We've been talking about this for a while here on stackers but it has finally breached the MSM (if you can call SBS that) http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/watch/id/601007/n/China-s-Ghost-Cities our economy is propped up by this, so if it stops, big doodoo Discuss....more
It was an interesting doco for sure, nothing that we didn't already know here but still fascinating to see the sheer scale of it.
A very interesting video, but I wonder if China's "socialism with Chinese characteristics" will allow for a full-blown property bubble and recession. If there are 64 million empty apartments that were built Because The Government Said So and nobody is buying them because they're too expensive, there wouldn't actually be a problem finding 100 million people to live in them - all the government would need to do is nationalise the developers and/or compulsorily acquire the properties and then set up a program to offer cheap mortgages to get people moving in. At the moment they're just booting people out of their old homes, bulldozing them and whacking up apartment blocks, so its not like they can't just do the same thing in reverse. The "growing social inequality" issue can easily be solved: What do we want? Affordable housing! When do we want it? NOW! Okay, here, have an apartment. Anyone else want one? Obviously continuing to build more and more cities isn't particularly smart, but if a command economy can create big problems it can also create big solutions.
Socialism - with a politburo on the side - works like a charm for the people of Tibet. 64 million empty houses, with an aging population and a 1 child policy, a disproportionate ratio of males to females through selective breeding, arbitrary persecution, political cronyism, no religious freedom, an environmental mess of a country, zero tolerance for opposition to official policy . . . that central planning works wonders. Clearly Australians need more government interference in our lives via our own central planning politburo of Dr. Bob and Nurse Julia. More power to the state. Individuals have no competence to make personal decisions. They should just leave it all to the state and everything will work out fine. Bureaucracy is beautiful. A utopia of big government bringing peace to the planet. Affordability is an individually relative concept and not something defined by central planning, pencil pushing bureaucrats. Likewise for anything else of value . . . including freedom . . . and money.
I was in the first city featured in the doco, Zheng Zhou, a year ago. I talked to a young professional whom could not afford the property prices. I also talked to a "sociologist" government worker on a bus whom claimed to striving within government to make housing there affordable for the general population. The level of construction going on is amazing. Cranes work up to midnight with powerful lighting present on some high rise structures. The film reflected my experience of whats happening. cheers, LoB.
Heh, I wouldn't go that far, but problems in a command-socialist economy are affected by different factors than you'd find in a capitalist free market economy. Obviously both types of economy can have problems, but I wouldn't bank on a housing crash in China playing out the same way the housing crash in the US did.
what is socialism??? Why is the government building so many houses??? I read an article a while back that says they are building it for politcal reasons, what is it and why?? Thanks
The video actually explains it pretty well: the national government of China wants to maintain growth, so they tell all the local governments to do whatever it takes to grow. The easiest way of doing that is to build stuff, so that's what the local governments do.
When I was over there last year it was surreal how much was being built. Everywhere in just about every street. Roads pulled up, pipes and conduits being buried, hole drilling machines all over.
Something interesting mentioned in this docco .... buyers for the estates have a requirement for 50% deposit. The last building (approx 12mins in), $300k purchase, w/$150k down as deposit.
