Monday, July 25, 2011

China's Ghost Cities -Sign of a Bubble Waiting to Burst

China's obsession with maintaining economic growth. 1 way of achieving that is infrastructure projects that are grossly underutilized (eg. costly housing which masses can't afford).

Key points from video clip:
- A property bubble that would make the one in the US pale by comparison- 64 million empty apartments in China.
- Is not the quantity of gdp that matters, is the quality.
- Budget housing as part of basic human rights.
- Polarisation continues & is a big worry- conflicts in soceity is inevitable if social division is too big (poor people revolting)



Watching the video i can't help but relate to situation in S'pore. Incumbent party is also obssessed with gdp growth at all cost- grow like cancer also good as long as can grow can already. Heavy influx of people into the country in bid to boost gdp- more consumers to consume stuff & speculators driving up prices.

Both Deng Xiaoping & Dr Mahathir(ex Msia PM) warned about social unrest if the gini coefficient is too big. S'pore's gini is already among the top 3 worse in the world. It still look peaceful on the surface but i wonder if this is just the peace before the storm.

Once the property bubble burst whether it be in China or S'pore, masses of people are going to be impoverish.

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