May 2 2013 Thu BDE.pdf - Brooklyn Daily Eagle

REVIEW AND COMMENT
Slower Economies
Create Upheavals
In People's Values
By the Christian Science Monitor's Editorial Board
Personal values in a society, such as the levels of trust and hope, often
determine the health of an economy more than government. That’s why
it is worth watching as the world’s two largest economies, China and the
United States, each appear to be adjusting the value norms that have sustained
their prosperity.
In the U.S., according to polls, the American dream has shifted from
the pursuit of individual opportunities to simply seeking economic stability.
This means trying to hold down a job as well as hold down one’s debt.
Credit-card debt has fallen since 2010 and the virtue of savings has returned.
The Great Recession reversed the idea that increasing one’s debt is a
guaranteed ticket to the middle-class lifestyle. According to a new Allstate-
National Journal survey, more than half of Americans say there is less “opportunity
to get ahead.”
And a similar proportion doubt whether a college degree is worth taking
on student loans. Only 51 percent of workers feel comfortable with their
finances for retirement, down from 70 percent just six years ago, according
to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Avoiding risk is apparently the new moral norm in the U.S. This downsizing
of aspirations is a long way from the description of the American
dream as first defined by historian James Truslow Adams in a 1931 book: “It
is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social
order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest
stature of which they are innately capable.”
In China, the values upheaval is different. After decades of growth
above 10 percent, the economy has slowed to about 7.7 percent and may
stay near that level for a long time. Yet the gross domestic product per capita
remains below $10,000. And people are fed up with rising income inequality,
corruption, pollution, and unfairness in the job market.
Revitalizing and reforming the economy will be difficult. As a result,
President Xi Jinping has tried to define a new set of economic values by
coining the slogan “China dream” last fall. But he hasn’t been very specific
about what he means other than to use phrases like “revitalization of the
nation.” The new prime minister, Li Kequiang, only speaks of “equal opportunities
for everyone.”
It is noteworthy that the official phrase is not “the Chinese dream,”
meaning a dream for the individual Chinese. Instead, Mr. Xi has tied the interests
of the Communist Party and the state – or “China” – to any hopes of
the individual. Managing social stability remains the party’s key concern.
“We must meld together the country’s dream and the dream of the [Chinese]
race with each individual’s dream,” stated the conservative Beijing
Daily. Political freedoms and government accountability are not part of the
official dream.
In both countries, an economic slowdown has forced a serious look
at how individuals and their values contribute to the general welfare. Yet
each is doing it differently. China’s approach is from the top down, or government
driven; America’s changes are bottom up as individuals adjust. Either
way, the world cannot ignore this transformation of values in two giant
economies.
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2 • Brooklyn Daily Eagle • May 2, 2013