Where Mao Meets the Middle Class

I found the first chapter interesting. When looking at the phrase, "crossing the river by feeling the stones" I felt that although it was a creative phrase, it was not the smartest idea. China needed to modernize and step up and join the world as a power, however, the risk never outweighed the reward. The people of China suffered to the point of death from famine even though the country has stroage place upon storage place full of food. The gap between government and the people is to the degree to where the people are dismissed like ants on the ground. They are good enough to work for hours upon hours and lose limbs to keep the economy going and expanding, but they are not good enough to feed and instead were forced to trade their own children for a neighbor's child in order to eat. It was hypocritical of the government to condone the sectioning of farm land amoungst the people at the time of thier underground meetings and then eventually praise them for subsidizing farming agriculture.

This chapter was an eye opener to the fact that China's economy was fueled not by the blood and sweat of the Chinese people trying to help their country, but rather by authoritarian leaders who pushed and pushed and saw the people as numbers of laborers instead of the people they were.