Occupy Wall Street

Recently, people gathered in Wall Street see that the country’s economy is collapsing, that ordinary Americans are suffering badly, and the government is doing little except help the handful of giant corporations based on Wall Street. The people in the street want the government spend as much money and effort to help the average American as Wall Street.

In America, entrepreneurialism is highly valued and the opportunity of upward mobility is huge. Most people believe that it makes U.S. became the world’s most powerful economy, so the bankers, the key roles in capitalism who allocate capitals and provide the funds to entrepreneurs got exorbitant salaries.

However, in nowadays America, the rich are very rich and millions of Americans are losing everything that they have. Further, people are becoming poorer because of the actions took by the bankers on Wall Street. They have been making wild and irresponsible investments in financial markets and funding the factories to move overseas, leaving thousands of people out of work.Income disparity in America is quite large but it has been large for quite some time. In fact, I’m quite surprised seeing so many people gathering in Wall Street. To realize how severe the condition in America is, I watched a movie called “Capitalism: A Love Story” last Friday. In the film, it seems that something has changed in America and it is neither income inequity nor petty class envy or jealously, it is about survival. Millions of Americans are losing their livelihoods, the homes, and their futures.

Occupy Wall Street movement causes a series of discussion on capitalism, income disparity, and uses of derivatives around world. Last Saturday, there is also an activity called "Occupy Taipei" held by several people at Taipei 101. According to some of video clips from the reporters, I saw people marching and singing “International Song” in Taipei 101, giving speeches about unpaid overtime, long working hours, 99% of people not having enough to get by, tax rates, living standards, the Taiwanese pension being too low, etc. on the stage. As a solidarity protest alongside occupying Wall Street in the US, Occupy Taipei sought to be a peacefully protest in Taiwan.

Although some people criticized the occupying movement around world has no concrete demand toward the government, I think it is quite good that people start to realize that they have the power and the system of capitalism should be reconsider. Occupy Wall Street movement is not only American’s business, as a citizen of a capitalism country, we should concern it. What is happening in America is also likely to happen in Taiwan. I hope every hard-working worker in the world, no matter which class he belongs to, can enjoy the wages he deserve to earn.

Whatsername

　　醫師所說一句一句應驗的感覺令人驚懼。

　　再怎麼思索仍找不到任何關於她的影子，又害怕《花與愛麗絲》那樣的故事真實上演。就算不確定現在擁有的記憶哪些是真實而哪些是被建構，都選擇不再多問，認真活在當下。

　　想不起來，就不要想。

我要的不多

　　要的不多，又或許其實是奢求、或許永遠都不會得到：一個能夠讓自己一直肆無忌憚的，場域或者群體，或者人。一直以為只能是自己，但偏偏我偏愛我偏愛的勝過我自己；後來以為可以是什麼，但時間都告訴我不是。　　

　　不願意在社群網站上發佈自己認為是「討拍」的訊息，除了不願讓自己的負面情緒汙染他人頁面，也想武裝或型塑一些什麼。所以，你知道我跟你說了這些意味著什麼。那一句回應讓我呆了兩秒後眼淚不停地掉，果然世界上沒有一個誰能讓自己肆無忌憚。
　
　　要的不多。我自己為我很獨立，只不過偶爾需要撤退而已。
　　
　　但無路可退。
　　　　　　　　　
　　你們說的都對，但都不是你們面對。
　　
　　
　　
　　
　　
　　
　　
　　

A Reply to ＜For Foreign Makers, China's Low-Cost Image Fades＞

The article is about the economic condition which Chinese labors and capitalists in China are facing now. Recently, lots of capitalists reconsider the issue whether China is an appropriate country for large investments or not. In the earlier decades, the flow of Chinese workers from the countryside pushed factory labor costs down. However, workers in China are demanding higher wages and better jobs now. Take manufacturing wages for example, it have begun rising dramatically since last year. In 2009, the worker’s average wages a year is about 27,000 yuan ($4,200). Some of specialists predicted that it is likely to double by 2015 from current levels. Rapidly rising wages in China have reached the point at which foreign manufacturers need to give up on the notion of the country as a low-cost production base.

Despite of the surging manufacturing wages, China still offers other draws, such as strong economic growth, an increasingly affluent population and a great demand of goods. Although setting up the factories in China seems like an inevitable trend, the reasons of the dramatic increasing rate of wages should also be figured out.

After reading this article and some relating resources, I have a brief view on nowadays working condition in China. The dramatic increase in wages sounds like a good news to the workers. However, in a growing country with large population like China, Brazil, India, etc., any huge changes among economic or politic should be avoid. It seems like China has a pain due to sharp economic growth, I guess it’s time for China to fix these problems by currency manipulation. As a main controller of a country’s finance, every step central bank takes are important. When making any decision, the decision-maker should listen to comments and suggestions from every aspect and make the best choice which can maximizes everyone’s profit. When making a change, I think the most important thing is gradually. Making a huge change suddenly is very dangerous. I hope the PBOC can “gradually” guide monetary conditions back to more normal levels in the next stage of policy oversight. It is also a good way to practice economic revolution and manipulate market.

Another possible solution I thought is to encourage large enterprise setting their factories in the medium cities in China. Not only labor wages, everything is extremely expensive in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc. Big cities are getting more and more expensive, but there is still a vast major of population in China living a very low cost life. What we should do is to enhance region development, not cost down the cost of human resources. I don’t agree with the author’s saying "the low cost image fades". As the economy grows, the workers are worth to have higher wages. Manufacturing in China is about value, not low cost. There were many places offer lower costs, but they were not considered good manufacturing bases. China has its own strong points and it still makes sense for a lot of enterprises to keep putting resources in China with growing wages, as wages is not the biggest part of the cost structure. When the coastal region gets more expensive, it also means that there is a growing customer base for the big companies.

Making economic condition in China more stable is not only China Government’s business. Although lots of analysts warned that there is no winning with China when doing International marketing, lots of investors still keep putting capital into China. Because China is such an important export country and manufacturing base, every step its government takes means a lot. For example, the tighter policy the government took in 2010 winter made exports more expensive thus hurting China's GDP. Its economy shrunk because availability of goods for export reduce, which means Chinese trade surplus were lower and other country’s trade deficit also reduced. China plays an important role in the worldwide economy.