Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by contingencies 454 days ago
I've lived in China and seen the results of "CCP says you have to employ X people". The result is a bunch of people sitting around doing nothing, earning low incomes, and feeling despondent: the so-called "iron rice bowl". The system will be gamed by the managers, the people will merely be pawns.
2 comments

That's a valid concern, but not an inevitability. I think if they don't want to pay the tax, they could move their business to a tax loophole state like Wyoming. But they shouldn't be allowed to siphon money out of a city without paying into the city. If doing business in CA gives them access to 30+ million potential customers, they can give CA a cut.
The alternative is unemployed people sitting around, earning no income, feeling more despondent... and bored. AKA how to get radicalized and doing worse than nothing in todays info enviroment. Did you live in China pre 90s, i.e. when actual "iron rice bowl" positions existed, they were above median income state job with good benefits (relative to income at time), but was about 1/6th of 600m workforce. Closer to all the random gov jobs being created on tax payer dime.