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Bread, circuses and inequality – a dishonest bargain

How does consumerism undermine democracy?

Published:
chia.jpg
chia.jpg

Flickr/dcmaster

, CC BY-NC 2.0

China leads the way

the Chinese people surrender democratic citizenship for the promise of individual gain through private consumptionOver the decade of the 2000s I visited China several times. At some point on each trip a Chinese acquaintance would assure me, unsolicited on my part, that “the Chinese” were not interested in democratic rights. Rather, their priority was material improvement, greater incomes for greater private consumption.