Chinese Contaminated Milk Worries Fuel New Car Sales
In the wake of the milk worries, affluent Chinese parents of babies more and more turn to ‘milk mothers’ or ‘Nai Ma’ who breast feed their new-borns if the real mother doesn’t want or can. Baby formula? No, thank you. (Or “bu, xie, xie,” as they say.) They want the real thing for their one child only. In Beijing, a milk mother from the provinces can make between $300 and $1600 a month, with free room and board. A secretary in Beijing starts at around $300 a month, and must use the money to pay for food and shelter. A family that barely can feed their babies is unlikely to worry about a new ride. A Chinese milk mother can buy a new car for cash with three or five months earnings. While the International Breastfeeding Committee of WHO/Unicef recommends breastfeeding for six months, Chinese hospitals recommend a year or more. After a year’s of not really hard work, the milk mother can afford two or three cars. Meanwhile, back in the U.S. of A. , parents need parts to keep their cars running, at least twice a month, for a trip to Wal-Mart.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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"a year’s of not really hard work" get real man I just had my first kid and my wife is breast feeding - that's a god damned nightmare - every 1-2 hours, at the little bastards demand? C'mon, you have kids - you gotta remember what a nightmare it was (unless your wife didn't breast feed).
@psarhjinian : well said.
When my kid was born, my wife did the breast feeding, and it was hard work just to be around her! On a separate note, yeah China is criminally capitalistic, corrupt, greedy, and immoral, but so is Wall St. and DC. Don't knock a whole country because of a minority of people screws up royally; leave that job to the French, they do it better anyways.
China is fighting a Pyrrhic War, winning at all costs. Probably we'll see something else in next 6 mths.