According to a 2008 World Bank report, the GDP per capita purchasing power of the United Kingdom is more than 35,000 U.S. dollars and China’s more than 5900 U.S. dollars, making the United Kingdom about 6 times greater than China. If the disparity between standards of living were calculated with this figure in mind, one could infer that the British are likely to eat out six times for every one meal their Chinese counterpart had or buy six articles of clothing for every one a Chinese would buy. But it seems just the opposite, my British colleagues don’t often go out to eat, buying books is expensive and when it comes to buying a house, of our department colleagues under the age of forty seven, only two are home owners.

UK salary
I might as well be candid (the pound against the RMB is about 11:1); my annual salary is around £ 40,000, divided equally into £ 3,400 a month; deducted is 6% for my pension, 20% for tax (mid-range tax), and 8% for National Insurance (those who say Europe has "free" medical care; please note this figure), property taxes totals more than £ 140 (in the UK one must pay property taxes to buy/rent a house), finally I end up with about £ 2,400 a month. Note, in the city of Cambridge a decent flat is about £ 1,000, and sending preschoolers to day-care is about £ 800 per month.

Breaking down costs; food, services, housing, shopping
Now, I’ll compare the British Tesco supermarket with the Beijing Hualian Supermarket. A dozen eggs at Hualian cost 17 yuan or so; at Tesco £3; beef: Hualian, 20 yuan per half kilo; UK £6; pork: Hualian 13 yuan per half kilo; Tesco £3 pounds; bell peppers: Hualian 1.68 yuan; Tesco £2; chicken: Hualian 7 yuan per half kilo, Tesco 4 pounds; carrots: Hualian 1.5 per half kilo, Tesco 0.4 pounds. From this data we can see that groceries at Tesco are 2-8 times more costly than at Hualian. Once, I asked a doctoral student in our department what he usually likes to cook, he smiled and said "That depends on what Tesco has on sale every day.”

Service costs have an even greater disparity. In Wudaokou a hair cut is around 38 RMB, the same in a UK barber shop is around £30. In Beijing, a subway ticket is 2 RMB. In London it’s £4 (without an Oyster card). Also, in a decent Beijing restaurant, 200 RMB get’s you about 4-5 dishes, in a Chinese restaurant in Cambridge expect to pay £18 for a bowl of fish filets and rice. From this sample we can infer that services in the United Kingdom are about 6 times more than in China.

Compare housing prices in London to Beijing. Although London is not 6 times as high, a survey conducted in 2007 showed that London house prices are 12 times the per capita income; in a good area it could even be 16 times the per capita income! It’s clear young people in London have no easier a time buying a house than Beijingers do. Once, while browsing a UK forum discussion on spending, the consensus was that after daily necessities, there wasn’t much left over for extras. A family of three posted that they spent £100 on average per month on clothes, which most people found extravagant. As for China's middle class, many have grown used to the extra services in their lives; women often go to beauty salons, get facials and massages; while here it’s very uncommon.

At some of the big shopping malls in Beijing, the prices were comparable: clothing and household goods have become about the same as in the UK. But I found that on Taobao, similar quality articles are much cheaper. In United Kingdom, though there is EBay, the selection isn’t as plentiful, while the price is not much cheaper than in a store.

Chinese middle class have it good, but at what cost?
So, at least in my experience, China's middle class seems to have more luxuries than in the UK. Of course, needless to say, this is a result of cheap Chinese labor, a variety of expense accounts/ gray income and the population’s age structure leading to a labor surplus. From these factors, we can sense the Chinese middle class’s comfortable life may not be a good thing, because it’s hidden behind a variety of social injustices. We must ask ourselves, what is behind all the grey income? What are the environmental costs for such quick development? What are we going to do about the aging problem?

In fact, developed countries’ word "developed" does not mean that the standard of living allows a greater degree of luxury, but means a civilized society with justice and a "common prosperity." I have mixed feelings now that several generations of Chinese middle-class standard of living are greater than their parents. We are accustomed to thinking of development linearly, that the standard of living will keep infinitely improving, but with efforts to increase revenue regulations, increased costs of environmental protections, many of the middle-class in China may gradually go "back" to UK levels.

Source: Zhiyin Wenzhai Magazine. Author: Liu Yu刘瑜
 

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Keywords: China class war british vs chinese middle class chinese middle class