Gilded Age the Saying "The

Gilded Age The saying "The grass is always greener" has been translated into numerous languages. This comes as no surprise, since humans from most cultures and societies are usually dissatisfied and think that someone else "on the other side of the fence" has it better. People keep on trying to get what others have and, when they finally succeed, are usually disappointed. They soon find out that the "greener grass" does not make them any happier or better off than they were to begin with.

The article "Gilded Age, Gilded Cage" tells how the present-day Chinese are the ones now going after everything everyone else has, and more. As the author Leslie Chang writes about the socioeconomic changes: It is "as if everything that happened in America over 50 years were collapsed into a single decade." The Chinese want to become the favored "middle-class." The question is whether these new consumers are willing to take the bad with the good when they find out this other life is not "as golden" as it appears to be.

Gilded Age, Gilded Cage," relates the story of teenager Zhou Jiaying (or "Bella," her Western name), who is one of the first generation of children to grow up in China since the government launched its reforms. Her life is indicative of any typical kid in an affluent area in the U.S., Europe or Japan: Rather than running around outside after school like children used to do, she is either at an activity such as piano lessons, being tutored or putting in long hours of homework.

Bella -- whose parents put most other social climbers to shame with their larger house and car and aspirations for their daughter to be a successful attorney -- even was given swimming lessons so she would grow taller (because, aren't all famous lawyers tall?). Bella is not alone, by any means.

According to a survey conducted by the Chinese Youth and Children Research Center (CYCRC), growing numbers of children in large cities across China "are experiencing joyless childhoods." The CYCRC surveyed 2,500 primary and secondary school pupils and found that on average, China's children spend 8.6 hours a day at school, or more hours than their parents stay at work. Chinese students are being placed under ever-mounting parental pressure to study hard due to the country's highly competitive market for university places and jobs. As is indicative in the U.S.

and, especially Japan, this has led to an increase in stress, psychological problems, substance abuse and even suicides when students fail to pass their entrance exam for a respected school. The Chinese are quickly learning that everything is a tradeoff. They may be getting better jobs, bigger houses and their first cars. However, such "gifts" normally come hand-in-hand with such downsides as depression, stress and anxiety, physical illness and overall discontent. Last year a study in the U.S.

found that Americans are making a lot more money than in the 1950s, but they are not any happier. In addition, the amount of medication keeps on soaring higher. For the first time, more than half of all insured Americans are taking pharmaceuticals for chronic health problems. In fact, younger adults showed the steepest increase in chronic medication use and nearly a third of the nation's children, under the age of 19 are on long-term prescription drugs (Jackson, 2008). The situation is not any better across the world.

A recent Telegraph article explains that in Britain, 5.4 million adults, about 10% of the population, suffer from phobias, panic attacks, generalized anxiety, somatic hysteria, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Their income may be going up, but so are their blood pressure and anxiety levels. In the article "Gilded Age," there is a wonderful description of Bella's spider plant. With its freedom,.