Extreme inequality, and the riots in Tibet

This article, by Heiko Khoo, gives a very convincing explanation for the explosion of unrest in Tibet: extreme inequality that is even more acute than the already-insane inequality prevailing in China generally, which is itself driven by China's descent into the free market.
http://www.marxist.com/the-riots-in-tibet.htm
Both the Chinese and western governments seem to be making the Dalai Lama the central issue, thereby avoiding the main problem, which neither wishes to face.
Here's a snippet from the article (I believe Heiko Khoo is a researcher for Amnesty):

The ‘average wage' in China's cities as a whole is 14,000 Yuan a year, (US$1800) but wages in Tibet are nearly double the average, higher than in Shanghai and second only to Beijing. State sector employment accounts for nearly 94 percent of employment in Tibet as opposed to 66 percent in China's cities on average.

The problem is that such relatively well-paid state employment is disproportionately allocated to people of ethnic Chinese backgrounds. Higher wages are justified on the basis that living in Tibet takes you far from family and friends and often causes serious health problems due to the effects of high altitude. Tibetans, whose skills are generally lower than the ethnic Chinese migrants, look on them as a deliberately privileged layer.

Alongside the influx of state employees, engaged in administration and infrastructure projects, has come an influx of ethnic Chinese traders and to a lesser extent Hui Muslims, whose businesses thrive on the high spending power of state employees and tourists. Their nationwide networks mean Tibetans can't compete with them. The boom in Tibet has encouraged all manner of migrant entrepreneurs to open shop, including beggars' rackets and sex workers. Tibetans often think they too are subsidized by Beijing. Thus it is easy to see wherein the roots of ethnic discontent lie.

All over China the wage levels of workers have not risen in line with the economic boom. Under pressure from the army of migrant workers and the rapaciousness of private sector employers, wages for many have been frozen. According to the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) 26% of China's workers have not received a pay rise for five years despite the economy growing at an average of 10.6%. Profits have been boosted not only by new machinery and work methods but also by holding down wages. The ratio of overall labour costs to GDP has fallen from 53.4 percent in 1990 to only 41.4 percent in 2005.

Given that so much of what constitutes the western lifestyle is now manufactured in China (i.e. made possible by China's inequality) it seems inadequate to focus on western inequality alone.

Inequality and the neo-Malthusians

On Wednesday's Nightwaves (BBC Radio 3) there was a fascinating discussion about Malthus and current anxieties of various kinds about "today's crowded world" and the possibility that "the population of poor countries alone will rise by almost three billion in the next 30 years" (and what should "we" do about this?)

Some very refreshing contributions came from Matthew Connelly, a historian from Columbia University - for example:

If the world's food resources were distributed fairly there would be about 4 pounds of food per person, "including 1 lb of meat and dairy products, which would make most of us fat".

... and:

"If the problem is consumption, then of course it's the *wealthiest* people we need fewer of."

Connelly has a new book out:

Fatal Misconception: the struggle to control world population;
Matthew Connelly; Harvard University Press 2008

For a free sample chapter, see:

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/CONFAT.html


Here's a snippet from the programme that I liked so much, I laboriously transcribed it via the Listen Again facility:

"Too often, alas, population projections are *psychological* projections ... not that there are too many people but that there certain *kinds* of people, with whom we feel uncomfortable, who there are too many of. So when people say the US or the UK for that matter is overpopulated I want to ask them which people in particular they have in mind, who are in and of themselves a problem?

"If the problem is consumption, then of course it's the *wealthiest* people we need fewer of. I mean, Britain would do much better if it had 100 million subsistence farmers, say, than 50 million people who are doctors and lawyers and bankers and so on. It could have much less of a carbon footprint if it imported subsistence farmers from the Sahel, and exported bankers and lawyers to Africa. But nobody is proposing that."

You can hear whole program on line till next Wednesday, here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/nightwaves/pip/0vffr/