China's bloated army of 46m bureaucrats worries ruling elite

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/08/wchina08.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/03/08/ixportal.html

China now has 46 million government bureaucrats, new statistics revealed yesterday, a number almost as great as the entire population of England. While the country is used to outdoing the rest of the world for sheer numbers, the explosion in officialdom is alarming its ruling Communist Party.

Its excessive and corrupt bureaucracy was regarded as one of the principal causes of the decline of imperial rule. Yet there are now 35 times as many people on the government payroll, even as a proportion of the population, than at the time of the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911. Corruption aside, today's civil servants are also expensive, requiring official cars, holidays masquerading as training sessions and receptions.

Hu Jintao, the president, has his own reasons to take on local officials. He is trying to make his mark by distinguishing himself from his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, a number of whose supporters in the provinces were tarnished by corruption scandals in the 1990s. The move comes as some overseas economists and analysts are re-evaluating China's notorious corruption, suggesting that it may have played a positive role in the country's economic growth.

Officials who profit on business deals are more likely to encourage investment, according to the argument, with the practice of bribing customs officials to overlook import tariffs reducing the costs of trade by up to half.

[oblivious]

1. Yeah, but they're cheap. $1100 per year average.

That's only about US$51 billion a year? Did I calculate that right?

I got that $1100 number from an Al-jazeera article this morning about capping the salaries of top execs at the state-owned companies at 14 times the average salary of ordinary employees. I found that reasonable.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FAE877C3-BAEE-4F2C-938C-49C7101B5A7D.htm

China to cap salaries for state CEOs
The government is considering setting salary ceilings for management, concerned that incomes of executives in some companies have reached 10 to 30 times that of their lower-ranking colleagues, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

"The state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission is working out a plan to limit the maximum annual salary of the SOE (state-owned enterprise) top management," Xinhua quoted former Shanghai mayor Xu Kuangdi as saying at a panel discussion during China's annual session of parliament.

"The initial standard is likely to be set at no more than 14 times the average salary of ordinary employees," he said. Average per capita urban incomes are about $1100 a year.

[TomClash]

2. Yeah, at the artificial 8.28 Yuan to the Dollar

[pokercat999]

3. May 10, 2011, Washington Post story "US to set CEO cap".

"A a new law proposed and supported by the Democratic majority in the house and senate today would cap any salary of any employee of any corporation doing business within the US at 15 times the US minimum wage or the equivalent in the corporations home monetary unit in the case of foreign corporations". President Barbara Boxer, the first female US President said today she supports the bill, "it fits nicely with the US Medical Service created in 2009, giving all Americans free health care", said President Boxer. Asked how the US could enforce it's law on overseas corporations the President replied "if they want to do business in the US they will follow our rules, period, end of story". Ms. Boxer is known as "one feisty prez" as quoted by Sec of State Biden, who must "sell" the new US programs to our overseas trading partners. The new fair trade policies are having a huge effect on the US economy as manufacturing jobs have increased 10 fold in the last two years as all countries doing business in the US MUST comply with US wage laws, work place safety rules and environmental regulations. China's leadership complained again today that US policy was having a devastating effect on their economy, "we're working with China to help during this readjustment period" Sec Biden commented. In other related news the former Wal-Mart CEO, complained that the Democratic Majority's handling of the economy was what brought down the retailing giant and forced into chapter 11 bankruptcy last year. Many economist disagree and a recent letter by Fair Trade USA, a pro labor thinktank, stated that Wal-Marts decline was a direct result of the American worker becoming tired of the unfair treatment by the former "world's largest retailer" and finally flexing it's "collect muscle", The so called "worker's revolt" in 2009 cut Wal-Marts US sales by 75% in just 3 months and world-wide sales declined by a staggering 90% as Wal-Mart was given the boot by countries like Canada and France, the retailer never recovered.



I'm not much of a writer but I can dream nice dreams huh?

[ozone_man]

4. Vert nice dreams.

President Boxer is really quite feisty.

[Terran]

5. Yes, you are a good writer!

That was very well done, and a wonderful vision it is. May it come to pass!

[Socialistdem]

6. How many bureaucrats does the US have?

Just curious...federal + state + local (city/county)...

What is the total # of people working for government in America?

[David__77]

7. They need another cultural revolution to weed the garden.

Too many bureaucrats have forgotten that they're supposed to be serving the people, not themselves.

[Sinistrous]

8. Wow! Almost the same percentage as Pennsylvania

Population: 12,365,455

Public employees: 569,356 (4.6%)

(Source: U.S. Census bureau.)