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Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:36:05 +0800

last post by nanheyangrouchuan

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Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:35:22 +0800

This "grey" economy in China is called "ski town" economy in the US. Locals get huge discounts and float each other big favors in return. Let's say I am a waiter at a restaurant in a US ski town, an acquaintance who works at a ski shop walks in and orders food. I only ring this person up for a cheap appetizer despite the huge bill. I get a big tip in return (but the tip is still much smaller than the food bill), I grease the cooks a bit so they are on my wavelength. When I go looking for new ski gear, I also get a huge discount (in the 70% to 80% range) from the same person I hooked up a cheap meal with. Likewise, just being a local in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, etc (I mean local, not chinese) can get you "discounts" at big chain health clubs, western restaurants, etc. All you do is reward your service person for the "assistance". So there is no $4 trillion USD to add to China's GDP, that's just accounting propaganda (and everyone should know better than to trust anyone's books in China), foreign ventures are actually being bled considerably.

Shanghaiist: Today's Links: Pimping teachers, algae outbreaks and dead flies

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