China IV

I'm finding it difficult to write about China, in that I feel whatever I have to say has already been said, by many other people many other times.
However, one thing that has struck me is the sheer economic disparity in this country. I am not sure if people have already likened it to the social disparity that occurred in England during the Industrial Revolution, but the differences between the haves and the have-nots are staggering.
I have learned that the real estate moguls here, building skyscraper after skyscraper, and industrial developments galore, pay their construction workers, who are mainly migrant workers from rural settings, the equivalent of $7 CDN daily. Let me tell you; China may be a cheap country to live in, but it's not that cheap. This is also in a country that has no workers' compensation, no medical benefits, no disability insurance and no retirement pensions. I have seen grandmothers begging on the streets, presumably because they have no family to care for them, and are too old to work. I have seen construction workers come into very close calls with potential work accidents. I have seen pretty young things walking by them, in their flashy clothes, and holding cell phones that are worth two months' salary to those migrant workers.
Now, I am no student of history, but obviously change came about in the UK at the time, noting how many, many people were being left behind, while a select few were fabulously wealthy. I do hope that such change will occur here; I am not saying that we are any better in caring for our poor, but here, the poor break their backs and work in hard, hard labour in order to buy food for the day.
I suppose the paradox in saying this is that we in the West must realize how much our consumption patterns reinforce this cycle. The reason why people get paid so shitty here is because labour is cheap; dirt cheap. Which, of course, is why the products that we buy at home made here are so cheap. The competition to reach the very bottom in who can pay the lowest wages in order to cut costs here is partly our fault, to be honest. I can't help but walk through these streets and realize how much of what we do at home is preventing many people from reaching their full potential. The very small value that this culture places on individual lives is our mea culpa as well...
On a completely related note, I have also been trying to look for gifts to bring people back at home. As some of you know, my usual dilemma when I travel abroad is to buy items that are authentically made in the country that I'm visiting. The dilemma being that most souvenir-type items are made in China, no matter where in the world you are. Now that I'm here, where -everything- is made, I am finding that there is nothing here that I cannot find everywhere else in the world. All the Chinoiserie and kitsch that is found in these streets can easily be bought in any store in Toronto, for almost the same price. I am starting to think of ways to support the local economy in a viable way, and not just spend money on stupid, pointless trash...