Shandong vs. Sichuan: Who Has It Worse!? If You Compare This Purchasing Power, China Flattens Germany on the Ground!! Qiqi Baba TALK "Refreshing 774" 20260920

This episode compares the purchasing power of meager monthly salaries and ultra-long working hours of township sanitation workers in China with the twenty-five-euro hourly wage of German cleaners and their purchasing power in supermarkets. It explores the huge gap between China and Germany in terms of labor value, labor costs, and social security welfare, and analyzes the living conditions of ordinary laborers at the bottom of society in China.

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Hello everyone, welcome to 788, I am Qiqi.

How much is your monthly salary? Six hundred. And how many hours do you work a day?

Four to fifty thousand yuan.

Is that like having Saturdays and Sundays off?

Foreign countries have no holidays.

Sanitation workers in the towns and counties of Heze, Shandong, earn a salary of about twenty yuan per day. Today we are at the township market to see just how strong the purchasing power of a sanitation worker's daily wage really is. It is now 8:30 in the morning, and we are right in the middle of the market. Today the main things we want to buy are meat, eggs, milk, vegetables, and fruit. We don't have a shopping cart today, so we'll just take a bag, in case we can't carry it. How do you sell these?

Ten yuan.

Can I get five yuan worth of meat? Sure, please cut me five yuan worth. All right.

Seven yuan.

Uh, alright, don't say all right! Okay, this pork cost seven yuan.

I'm fading into a dark room.

A catty of eggs cost five yuan, and we still have an eight-yuan budget left, and we still need to buy milk, vegetables, and fruit. Let's see if we can buy them.

Don't give me a break.

Um, no.

This girl is cool.

I just bought a box of milk at the snack shop, which cost two yuan, and now we have six yuan left.

Oh, I just bought three apples, three yuan.

And now you're gone.

This is what a sanitation worker's daily wage can buy: seven eggs, three apples, two eggplants, one catty of pork, and a box of pure milk. The purchasing power is so strong, absolutely amazing!

Hello everyone, this is Chen Qing. Ah, when I set out from Xiaojinxian this morning, I am now waiting for my meal, I brought my own lunch. Then before setting out this morning, I asked another sanitation worker, she gets 1,970 yuan per month, from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm, with a one-hour lunch break at noon, working all year round without a single day off. That auntie, she said her chest felt a bit uncomfortable and she wanted to take a day off, and today is the weekend, but she couldn't take leave, and I also wrote a letter box, just finished writing the letter box. It shouldn't be working all year round without a break.

This.

The comments on the video are very interesting; everyone is being quite sarcastic, saying, "Wow, for 600 a month, you can buy such a long duration of labor. Who would dare say that the purchasing power of our Celestial Empire isn't absolutely amazing?" Honestly, if you aren't using money to buy supplies, but are truly buying human value or labor, then China is indeed crushing it. Because if you were to buy human labor abroad, it would basically be like this.

Today.

Today, I will let you win big! I'm playing an uphill battle today. You always say I only dare to buy things like steak, salmon, or iPhones, which have no meaning. Do you dare to buy something expensive? Buying labor is good. Today we are going to buy a person, and specifically, the most cost-effective cleaner in the country. How much does it cost to hire them for an hour? A little background: the building we live in has two floors and four households. Besides the basic cleaning provided by the property management, the four of us households jointly fund the hiring of a cleaner who comes once a week for about an hour to clean the basic public areas.

When the day.

Alright, they are here now, let's go take a look at how they do and what the specific situation is, right?

Be brighter than the moon, and the night is right then.

These public areas all need to be cleaned.

Hogan.

We get.

Oh, yes.

Who is more miserable than whom? If we are comparing purchasing power, China rubs Germany into the ground! Qi Qi Ba Ba TALK "Refreshing 774" 20260920

Uh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Haha, alles, fast alles. Yeah.

I just chatted with her, and she said she previously worked at Vodafone in Germany, which is equivalent to China Unicom. She used to do this as a side job. She has been married for many years and has children, and her husband works, so she only does this as a side income. It's like this: in Germany, if a married couple has one person working and the other staying home to take care of the children, they can still enjoy free health insurance and various other benefits. Furthermore, you can bring tax exemptions to your husband, and your children also bring tax exemptions. In reality, even if you don't work, you can bring a high income to the family, and this income is pure cash, with no need to pay any taxes or insurance. So 25 euros is a fair price.

And.

She told me that she doesn't do this full-time; she has her own life and just does it as a part-time job occasionally. Since she rents the place, she just does a few jobs a month, basically earning between 1,000 and 2,000 euros a month. So, on average, it's about 1,500 euros in foreign income, because her husband's income alone can completely cover the expenses for a family of four. Look at this public area, including the carpet; she vacuums it, then sweeps it with foam, and mops it again. This includes the stairwell, because our building is a very small one, like the kind of foreign-style house in China, and she even cleaned all the window glass. You can see that the floor is spotless.

Qi Qi Ba Ba.

Actually, our property management provides basic cleaning every week, but my neighbors are quite particular about their quality of life. They teamed up with us to discuss having the four of us households chip in to hire someone to clean once a week, which keeps things much cleaner. So, how much does it cost to hire him for one visit? Twenty-five euros in cash. We even made a chart where we record who pays each week. You leave the money there, and he puts a checkmark on it once he receives it. For example, if I paid for this week, he marks it off. We have other neighbors doing the same, one household per week. But there is one very different point: the cleaner also has annual leave. Look at what he wrote; I’ve been saying he has taken leave many times. Just this summer, he didn't come for at least three weeks; he took at least two breaks, each about a week and a half long. This situation, where he frequently goes on vacation, shows his quality of life. It’s not like the ordinary cleaners in some countries; even as a cleaner, he can regularly go abroad for vacations. Working as a cleaner is just an extra, temporary income, but there is indeed more respect for human costs and human labor. Even for this kind of simple work, you get twenty-five euros an hour. Actually, twenty-five is already the minimum standard; the industry average is at least that much, and it has actually gone up now. Because I know him well, he hasn't raised the price on me, but now it's at least thirty euros an hour. Whether you are Black, Chinese, or Turkish, you have to pay this price here. If you try to go cheaper, no one will work for you. They won't say, 'Oh, you're paying thirty, I'll do it for ten.' That doesn't exist, brother. I'd rather not work than steal that job. And employers won't hire people at below-market rates either. That is an extremely improper market practice. Also, when I lived in an apartment in Germany, I hired someone for a move-out cleaning for a twenty-plus square meter apartment, which cost between 150 and 200 euros. Think about it, they clean for an afternoon, about four hours, so the hourly wage might reach a staggering fifty euros. However, I still think that being a cleaner in Germany, their quality of life is definitely average, because in many places in our country, cleaners can receive free assistance and eat free boxed meals, and many elderly people over sixty don't need to pay pension insurance anymore. It is more of a social welfare position, whereas in Germany, it is mostly young and middle-aged people doing it. They haven't opened up these positions to the general elderly population for universal benefit; many elderly people in Germany can only supplement their household income by collecting bottles. So, all in all, being a cleaner in Germany is not as good as you might think.

So, if you are buying someone's labor, then China's purchasing power in this regard, you are right, it absolutely crushes it! Germany isn't even fit to carry China's shoes. But, if you are this hired cleaner, let's look at it from another angle: when you receive this hourly wage in Germany, let's see what you can buy at the supermarket.

Last time I let you get away with a lucky win. I used twenty-five euros, which is two hundred RMB, and in Germany, I only bought one hour of a cleaner's work for me. The same price in China could hire two cleaners to work for me for a day. So, today we continue the challenge; I want to win one back. I will use the cleaner's one-hour wage of twenty-five euros to see what I can buy at the Aldi supermarket in Germany.

How many supplies? Alright, let's go now. Look, parking is free for ninety minutes. Okay, let's.

We'll go straight in and browse. Let's grab a cart first, or he won't be able to hold everything later. Our goal today is still to refer to the living standards of this family of four, buying enough for their needs for three days, mainly meat, eggs, milk, fruit, vegetables, rice, flour, and oil, okay?

Right.

Let's start with a box of meat, and it must be beef.

It can be bright.

Okay. This is organic beef patties.

Two.

That's me.

3.79 euros, 200 grams, husbandry level 3.

Monies, dear ladies.

Let's take a look at the salmon. It's a fixed pack, this row is 300 grams, 4.2 euros. Let's grab one, it's all fish fillets, not a single bone, completely edible. Wow, what's this? Marinated pork chops for grilling, 2.5 kg, 15.76, a bit too much, easy to go over budget, let's not buy it for now. Let's get another steak, also 14-day aged, this is from the rump, grade A, this is 5.31 euros. Haven't you noticed? My videos are getting clearer and clearer because I recently found a treasure on Ai Huishou. Ai Huishou Yanxuan has launched a '100-item second-hand low-price zone,' where every model has a large platform subsidy, at least 100 yuan cheaper than the market price. Take this 99% new grade A iPhone 16 Pro in my hand, the same model on other platforms is over 5,800, but Ai Huishou Yanxuan is only 5,439, which is over 400 cheaper. If you want to buy a second-hand phone, compare prices on Ai Huishou Yanxuan first, you can't go wrong. Moreover, Ai Huishou Yanxuan's second-hand phones have self-operated sources, each device has a detailed inspection report, the quality is clear at a glance, and it supports 7-day no-reason returns and a one-year warranty. Not only is it cheap, but there is also after-sales protection. Come and join the spokesperson Wu Lei to grab benefits in the 100-item zone! We've finished buying the meat, now let's buy vegetables. Because you need lettuce for burgers, this is Romaine lettuce, 0.99 euros. Let's get this salad mix, specifically for putting in burgers, it's very fresh and already washed. This is 1.19 euros, EU standard Chinese cabbage, 1.49 euros, from.

Germany.

77 Talking TALK 'Refreshing 774' 20260920

No, they are Eastern Europeans, they don't eat Chinese cabbage.

Right.

For fruit, we'll just take a box of raspberries, just a simple snack. 2.29, take a box. Let's get some dessert for after the meal.

No, he said.

Tiramisu, made in Italy.

He's right.

500 grams for only 2.99 euros, come on.

Very nice.

We haven't bought oil yet, let's get a bottle, this is rapeseed oil, 1.69 euros per liter, come on, non-GMO.

You know.

For staples, let's get some bread, okay? Hey, baguette 0.29, let's get one here, such a long baguette.

Brighter than the moon.

Look how long this is? 0.29.

Dragons to the moon.

Croissant 0.19, take one, okay, we can also get another apple pie, 0.29.

Now it's also paired with this.

Okay, the staples are enough, uh, 0.19 plus 0.

How can you eat bread without milk? Old tradition! One liter of milk 0.85 euros, farming grade 3, free-range cows, low-fat milk. Finally, we don't have much budget left, so let's get a pack of cheese slices to finish, that is, cheese blocks, cheese slices, can be paired with bread, or put on burgers.

1.2.

9, okay, we have finished buying everything, let's go to checkout.

Auntie Liu.

Your dad. German cleaning hourly wage. In Germany.

The purchasing power at the Chinese supermarket Aldi is as follows: one bag of salad mix, one box of cheese slices, one box of raspberries, one liter of rapeseed oil, 300 grams of salmon fillets, 250 grams of steak, one liter of milk, Italian tiramisu, 500 grams, two packs of organic pure beef mince, one baguette, one butter croissant, one apple pie, total consumption is 24.68 euros, including 7% tax, which is 1.61 euros, the purchasing power is amazing. However, since this 25 euros per hour did not cover the living needs of a family of four for three days, this purchasing power challenge is declared a failure.

At the very beginning, you saw the living resources that a Chinese cleaner can afford with a day's income, and then this is the living resources that a German cleaner can afford with one hour's income. Why didn't we use one hour for the Chinese cleaner? Because one hour only earns a few yuan, which really cannot demonstrate any purchasing power. Amazing! Then we see a sanitation worker with a monthly income of 2,000 yuan. Relatively speaking, their working hours have actually increased. After deducting the one-hour lunch break, their actual daily working time is still as high as 14 or even 15 hours. Let's do a little math. First, we know that both the sanitation worker with a monthly salary of 600 yuan and the one with 2,000 yuan have no holidays, meaning there are no so-called official rest days in the 365 days of the year. If you ask for leave, it means you might lose that day's income. Let's calculate based on 30 days a month, and we will use their minimum working hours for the calculation. That is to say, the one with a monthly salary of 2,000 yuan works 14 hours a day, so for 30 days a month, their monthly working time is 420 hours. Thus, we can conclude that the hourly wage of a sanitation worker with a monthly income of 2,000 yuan is as high as 4.7 yuan. Okay, next let's look at the old man with a monthly salary of 600 yuan. We calculate his daily working time as 4 hours, so his monthly working time is 120 hours, and his hourly wage is as high as 5 yuan—well, far ahead. This is the value of labor in China, the gap compared to developed countries. Therefore, in a place under dictatorship, I am telling you, because of its autocracy, except for those with power, everyone else is truly not considered a human being in their eyes. Can you understand, friends? It means they really don't treat you as an equal object to be respected. In their hearts, they just think you are an existence like a tool, without any qualification to get along with them as equals or to obtain the same rights as them. Alright, that is all for this episode. If you want to support me, please join the membership channel. I also especially hope to chat with everyone in real-time during the member-only live streams. That's it for this episode, see you next time.