I find this a very curious statement ... : " And Chinese consumers have never been in the habit of charging on credit cards as much as people in the US, they in general are more sensible and buy with the hard cash they got." ... and the I ask myself : " Has the average Chinese the opportunity to purchase a credit card, do they have the financial credit required to guarantee that he/she is able to repay ? I find the comparison rather unfair knowing how much the Chinese people wants to purchase all the luxuries AMERICANS enjoy. I saw this program where the government wanted to create revenues for the province so they established a kind of improvised street market selling all kinds of appliances at a much lower price,to boost expending, many peasants came to expend all the fortune they had to get what they wanted ... so much for the word ' sensible ' shopping ...with cash or credit !
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Free speechCould China actually be the savior in the recession?
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Economists have been saying that China's strong growth would be the engine to help bring nations out of this global recession. I don't see that at all. The global market has encouraged western companies to move their jobs to China, all the cars, clothes, toys, basically almost every household item one can think of are Chinese made, China can't help foster any job growth in the west. On top of that, a lot of the raw materials such as steel could be produced in China. In the newspaper the other day, it says China could be ahead of the US in solar panel production. The way the global market structure has been developed to the point which most western companies have moved their production outside of their countries, so even if demands in China increased, the companies would gain profits but their countries can't add jobs, because all the manufacturing jobs have gone already. And Chinese consumers have never been in the habit of charging on credit cards as much as people in the US, they in general are more sensible and buy with the hard cash they got. The growth in China might result in western companies gain profits, so it would benefit the CEOs, the people in the upper middle class level, while the middle and lower class prospect remain unchange.
In reply to Galileo's Universe:
Credit cards is something new to mainland Chinese. Most of the Chinese in CHina live in rural or villages and they never own a credit card. Only in the developing cities where people are picking up this modern habit. Still most Chinese who have credit cards don't accumulate credit card debts as much as Americans. They tend to want to pay off the credit card debt sooner. As far as our perception of Chinese wanting to purchase "all the luxuries Americans enjoy"-well, for many of the families this is the first time in their lives when they would have a machine clothes washer, and many of them have never had clothes drier to dry clothes. The kind of everyday appliances in American households for many mainland Chinese have never used. Microwaves, ovens, are not in most Chinese households(we are talking about the whole of China, not only in cities). For average Chinese working class everyday life is still quite frugal. They might buy brand name clothes, shoes, but the factories in China are producing these clothes and some defective clothes that were meant for export are available on street markets or shops in China, sold without labels, and for fraction of the prices. The point is, many of the products, appliances, are manufactured in China, some are foreign brands, some are domestic brands, even if they increase their demands of foreign brands, that would not benefit jobs in the west, because everything is domestically produced in China, even foreign brands
REF>www.optionshiftcontrol.com/.../
" The credit card has changed the shape of shopping in today’s world. The funny thing is how you lose some of the services you took for granted when you destroy your American Express card like I did. I found I couldn’t join my local gym, order clothes over the internet or even reserve a plane ticket to New York, online, the basic stuff of life. It seemed like only a few years ago that cash was the preferred way to get stuff, but those days are long gone now.
It’s now normal almost everywhere in the world to use your Mastercard, Visa or American Express to pay for goods or services you may not even need with money they do not have. Your American Express card may be convenient but there is a heavy penalty for buying now and paying later. Unfortunately, credit card debts are mounting in many places around the world. Today, credit card debt is one of the biggest worries facing us in America.
That is one of the main reasons why I had to cancel my American Express credit card in the first place. Once I had the power to buy things without parting with my money immediately, I was almost unstoppable. Everything went onto my card and it didn’t take long before debt went out of control. I was dealing with a debt that I could not possibly pay, and I was in a state of panic.
Repaying my debt wasn’t easy and it took the help of a debt refinancing service to put me back on track. It was like being in a living nightmare. Today, I am American Express credit card and debt free. Many people would think me unfair about blaming a credit card but they need to understand something about people first.
I was more conscious of the cost of things when I paid for goods in cash. As I said before, credit cards make the cost of things misleading because you don’t take any notice. I would just keep spending, not realizing until all the money was gone. Now, there is no longer a problem because there’s no longer an American Express credit card. "
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