Chapter 2 Dodson

This is what I gathered from the second chapter of Dodson's novel, Chinese middle-class citizens are stressed. They have four sources for their stress: escalating costs of owning a home, education costs, competition for jobs, and a relatively expensive and overstretched health-care system. How the government handles the middle class, which is growing and by 2025 will be 76 percent of the population, will show its ability to sustain the communist party and its stability with Asian economics. I don't know why they have any more right to stress than Americans do honestly. While reading this chapter, I just thought we are facing the same problems and issues as they are. Why do they have more right to freak out over it? The fact that people were murdering children and causing protests and uprises over these stresses makes me feel incredulous. We have a very tough job competition here in America. We aren't guaranteed a job. We aren't guaranteed a career let a alone in our field of study. It's a tough market no matter what your degree and it's all about how you set yourself apart from others. We have to worry about keeping our jobs and not getting pushed out. We have to worry about health costs and insurance. We have to worry about affording our homes especially when a lot of people are losing jobs. I don't think they have any more of a right to be anxious than we do. We are facing the same situations pretty much. I think the fact is that China's middle class is newer than ours that they don't know how to handle it as well. I think they just need time to adjust and come to terms that not everyone can make it or stay on top for forever.