Factories

Twelve hours shifts, one day-off a month in peak seasons, wages of £12 a week, populated dormitories inside factories, no insurance and military style codes of conduct are the average day-by-day factory working conditions in China today. Although workers are free to join, there are not many other choices for them. The Industrial Revolution meanwhile Europe or U.S.A. has reached the latter stages of its development staircase, the future of China does not seem to be that clear.

With an economy strongly based on exportations, and the Yuan deliberately undervalued, cheap production is the main attraction for foreign investment, making little progress in the Chinese working class standard of life. If this needs to continue, the question of how to change from an economy of mass production to a superconsumer one is hard to resolve. China still has one-third of its population in the impoverished countryside, where life conditions are not better than the ones in the poorest places of Africa.Migrations in search of a better life and Government economic policies have made the economic miracle possible. The price that Chinese people are paying for it is evident. Where all that is leading them (and us) is far more difficult to foreseen.