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David Golombek\\
21F.030\\
Journal \#9\\\\
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Communism and Socialism were created in reaction to the poor treatment
of workers in the capitalistic economies of the mid-nineteenth
century.  Marx and Engels saw the English, French, and German
proletariat being oppressed by the leaders of the capitalist
economies, who made vast profits, but kept them for themselves rather
than distribute them among those contributing to the work.  Now,
almost 100 years later, China is beginning to shift away from
Communism and institute more of a free market economy.  Now, almost
100 years later, people are still surprised when a few people make a
lot of money suddenly, and the proletariat is again left in the dust.
Capitalism takes a long time to percolate into a society, and the
early adopters are going to do far better than those who are slow to
change.  China is seeing a nouveaux riche class develop, primarily
young businessmen who jumped to capitalism as soon as it was
officially endorsed, but for the vast majority of people, the status
quo remains unchanged.

Because capitalism endorses an ``every-man-for-himself'' market
system, it's not surprising that many people initially do very well,
and everybody else remain unchanged or are worse off.  In fact, it's
very counter-intuitive that in the end, people in general end up
better off.  In fact, it's only the example set by the United States
and Western Europe serving as evidence that convinces people that a
free market economy really is a good idea.  Experience has shown that
a market economy encourages very efficient production of goods, thus
lowering their prices, thus enabling consumers to purchase more.  And
it is in the producers favor to pay workers decently, because it is
these same workers that are buying the goods being produced with their
salaries.  

Currently in China, the market economy hasn't been in effect long
enough to allow these benefits to percolate through the economy.  The
only noticeable change is that a few people are becoming rich
suddenly.  When these changes do finally reach all the way through the
Chinese economy, then a greater cultural pluralism and democratization
can be expected, because economic power makes for political power.
However, until then, people's lives will remain much the same.

Zha concludes that not much has happened so far with regards to
democritization.  She remarks a lot about the capitalistic inroads and
how fast they are going, but also admits that her friends are among
the young, flexible, and intelligent --- exactly those likely to do
well under changing circumstances such as these.  Her friends were
already in powerful positions before the capitalistic movement began,
and used these connections to leverage new businesses.  For example,
her friends among the fifth generation of film producers switched from
government sponsored films to searching for foreign backing.  Her
friends with political connections used them to either black marketeer
or to get inside information.  Her friends among the journalists
changed from pure information to both news and popular media in order
to increase readership, and then used this increased readership to
garner advertisements (or used blackmail), increasing revenue streams.

One nice example of these changes was the attempt at an art exhibit at
the McDonalds in Beijing.  The McDonalds is an excellent example of
the new entrepreneurship going on in China, but when they and local
artists tried to hold an exhibition, to encourage the purchasing of
modern art (trying to liken it to fast food), they were shut down by
the police.  Although the official explanation was that the McDonalds
hadn't obtained a permit from the police, there were rumors and
speculations that this was due to the political nature of some of the
art.  Thus, we see that the only changes that are widespread thus far
are economic ones for the lucky few who jumped to capitalism early.
For everyone else, life remains mostly the same, and likely will for
the forseeable future, until the capitalist marketization penetrates
the economy fully.  Only then will real democritization stand a chance
in China, and a greater cultural pluralization may arise.

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