ch2 Dodson

The anxiety in China seems to find its root in the fact that it is extremely difficult to get into university and in order to get a "good job" and get into the middle class. Dodson starts this chapter off by describing an incident outside of his apartment when construction workers were tearing down peoples living spaces. Dodson writes, "It was during that clear, early morning I realized I had seen played out one of the greatest fears that China's nascent middle class harbors: a capricious, complete, and irrevocable loss of their newly acquired wealth and position, seemingly overnight. Their anxiety is increasing as growing numbers of the newly affluent take additional slices of a wealth-pie whose plate has a finite circumstance (27)". Seeing that the government has the control to tear down peoples homes on a whim and alter their lives completely, this has to be a main source of stress for the Chinese people. Chinese people can work so hard to attain just a small bit of wealth and have it taken away almost instantly. While many of the stresses that exist in China are similar to the stresses here in America, the one thing China has that we don't is a communist government. However, that is not to say that people here in America are not in fear of losing their homes overnight, it is just that the government here does not have such direct control over our individual lives. Dodson also points out that in 2009 in China the average mortgage was only 46 percent of the value of the property while in the U.S. homeowners were "leveraged as much as 75 percent of the value of their property". Another main point that Dodson brings up is the stress of getting into university, which I have previously mentioned. He describes a grueling three day exam that many students study up to sixteen hours a day for for up to a year preceding the exam. In America the admission process is undoubtably stressful, however, there is not, as far as I am aware, any three day exam to get into college. Dodson says that in China if they approached college admissions with things such as recommendations it could be too easily forged in China. Also, if students in China do not get into university, their chances of ever making it into the middle class are slim. While here in America it is becoming nearly impossible to have a "good job" with out a bachelors degree, or even a masters as well, there is still some opportunity to attend a vocational school, learn a trade and make a decent living. Even recent studies have show that trades such as plumbing and construction work are becoming very high paying jobs. Further, Dodson discusses health care and how many Chinese people have stress related ailments and no one is treated in China without paying upfront. In America, health care is a major issue but their is greater opportunity to be treated even if it means being in great debt later on. "As more individuals aspire to join chinas middle class and compete for a limited amount of property, university seats, jobs, resources such as food, energy, and water, the newly affluent will come under greater stress (43)". It appears to be within the way Chinas government, education, and social systems are set up that cause such great stress in China. This would appear to be very much the case in the United States. While it is undoubtably different in both countries, I would argue that citizens of both countries are stressed and struggling while there is a small upperclass that is thriving. Both countries struggle with education costs and admission and healthcare. I cannot say in confidence that in China they have more reason to stress because stress is a human emotion and is rather subjective. I believe that stress is relative to ones surroundings and standards of living that are normal to them.