The Economic Reform

---

Morning I spent sleeping off a cold. I also had my first adventure with the laundry machine. I brought one carry on filled 3/4 of the way with gifts for my relatives and 1/4 of the way with my clothes. It was time to wash.

Our afternoon lecture was on Current Social Issues in China: Employment, Housing and Social Security.

I grew up with a father who held a deep seated (and understandable) resentment towards Communism. My mother didn't exactly feel much better about it, since her parents went through the Cultural Revolution.

It was interesting to see the theological ideals behind the regime's purpose from a slightly more objective perspective. However objective the opinion is may be argued however. The professor was from the School of Government at Nankai.

Nonetheless he didn't argue the morality of Communism. He simply stated the social changes before and after China's major economic reform. The lecture basically highlighted the major growing pains that a country is going through during their transition from a communist regime to a capitalistic economy.

In a society where all policies are designed for equality, the sudden privatization of health care and other social services will drastically increase the gap in health disparities and social inequality. It's kind of like a crazy real life public health experiment.

What I really liked about this lecture is that it put a lot of things into perspective for me. I felt like I learned bits and pieces of China's problems from the news and never understood the bigger picture. This tied everything up into a neat little bundle.

---