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Essay On How Fortunate I Am

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How Fortunate I Am

I never realized how fortunate I was to grow up in northern California until I visited Beijing, the capital of China. I strongly remember walking through the crooked streets in the highly polluted city, barely able to see through the thick haze, while doing my utmost not to accidentally step on one of the unfortunate civilians sleeping on the ground. My eyes stung from the poisoned air, forcing me to strain to keep them open. My nose began to swell from the disgusting odors originating from all directions. The intense irritating sound of many conversations taking place simultaneously prevented me from being able to even simply think.
The ground itself felt bumpy and rigid, as if there were miniature mountains emerging …show more content…

I not only witnessed many depressed individuals without occupations sleeping on the streets, but I also learned how the system works in general. I discovered China’s economy is unique to the rest of the world's. Since the 1980’s, China’s government has been using a system known as the “socialist market economy”. The social market economy is essentially a mix between capitalism and communism. The system forces everyone who works under the government to be payed the same amount. For example, a top class hospital doctor and a mailman have identical salaries. The salary that the Chinese government supplies is also very little. Over the course of an entire year, a single individual who works under the government makes a horrifyingly tiny amount of exactly 1,832 dollars. The social market economy is obviously unjust due to how no matter the complexity of your skill set, as long as you work for the government, you get paid the same as everyone else. Moreover, this unfair pay does impact the country greatly as over 40 million civilians work under the Chinese government. Furthermore, I also felt the social atmosphere was quite uncomfortable. That uncomfortable feeling was mainly formed as a result of the tremendous amount of people who live in Beijing. The population of the China’s capital is well over twenty million people. To put that amount into perspective, the United States of America’s capital city Washington D.C.

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