My Take | Contrary to Western myth, the Chinese are a rather jolly bunch
- Latest international surveys show they are happier about themselves, more trustful of authorities and hopeful about future than Americans
Must be! On the other hand, anyone who has ever lived in or visited China – except during the pandemic lockdowns – for an extended period would not be at all surprised. But if you are a stay-at-home kind of person and read only The Wall Street Journal and watch the BBC to get your news, you must think that’s all state-controlled propaganda.
I can think of a few simple reasons, though, for example reducing extreme wealth on the one hand and eliminating extreme poverty on the other. China’s richest have been told in no uncertain terms that while they can be billionaires, they are no longer allowed to be multibillionaires. Otherwise, the government will make you break up your firms and force you to donate a big chunk of your wealth to charities.
That’s so unfair! What about the sanctity of private property? In the United States, time and again, that’s understood to be bailing out the rich. In the continuing saga of bank collapses in the US, which has hit Europe, for example, all depositors of the Silicon Valley Bank, which triggered the crisis, have been made whole by the US government, that is, even the 10 largest deposit account holders who had a combined US$13.3 billion!
As Martin Gruenberg, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation gingerly puts it: “At SVB, the depositors protected by the guarantee of uninsured depositors included not only small and mid-size business customers but also customers with very large account balances.”