Let's compare the last 20 years in the United States that is this century so far in the
United States with that in China.
In the United States real wages (the average wage of the American worker) has stagnated.
It has gone nowhere.
That's true not only for the 20 years we're talking about of this century, it's true for
the last 25 years of the 20th century.
Here's a statistic for you to think about as an American if you're watching this program
from the United States or listening to it on the radio here.
In 1973 the wage of the United States, the average wage of an American, was able to buy
(here we go now) MORE things than it was in 2018.
The real wage in the United States is less today than it was then.
It's not less by a lot but it means that over the last 40 to 45 years Americans who have
worked harder than ever, who have been more productive than they ever were across that
time, have not shared in their greater productivity.
Their real income, their real wages have not gone up.
The real hourly wage in the United States is lower today than it was in 1973 and that
is something to think about.
But now comes the Chinese story.
Over the same period of time, the last 20-25 years, real wages in the People's Republic
of China have quadrupled.
Let me tell you that again.
The basket of goods and services that an average worker gets in China for an average hour of
his or her work is four times greater today than it was 25 years ago.
Yes, Chinese wages remain below the average in the United States because they were and
they still are a poor country when you divide their total economy by the enormous number
of people that live in that country.
But if you want to understand why the people of China support their government here's a
clue: their real wages went up four times over the last 25 years in a society led by
a government in which the Communist Party is the dominant political force.
Let me pause to let all of this sink in.
This is not about whether you like these numbers or don't this is not about whether you're
critical of many aspects of Chinese society or you're not.
I myself find things in China I admire and things in China I would like to avoid.
I try to look at the strengths and weaknesses.
But when it comes to the economics of their socialist system and I compare its performance
over decades to this moment, there is no contest about which system has served its people better
in terms of economic growth of output.
The economy as a whole and the real wages of the average worker in that society.
Is China an example of equality?
No.
It has a great deal of inequality.
There the United States and China have something in common; high inequality that's actually
getting worse.