Mr. Yu’s daughter had died in a cascade of concrete and bricks, one
of at least 240 students at a high school here who lost their lives in
the May 12 earthquake.
Mr. Yu became a leader of grieving parents demanding to know if the
school, like so many others, had crumbled because of poor construction.The
contract had been thrust in Mr. Yu’s face during a long police
interrogation the day before. In exchange for his silence and for
affirming that the ruling Communist Party “mobilized society to help
us,” he would get a cash payment and a pension.…Officials have come knocking on parents’ doors day and night. They
are so intent on getting parents to comply that in one case, a mayor
offered to pay the airfare of a mother who left the province so she
could return to sign the contract, the mother said.The payment
amounts vary by school but are roughly the same. Parents in Hanwang, a
river town at the foot of mist-shrouded mountains, said they were being
offered the equivalent of $8,800 in cash and a per-parent pension of
nearly $5,600.
Here is the full story.
milton friedman must be smiling in his grave now. what would coase say?
Sounds a bit like the payoffs that the families of victims of 9/11 got. Get cash in exchange for signing a ‘do not sue’ contract.
Hey, I’m optimistic. At least their government is promoting the concept of contract. Ours seems to do everything to undermine it, when they acknowledge it at all.
China has come a long way since the days of Mao. Glad grieving, dissenting parents aren’t getting shot or imprisoned!
It probably would have been a lot cheaper to built safer buildings in the first place than compensate these families, and that’s ignoring the enormous waste of life.
I didn’t think of the children… On one hand, China has a large population, so life is cheap, but on the other hand, Erik is onto something. I was just curious how the money is converted to US$? Does that number take into account cost of living and PPP? Here, 5000$ would be enough to cover the funeral. Thats a lot lower than what the 911 victims (family’s) received.
I wonder what effect this will have on that region, since it seems like a large number of the current generation of children were killed or injured, and for many families under the one child policy they may not be able to have another kid.
I recall hearing that the government of China was planning on making an exception for those who lost an only-child in the earthquake. I don’t know whether this actually happened or will happen but there was some kind of announcement to this effect earlier.
Erik,
The Chinese government is making an exception to it’s child policy for earthquake victims. How generous of them.
Dave,
Just reading the summary, this clearly is not a free market, but more like a coerced settlement foisted on parents. The contract portion is more of a paperwork formality. As others pointed out, this is an improvement from just being imprisoned or shot.
I’m with Dave in spirit, but the simple truth is that judges/juries put prices on humans every day.
I’m less incensed about this than I was with 9/11 payments.
Government pays hush money to citizens in response to collapse…but enough about the banks.
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