I want to retire like this guy

Today we sat down with a 72 year old retired teacher and chatted about his life. I already knew China had been changing a lot in the last fifty years, but he really brought home the positive impact many people have felt here recently. This guy is an extreme example, but the numbers he gave us were stunning.

The talk was an activity for my Special Topics class. We've been studying the aging problem facing the Chinese; the baby boom of the 50's and the one-child policy of the 80's have teamed up to do a real dropkick on their average age. That's an interesting problem in itself, but it basically boils down to there's going to be a ton of old people soon and no one knows what to do about it. We'd already covered that in class, so what I found most interesting was the incredible increase in quality of life this old timer has experienced in his life, particularly after retirement.

Born into a farming family, he managed to get to college, graduated in 1957, and got a job as a middle school teacher. His salary was apparently pretty good for that time, 62 yuan per month. I don't know much about currency value back then, but that number is pretty low by western standards. We didn't discuss what happened to him during the Cultural Revolution, which I regret, but figure that he probably didn't feel much heat. Despite being a teacher, being born into a peasant family would have helped a lot during the madness when they were attacking the non-peasant classes. Anyway, he told us his salary stayed at that same level, 62 yuan, all the way until 1982. That's a long time without a raise, by my standards anyway. He changed jobs a few times and I didn't understand them all, but I think they included middle school teacher and principal, high school something, a beaurocrat of some sort, and finally teacher at the university level. In the early 80's, his salary started increasing incrementally. In 1985 the place he lived with his wife and two sons was only 23 square meters (200 plus sq feet by my rough estimate).

That's when things started to get interesting. The main point of his talk was that at least some old people in China get taken care of very, very well. He said that such good care reflects the level of respect for the elderly in the culture here. I've also gathered that teaching is a pretty good profession to be in, so this old guy probably got some of the best treatment around during the last 25 years. I'm going to throw out the numbers we got. Just think about the ride this guy had after his 50th birthday. The ages are rough:

• 1985, age 50. House, 23 sq meters. Salary, around 100 yuan/month.
• .......lots of salary increases.......
• 1995, age 60. Retires with stipend equal to final working salary of 1300 yuan/month.
• 1996, age 61. Government gives him another apartment in addition to the first, this one 50 sq meters (total 73 sq m).
• 2000, age 65. Stipend is increased to 1600yuan/month.
• 2002, age 67. Gov't declares all teachers/former teachers should have at least 90 sq meters of living space. Figures he's got enough room already, so accepts cash compensation for the extra 17 sq meters: 70,000 yuan.
• 2006, age 71. Stipend increased to 2400yuan/month.

Wow. Now that's a serious increase in standard of living, much of it after retirement. I haven't even mentioned the free family vacations every year, free monthly home medical checkups, and free activity room equipped with exercise equipment, games, and reading material which is shared by the 16 retirees from his old work unit. Also don't forget, it's just him and his wife around the house these days - the sons have big places of their own.

China reserves this kind of treatment for government workers, which explains why so many people want to work for the government. Our old friend was up front with the fact that people living in the countryside get squat, and people living in the cities but not working for the government only recieve a basic living expenses stipend, about 250 yuan/month these days. But before you cry foul, remember that this guy was born a peasant. He could be the poster boy for equal education and upward class mobility in China...not that they'd call it that.

The system now is grossly unfair. But, at least there's some money here to create an imbalance. The Chinese people genuinely want to see the new wealth distributed. That is, at least on a collective level; the old teacher didn't say anything about sharing his salary with less fortunate retirees. Things will probably continue to get better for everyone as time goes on, and that's what individal people seem to really care about. With good reason, as far as I can see. Who argues with a big raise and seventy thousand bucks for quitting work?