Work and Play

I saw an old picture of myself from Facebook. 

You know the ones. They pop up on your scroll and ask you if you want to share. Never-mind that you already shared some years ago and friends commented. It was obviously well received by them or FB wouldn’t suggest that you punish your friends and family again. I say it was an “old” photo but what is “old” really? A friend took the shot on a tour of the Shanghai bay while we rode around clicking everything in sight from freighters stacked with shipping containers to far away views of the city sky line. It wasn’t picturesque in the way that seeing the Rocky Mountains is picturesque. Nor was it quaint and lovely like a bed and breakfast in a New England town. It was smoggy and gross, even the weather seemed to have it out for us that day. The sun never appeared. Of course if it did we would have seen the oily barges floating by in glisteny detail. The sun always makes the smog covered city a little worse. It brightens up corners but mostly creates a soupy mess. 

Here is the strange thing, I don’t mind gritty industrial landscapes and soot covered equipment. Like most people I’d opt for a more relaxing trip filled with beaches and sunshine or fishing spots in sparse cabins. For vacations I always want beauty and presentation. We adore mountains and lakes because of the natural wonder in God’s creation. Nothing says ‘awesome God’ like Yellowstone National Park or the Grand Canyon. China has a lot of gorgeous lakes and mountains too. Why then would anyone see the beauty (if that’s the word) in grimy industrial landscapes and busy ports? Here’s a hint, it’s in the process.

I used to do this demonstration during my brief teaching adventure. I held up a picture of an aerial view of New York City during the day with the sun shining on the buildings and another black and white photo of an early twentieth century textile factory floor. My idea was the beautiful city represented a positive development, prosperous and inviting; the black and white photo represented a negative development, ugly and shameful. A lot of the factory workers from the photo were kids with no shoes working the looms, dirty faces and rough looks. I hoped to sort the capitalists from the progressives, to get a feel for their notions about human nature. I asked the kids in my classroom which image best represented capitalism. No one understood what I was getting at. 

If no one gets your examples you’re doing them wrong. Kids aren't thinking about economics or history, they just want lunch.

 American History is mostly taught by progressives with a negative view toward capitalism. They see young kids making pennies a day and working 12 hours. They rightly worry about working ages and conditions but ignore the benefits to society of the work itself. They don’t see the finished work, the architecture and design. We don’t get modern cities without the industrial revolution. We don’t get the conveniences without the grime and grit. There is a trend in building, hard work then play. We usually sort out working conditions and ages along the way. Work is dirty and difficult but concerned with providing for the next generation. Play is that next generation, living healthy and comfortable.

If you want poor countries to become rich countries it’s work and then play.

If it means jobs as opposed to government checks for subsisting most will take the dirty air for a while. This isn’t giving China a pass either. They are very much a Communist country with an awful record on the environment. But it has managed to set certain parts of the economy lose. In that way it felt a bit like a roaring free market to an outsider. Obviously foreigners disagree on a lot regarding China but most agree that from 2003 to 2010 the economy roared. At least it did until the most powerful modern president, Xi Jinping, started gobbling up titles like steamed buns. It wasn’t just him though.

 China wasn’t quite the investment it used to be after the housing crash in the U.S. around 2008. American corporations began complaining much louder about the intellectual property theft and the hostile environment for making money. You can always count on corporate entities to do the right thing when the profits get thin.

The comparisons to American industry in the late 19^th century and China’s just 20 years ago is overwrought. American freedom and laissez faire capitalism built the strongest economy in the world; China opened up just enough and put some of their statist thinking on the shelf. But the hope for China in recent years was that it would develop like the US had, cleaner energy, better working conditions, greater freedoms and better quality of life. This may have always been a sucker’s bet, a belief for the rube NGOs to cling to while the business made whatever money they could suck out of the place.

 Sadly it looks like China was never going to open up enough to change the politics of place. The transition for authoritarian rule to democratic norms worked for South Korea and Taiwan, why not China?

When I think back to that tour boat pic I remember how I imagined the country looked 20 years before and what it might look like if I came back again in 20 years. Ideally the shipping lanes would still be open, cranes loading freighters and tugs pushing them out to sea. The real test is in the countryside and the smaller cities though. How might folks be living there? Would they be able to invest money in a growing economy and criticize the government? How about church, would they be able to attend a Protestant church legally? Would there be a noticeable middle class? How about the work/play ratio, are the kids of the factory generation living a little better?

With the benefit of hindsight I doubt I considered those issues back then. I was probably like my students staring blankly at the two visions of capitalism, thinking intently about it and wondering “how much longer till lunch?”