In America, you pay for your own life insurance.  The amount of money you put in has a direct relation to the amount of money received by your loved ones if you die.  This privatized system doesn’t do much for the poor, who have no money for life insurance, but it leaves the government out of the equation.  Which is a situation that China might like to be in at the moment.

In December 2005, three girls were killed in an auto accident.  Two of the girls’ families received 200,000 yuan as compensation from the government.  The third family got 50,000.  This because the government compensates urban residents more because they make more money than rural residents.  So the Chinese government stuck with the accusation of valuing the lives of urban residents more than rural residents.

In reality, urban Chinese make roughly 10,000 yuan a year and rural Chinese make roughly 3,000 yuan a year.  That difference dictates the difference in compensation.  On top of that, living expenses are lower in the countryside.  So it makes sense that urban residents receive more, in general.  So the lawmakers made a law that generalized, and equalized, the money given to families of those who have passed away before their time—but with a difference between the urban and rural.  So an inequality is written into the law.  And, as a matter of course, that inequality is criticized.  This is especially bad timing because China is facing a growing rift between their urban and rural residents, with rural residents feeling left behind in China’s massive economic growth.