Funny, everyone perceives China to be some socialist giant. I just spent a week there and it's more capitalist and consumer centric than anything I've ever seen. Certainly more than Singapore, USA, UK. All the brands x all the shopping. It's not a tourist spot, it's a shopping experience.
Yep. My Chinese colleagues hobbies were shopping and shopping.
I'm here right now and can confirm, shopping is great here. Also, the McDonald's grilled chicken sandwich needs to come to America.
Sounds like a job for looBlock Origin or a PeeHole.
When will people learn that any advertising that occurs during extortion like this is the focal point of hate and fear?
This is like anti-advertising.
They count on you recognising the brand name and eventually forgetting why.
farts
"Mmm, I should buy some Nikes"
In store:
Clerk: "Well, then... I'd guide you to ShinyBrand. They tick all the marks for what you're looking for and...
Customer: aren't those the guys that made me watch a 7 minute unskippable ad, when I was in town on a public toilet suffering a spontaneous and explosive diarrhea, while waiting for a new piece of toilet paper to wipe my sore ass from all that shit?!
There's been countless studies on this. That's not how our brains work. After the short term, or a scant few outstanding ones that stay with you, the only thing left long term is the brand recognition. That steers your choices when you buy things.
Put simply, people don't have the mental capacity to keep a full list of every company that advertised to them in a shitty way in the front of their minds constantly, beside everything else required for daily life.
So late stage communism is the same as late stage capitalism. Toilet paper for me but not for thee.
It’s just capitalism.
Very socialism much Marx wow
You've always paid for TP in China. At least now there's a way to get it for free. I see this as an improvement.
Yeah i came to say this. There's no toilet paper in most of China. Some fancier shops may have it but most don't. Even McDonald's in China doesn't have toilet paper most of the time.
On one hand, the government can absolutely afford to piss money away on stolen toilet rolls or whatever. On the other hand, this locking-down only happened because some people couldn't be trusted and did the stealing in the first place. If everyone had respect for public amenities this likely wouldn't have happened
It's the old people. They still remember famine and live like they're going to go without any day now. Honestly how randomly china manages stuff the old people are probably right.
Please wipe verification ass to continue
"Combining the worst of Socialism and Capitalism"
If only we had something shitty and easily spreadable at hand that could be applied to the screen on order to inconvenience the operator of the extortion device.
This is an improvement. A lot just don't have any paper at all because they are afraid people will steal it and bring it home
But China is still communist!
Coming to you from the country where HOAs are funded by ad monitors installed in almost every elevator in commercial/residential high-rises, and public restrooms (even in the hospital!) never stock toilet paper because "people will steal it" (not joking)? Color me surprised...
Don't forget no hand soap in the hospitals.
Don't remind me that... I was taking a stool sample at a Chinese hospital just 2-3 months ago (allegedly the best hospital in China, btw); my Americanized brain was not able to handle... what I had to do to
It's been a while since I've been to China. But even in the 2000s it was not uncommon to have to pay for toilet paper at a vending machine. Not at all public facilities but the more local you went, the fewer tourists would be there, the more this happens. So getting roll for watching an ad is an improvement.
And as the article points out, they cannot have nice things, i.e. free sandpaper toilet roll, because people will just steal it. I feel like this becomes exponentially less dystopian when you frame it as you can either have no paper at all or watch the ad/pay for it.
And there is another cultural difference. The Chinese are more like the Romans when it comes to these bodily functions. Much more willing to take care of it communally or at a hole in the ground surrounded by a thigh high "modesty" barrier. So asking an attendant for extra roll is something that the majority of Chinese would have less of a problem with, I think.
i.e. free sandpaper toilet roll, because people will just steal it.
So they call it socialism but have no working social safety net?
Not necessarily true. You're guaranteed work and a minimum wage and if you're disabled government will take care of you. Also basic healthcare is basically free. Things like electricity and telecom are subsidized too. But no, it's definitely not a socialist utopia. It's oppressive and censored and restrictive. Hyper consumerism is the norm.
You have inadvertently hit the nail on the head. They just call it socialism. There are several shades of poverty, for different reasons. One shade is due to the fact that a lot of services, like welfare, education, and medical, are only available to you in your hometown, probably the one you were born in. But if you have migrated from bf nowhere Gansu province to a big city where the jobs are, you rid yourself of that safety net. It's hard/costly to change this hometown registration so most don't and become quasi undocumented workers in their own country. And they are the ones who work insane hours in shitty and dangerous work conditions and it's then who will look for anything to save a yuan.
Wouldn't people use tissues and cause pipe blockage in the long run?
Western propaganda
I've been to China many times, and this is arguably the least offensive TP situation.
You've always had to pay for TP in China. Free toilet paper in public restrooms is exceedingly rare. Same with hand soap. So honestly this is an improvement. The west got this one right I'm afraid.
How? I mean, is there a paper-machine in every stall or do you buy a roll before you go? It sounds so absurd, but definitely something to know before visiting China, which still is on my bucket-list
Get a new bucket list. Unless that bucket it the poo-paper bucket next to poo hole in the ground.
As to how either have money or bring your own TP.
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