This TED talk really bothers me because it focuses as much on the wrong aspects of the Chinese workforce as the concept it rails against is of workers not being able to buy what they make rather than their working conditions and human rights.
I agree with Leslie T. Change that whether a worker can buy what they make is irrelevant. Many manufacture what they have no interest in owning. To that I say “who cares”?
What bothers me is her assumption that what the masses are conditioned to believe is the only reality that matters.
Have you ever seen a major movie – or a TV show – or a mainstream magazine or newspaper – that did not portray a rural life on a farm in a negative light?
I see the parallels with what happened in the
U.S. and is repeating now in China.
They are used to condition people to believe that a country life is terrible and we should all crave city life and a job working for someone else. While you may not get rich living self-sufficiently in the country, you can have a more balanced, less stressful life than the movies, TV, and printed media imply.
She is claiming we collectively have not caused Chinese workers to move to cities. With that I agree. The media and educational systems do that – not the consumers who buy what they make.
You can see this in the quote: “I can only marry and ordinary worker.” as though there is something wrong with that. Girls are conditioned to want out of rural China just as Americans before them were conditioned to move to the big city.
Watch this video and let us know what YOU think: