Today's Class

Today in class we continued watching the video on YouTube, "The People's Republic of Capitalism". We are now on part 3 of the video.  This part of the video was mostly about the Chinese and their vast supply of cars all throughout the country.  Many people in China do not learn to drive until they are about 40 or 50 years old.  In America, many people learn to drive and operate cars in their teenage years, very different compared to the Chinese.  Chinese do not usually buy cars just for them unless they are in a very wealthy family.  We saw an example of this when two brothers, their wives, and their mom all bought a car together and are sharing it.  This is very odd to us Americans because we all usually buy our own cars and do not share it with four or five other people.  It is easier for the Chinese because then each person does not have to pay as much and can save their money for food and other necessities.  Also people in China pay for cars using cash.  Us Americans find that very odd because we just write out a check or use our credit card to buy a new car rarely people will bring cash to buy a new car.  Chinese life and how they do things is obviously very different from Americans.

Definitions

• Capitalism: an economic system that is based on a private ownership of the  means of production and the production of goods and or services for profit

• Communism: a revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless and stateless social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production

• Free Enterprise: an economic system in which private businesses operate in competition and largely free of state control

• Free Market: an economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses

More from the Video

Today in class we continued watching the video "The People's Republic of Capitalism".  The video was talking about all the transportation in China.  Many people say that China has the most dangerous roads for many reasons.  There are so many people in China that they need that many cars on the road.  Also, cars have not been in China for all that long.  Since there has been a little amount of time to learn about cars and how to operate them, most people on the road are just learning to drive no matter what age.  Since there are so many cars and barely any people that actually know how to fully drive them, there are over 400 accidents a day in China.  There is a lot of talk about car insurance in China since there are so many accidents.  Any really bad accidents have the owner and drivers of the cars exchange information to have each other's insurance to pay for the other.  For other accidents like "fender benders", the drivers just get out and the one at fault usually just gives the victim money to fix their car themselves.  If the one at fault does not own up to it and give money, many Chinese citizens get mad.  They are very strict and serious about their cars and car insurance.

More from The People's Republic of China

We continued watching the video "People's Republic of Capitalism" during class today. We practically talked about the same thing that we talked about yesterday, how countries rely on each other. I also learned that it is better that China keeps making the products that we use here even though people here lose their jobs to the Chinese. It's better if the Chinese keeps making them because we get them for cheaper. If we didn't buy our goods and products from China then everything would be a lot more expensive because it would be made here in the United States. It would be more expensive because the companies that are selling these good have to pay their works a lot more money than the bosses in China have to pay theirs. People in China will work for a fraction of what people here in the US get paid every hour. But then, this is also bad because a lot of people here in the United States lose their jobs and have to find a new one even if they are a little older and shouldn't really be looking for one.