We're familiar with anecdotal tales of China's nouveau riche and their extravagant spending habits to feed their taste for luxury goods. That made it a bit surprising to learn that China's rich spent 15% less last year, the third straight year of decline in sales of luxury goods in that country.
Apparently in recent years fully one third of China's rich folks have either left or have decided to leave.
Besides spending less at home, more rich Chinese are leaving the country. The number of wealthy Chinese who have emigrated or are planning to do so rose to 64 percent from 60 percent in the previous year, the survey said. (Two out of three?)
Most of those leaving, or planning to, are looking for permanent residency overseas - the United States, Europe and Canada are top picks. Very few want to give up their nationality, perhaps because their outlook for China is improving.
"Very few want to give up their nationality, perhaps because their outlook for China is improving."
ReplyDeleteWhich is effectively betting that the number of other rich people leaving the country will remain small enough for capital flight to not be a problem.
Which reminds me of the attitude of many rich people toward taxes. As in "The fact that I'm (illegally) evading taxes has nothing to do with the fact that the government is running out of money."
It's ironic, (in the dictionary sense, not the common usage,) that Ayn Rand's philosophy is one of the greatest forces for economic destruction that there is.
I wish that wasn't so, Mark. I wish.
ReplyDeleteThey are hedging their bets. They want to be able to make their money in China, but they want to ensure their government doesn't take it away. They also don't want to live in a polluted atmosphere or raise their children in it. where to go? somewhere it isn't so bad. The countries they go to have good medical services and pensions.
ReplyDeleteWhat they rich from China are doing is taking the best from both countries but returning nothing.