M Shaped Society
�M-shape society� is an observation put
forward by the Japanese business strategist and writer
Kenichi Ohmae
(1943-). According to his observation, Ohmae argued that the structure
of Japanese society has emerged into a 'M-shape' distribution.
Theory of M Shaped Society
In a well-developed modern society, the
distribution of classes is in a 'normal distribution' pattern, and the
middle class forms the bulk of the society.
However, in the emergence of the 'M-shape society', the middle
class in the society gradually disappeared. A very few people in this
middle class may climb up the ladder and squeeze into the upper class,
while the others in the middle class gradually sank to the lower
classes.
These people experienced a deterioration in living standard. They may
face threat of unemployment, or their average salary are dropping.
Gradually, they can only live a way the lower classes live: e.g. take
buses instead of driving their own car, cut their budget for meals
instead of dining at better restaurants, spend less in consumer goods...
There may be still remarkable progress in economic development, the GNP
may still rise, there may still be economic growth, and the national
average salary may still rise. However, the wealth increase in this
growth may concentrate in the pockets of the very few rich people in the
society. The masses indeed cannot benefit from the growth, and their
living standard is on the decline.
What was worse, the upward social ladder seems to have disappeared -
opportunities and fair competition become fewer and fewer. People in the
lower class can no longer climb up the ladder: they cannot earn a
high-paid job or have stable employment, even if they have a high level
of education. The places in the upper class were reserved by the upper
class for their descendants.
Influence of M Shaped Society
This notion became a hotly-discussed
topic in Japan. And as Ohmae's book was translated into Chinese version,
it also became a hotly-discussed topic in Taiwan, and later in Hong
Kong.
In Hong Kong, there are scholars, intellectuals and social-scientists
arguing whether the conditions of Hong Kong fits the notion Ohmae put
forward: e.g. diminishing social mobility and upward social ladder, the
general income-decline and threat of unemployment of the middle-classes,
the change of competition rules for social advancement (such as pursuit
for better schools) in which status advancement is no longer based on
merits or achievements, but on other certain criteria such as family
wealth or background. The lives of the lower classes seem more miserable
than the past even when there is still economic progress and rise in the
GDP. It has become a concern for the government as the income gap
between the lower classes and the upper classes has been widening in
recent years.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-shape_Society
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