Without fanfare, China is making rural migrants’ lives easier
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Finance & economics | Free Exchange<br>Without fanfare, China is making rural migrants’ lives easier<br>The notorious hukou system is being relaxed. Marx would approve<br>Share
Illustration: Álvaro Bernis
May 28th 2026|5 min read
AN IMPERTINENT SOUL once asked Paul Samuelson to name a social-scientific principle that was true but not trivial. The Nobel laureate’s answer was comparative advantage, which explains why two countries can both benefit from trade even if one is better than the other at everything. That principle has sadly fallen out of fashion. So here is another one that is true, non-trivial and more germane to this age: China would face fewer trade wars with the rest of the world if its people were less thrifty.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “A passport to prosperity”
From the May 30th 2026 edition<br>Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents<br>⇒Explore the edition
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