 GMT

/** pacnews.sample: 179.0 **/
** Topic: Danger of Spreading Poverty **
** Written 12:02 pm  Sep  8, 1992 by pacificnews in cdp:pacnews.sample **
From: Pacific News Service <pacificnews>
Subject: Danger of Spreading Poverty

/* Written 11:59 am  Sep  8, 1992 by pacificnews in cdp:pacnews.storie */
/* ---------- "Danger of Spreading Poverty" ---------- */
COPYRIGHT PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE
450 Mission Street,  Room 506
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-243-4364



COMMENTARY -- 700 WORDS

CHINA'S HISTORY SHOWS DANGERS OF SPREADING POVERTY

EDITOR'S NOTE: Though poverty is spreading rapidly in the U.S. , the 
issue is all but ignored in the current elections. The widespread attitude 
seems to be that the poor are useless -- "tax users as opposed to tax 
producers" in the words of California governor Pete Wilson. China's 
history shows the depths to which a country can fall when its 
government ignores poverty, but its recent economic reforms take the 
precedent setting view that the poor in fact are a resource. PNS editor 
Franz Schurmann, author of several books on modern China, teaches 
history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

BY FRANZ SCHURMANN, PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

According to the latest Census Bureau figures, 35.7 million people -- or 
14.2 percent of the U.S. population -- are now poor. Of those, 40 percent 
are children below the age of 16. That suggests the possibility that a few 
decades from now the poor could once again become the majority in 
this country -- unless government intervenes to reverse the poverty 
rate.

History shows many examples of nations which fell from general 
prosperity to pervasive poverty, among which China is possibly the 
most striking example. In the 18th century China was so prosperous 
that it was the envy of European travellers. But not far into the 19th 
century it became one of the poorest nations on earth.

Historians of China cite many causes for this precipitous fall, but one 
stands out: Highly educated, self-satisfied ruling elites who refused to 
see the threat posed by the rising mountain of poverty.

The elites' forbearers had, in 1664, created one of China's most 
successful dynasties, the Qing. Its land policy brought about rural 
prosperity based on a widespread, land-owning, small farmer class. 
There were still plenty of poor in 18th century China, and there were 
peasant rebellions. But by and large people believed that prosperity 
would continue and spread.

By the early 1800s, however, elite concerns had become mainly 
cultural. They preferred to immerse themselves in the highly refined 
arts and scholarship that the dynasty had fostered than to worry about 
irrigation dikes crumbling and threatening entire economies. Poverty 
mushroomed as a result, culminating in the bloody Taiping Rebellion 
(1837-1854) which almost toppled the Qing.

Judging from the current U.S. election campaign, today's elites (with 
the exception of Jack Kemp) have little to say about poverty. The 
Democrats talk of creating jobs and raising skill levels but their aim is 
mainly to improve America's competitiveness in the world market. 
The key beneficiaries of their reforms would be largely middle-class 
people.

The Republicans are stuck in their trickle-down mind-set and simply 
assume that as the current recession ends, a rising tide will lift all boats. 
But the rapid spread of low-wage jobs indicates that a new business 
surge would do little to reverse the rising poverty rate. Even now 40 
percent of the poor over age 15 work, and nine percent have full-time 
jobs.

China was in turmoil for over a century. Today China's aging leaders 
understand that to avoid even worse turmoil the government must 
face up to the nation's poverty. China's poverty is mainly of rural 
origin, so reform began in 1979 with a shift from collective back to 
small family farming.

Recently the leadership has been encouraging the formation of small 
industries located in towns close to rural areas. According to official 
figures, these industries now employ some 100 million. This means 
that fewer people are pouring into the cities and creating seedbeds for 
upheaval.

If these policies really do work as Beijing touts them, it means the 
Chinese octogenarians understand something many American policy 
makers have forgotten: that the poor are a resource, not just a 
maelstrom around the neck of the economy.

One exception among U.S. policy makers is Housing and Urban 
Development Secretary Jack Kemp, whose enterprise zone idea aims at 
employing idle inner-city labor while making a profit for the 
entrepreneur. If more aggressively pursued, this policy could have 
substantial inner-city results. The skillful use of defense policy in 
earlier decades to uplift areas of chronic unemployment shows what 
government can really do to fight poverty.

If Clinton should win in November he could adopt Kemp's ideas but 
beef them up with the power of government, something Republicans 
have been loathe to do. After all, it was the Democratic President 
Lyndon Baines Johnson who in 1964 wrote into the Economic 
Opportunity Act a commitment to eliminate all poverty in the U.S.

The U.S. has something to learn from China, which for over 2,000 
years (though with interruptions), remained one of the most 
prosperous and stable countries in the world. The lesson is that 
government, avoiding the extremes both of totalitarianism and laissez 
faire, does best by its people when it intervenes actively to make certain 
that poverty never gets out of hand.

(09081992)      **** END ****    COPYRIGHT PNS





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