A simple definition of those who represent the middle class is those people who have a steady enough income to be able to handle and to cover the necessities of life, while also having extra money that can be set aside as savings or spent on discretionary items. We read at https://baike.baidu.com/ that “The National Bureau of Statistics uses an annual income standard of 100,000 to 500,000 yuan for a three-person household, corresponding to about 140 million households,” to be considered middle class in China, which thus indicates that China has a much larger middle class than the United States, which in fairness to the United States, we need to consider that China’s population is far larger. Nevertheless, for all those who believe wholeheartedly that capitalism and the American way represent the pinnacle of what makes for a great society, they need to be mindful that perhaps this is not true.
The argument could be made that how big a given country’s middle class is, represents how successful that country is in seeing that there is a fair distribution of income, which makes for a population that is going to be in aggregate, more comfortable in their circumstances, because those countries that have a very small portion of the population which is superrich, and a significant portion of their population that is poor and struggling, should be seen as a failure to the people, because the wealth is overly concentrated into too few hands, which thus typically makes for a government which is oppressive in all of its many forms, in order to keep the general public in its place, while also not taking care of the issue of such great wealth disparity.
Indeed, the happy equilibrium that governments should try to achieve on behalf of those so governed is to see that as many of the population as possible make a living wage, which would, in and of itself, help to alleviate many of the common problems that trouble countries, such as poverty, crime, civil disobedience, and so on. After all, people who complain often have an underlying reason for what bothers them, and the best governance is that government which makes it a priority to alleviate what troubles the population, and when successfully accomplished, makes for a happier and healthier society.
The reality is that China has, in its own way, accomplished something of real significance, because China was a very poor country not so long ago, and yet, within the last few decades, it has achieved incredible gains that have been beneficial to millions of Chinese. Whether the United States believes that there are any lessons to be learnt from China’s economic success is something that our government needs to consider, and it would behoove that government of, for, and by the people to do so, because to dismiss China as an irrelevancy because their form of government is different is to miss the point, because the point is, that without a strong and vibrant middle class, America has failed its own people, which this, of all countries, should never even be at play, or else it could be said that America is no longer great, and perhaps has already run its race.