Fair and Balanced? Views on Wealth Distribution in China

Fair and Balanced? Views on Wealth Distribution in China
Oct 01, 2009 By eChinacities.com

On September 22nd, Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported the results of a survey titled “World Citizens' Opinions on the Fairness of Wealth Distribution in Their Respective Countries.”  Yomiuri Shimbun carried out the survey in conjunction with the British BBC News. Starting June 8th, they conducted phone interviews in 17 countries including the China, Japan, France, and Germany, the USA and Russia.

Survey results showed that most citizens of the 17 countries felt that the wealth distribution in their respective countries was in fact unfair. French citizens topped the list for discontentment, 84% of French citizens surveyed felt the economic distribution in their country was unfair. Russia and Turkey shared second place with 77%. In Germany 76% of those polled felt that economic distribution wasn’t equitable. Seventy four percent of Filipinos and 72% of Japanese thought their wealth distributions unfair; in China the number was 49%.

In terms of citizens that responded, “wealth and welfare distributions are fair in this country,” Australia ranked at the top with 64% positive answers; Canada came next with 58%; India had 44% that had thought it fair, and another 27% thinking the wealth and welfare distributions unfair.

Aside from the countries with the noticeable differences in opinions, as duly explained above, there are also the following countries that stood middle ground in their ratings: US citizens that were split between the 41% that found it fair, and the 55% that thought wealth was unequally distributed; UK citizens voted 39% fair and 57% unfair. The percentage of Chinese citizens who answered unfair stood at 49%, while 44% considered the current distribution fair.

Source: gcpnews.com

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