Swan_Vesta Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 It's not very often that I agree with the whims and foibles of the Chinese Government but in this case I find myself in firm agreement with the proposal. We often bemoan the fact that our elderly are poorly cared for, supported or left to support themselves in unfavourabe conditions but how often do folk do anything about it? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12130140 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaFan Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 But it says that migration for work is a cause - do they expect people to give up work and go back to a village somewhere with no work and no money and support their parents? What with, if they are not working? China's massive economic expansion is already beginning to unravel - because there's been a big shift away from the countryside into industry they are struggling to produce enough food for the population, they've polluted their country massively and the cheap wages that led to all the foreign investment are rising as the workforce realise that they have power - high food prices are also driving up wages. The government has gone flat-out to introduce a market economy and the country is now reaping the results, some of them negative. I think the genie's out of the bottle now though and I can't see them stuffing it back in again. Markets make their own rules, they don't obey governments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygardener Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Till the Chinese people grow a set and rise up and overthrow their one party dictatorship (and there are a billion of them so don't say it can't be done) I don't give a damn about any bizarre rules their communist masters impose on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaFan Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 One of the commenters says I am busy with work and it's quite difficult to ask for holidays simply to visit my mother So he has to be so busy at work making money for foreign investors that he's not allowed a holiday to go and visit his mum! Therein lies the problem I think - they have a market economy geared solely to making as much profit as possible whilst living in a one-party totalitarian state that denies workers rights. If Rong Fan was allowed to join a union and fight for decent holiday entitlement he wouldn't need the state to pass a law saying it's ok to take time off work to visit his parents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 If you are in favour of a law which requires children to support their parents (and I am, too), would you be prepared to match that law with a(n enforceable) law which required parents to support their children? A law which said: "If you breed it, you feed it"? How many people (who might otherwise be spending some of their money supporting aged parents) find that a large chunk of their hard-earned cash goes to support a 'worthy cause' whose family consists of 4 children with 4 different fathers, none of whom pays a penny towards his child's support? The UK seems to have moved towards being a society where the wage-earning generation pays the government for the support of the elderly (suport the government does a poor job of providing) and pays the government for the support of the young whose parents are quite happy to have somebody else pay for their responsibilities. If you are prepared to scrap one side of the bargain (the onus on the state to support the elderly) is it not fitting that you should also scrap the onus on the wage earners to support the other burden? I would be quite happy to see a system where families were expected to provide support for younger (and older) generations, but if that system is going to work, then those families would need to be allowed to retain more of the money they earn to provide the funds for that support. When I was a child it was not at all uncommon for grandma (or great grandma) to live with (or live near to) a child who supported her. (My father's mum lived with us for the last 10 or 12 years of her life; my mother's mother looked after her mother.) Nowadays, even where families have a good relationship, it's not at all uncommon for the generations to live hundreds (or thousands) of miles apart. My wife's mother came to live with us some years ago (we had a house with a separate granny flat) and she lived with us until a few months before her death. Perhaps families could be encouraged to support aged parents (and thus perhaps to reducethe requirement for support from the state) by tax incentives (or even grants) for the conversion of properties to include a granny flat? THere are, allegedly, too many large houses with low occupancy (old ladies living alone in 4-bedroomed houses) and too few small houses. If it was more common for multiple generations to live in the same house, then perhaps the imbalance would be reduced. The house across the road has 3 floors (and a cellar.) It is divided horizontally into 3 apartments. The top floor is a holiday apartment (rented by a lady who uses it for about 6 weeks a year.) The other two apartments are occupied by 3 generations of a family. - That's a common occupancy pattern here. I supported my children and (perhaps) they will be called upon to support me at some time. Visits are great (we've just spent a couple of weeks together) but I don't really want them living with me (nor do I want to live with them) all the time, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeathAxe Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 I prefer the stories about cooking oil made from sewage, soy sauce made from people's hair, and bridges constructed from garbage. But that's just me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harleyman Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 A lot of Hong Kong Chinese arrived in California after HK was returned to China. The grandparents live with the family, take care of the pre school kids while the parents go to work. Many of them bought convenience stores and the husband and wife work shifts so that the store can open early and close late. They make sure their kids get top grades at schools and more often than not send them to private schools. You can visit any major university in California and you'll find a large percentage of the students are Chinese Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygardener Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 A lot of Hong Kong Chinese arrived in California after HK was returned to China. The grandparents live with the family, take care of the pre school kids while the parents go to work. Many of them bought convenience stores and the husband and wife work shifts so that the store can open early and close late. They make sure their kids get top grades at schools and more often than not send them to private schools. You can visit any major university in California and you'll find a large percentage of the students are Chinese Maybe if they made a bit of effort china would be free from communist rule. But i guess they cannot be bothered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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