Sweden is considered advanced and a model for other countries. Compare rates of suicide and depression in such Nanny States (ridiculously high) to China's (amongst the lowest). Speaks volumes. All smoke and mirrors these Utopia makers - beware what you ask for

Would be interesting to compare suicide rates (which often have inverse relationships to murder rates in cross-cultural comparison) today with those in the past in, say, Sweden, before Swedish social welfare was established as it is today - e.g., can we really blame high Swedish suicide rates on Swedish social welfare provisions, or might they represent some other factor? And then there's the question of the overall value of the trade-off, if that's what it is.
Anyway, Sweden isn't what you'd call a completely socialist state - lots of private enterprise - I think it might be better characterized as, basically, capitalist but with relatively decent social welfare. And social welfare is not the same as socialism.

Your going to have to pull out some facts to prove China's 'low' suiside rate. Japan, Korea and China are synonymous with suiside, to the extent that thay have suiside entwined in their cultures. I am aware Sweden has a high rate too, but I'll sit back while you struggle to justify China has a low rate, maybe not the highest, but I'd imagine much higher than average.

Go on then, get your thinking cap on.

...

Top 2 depressed countries US and France bottom Mexico and China. Included in this article Kessler says the higher rates of depression reported by people living in wealthier nations may be due to differences in societal expectations for a good life www.healthnews.com/[...]

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Thanks much for your feedback. I was looking for various social models that did NOT depend on government participation directly at the national level, but at the municipal and rural levels. The goal is to NOT use government money, raise taxes, or other government dependent sources of revenues.

In my limited understanding of Switzerland's business model - businesses pick up the brunt of retirement and healthcare costs.

Cuba was interesting, but everything is state controlled. Working with the government in China is imperative, but expecting or depending on the government to be competitively and economically innovative is unreasonable.

In the Swiss model - the Cantons or city-states are responsible for the welfare of its citizens. Switzerland is also somewhat agrarian, but has a very expansive service industry.

I believe Sweden's taxation rates would be unpalatable for Chinese, despite the benefits, although Swiss taxation rates are also quite high.

The theoretical solution would be a hybrid Public-Private Partnership (PPP), merging government responsibility for the health and welfare of its citizens (in this case employees), with the profit oriented practices of conventional commercial businesses.

That's the concept for lack of other existing alternatives, applicable to the domestic China market. In my limited if not miniscule experience and sampling size, I'd surmise major expat firms have been more focused on providing local-hire packages to foreign expats (with limited success) - that's a complicated supply and demand issue, with the cushy expat packages reserved for senior management and their ilk. So providing some premium alternatives, such as healthcare, savings plans, educational assistance, retirement plans, etc etc would be potentially attractive and inducive alternatives to long-term focused staff in lieu of expat salaries and related benefits and perquisites.

Hopefully - we won't have to deal with the suicide rate within the company, a la Foxconn, so the company will obviously need to address the motivation, mental & physical health, and extended well-being of both its employees and their direct family dependents.

@ Vicar

I was just looking at Wikipedia and China's suicide rate is much lower than I thought 94/170 countries.

While it's lower than I thought it's not particularly low. In 2011 it was amongst the highest in the world, so what ever has been done in the last few years has been a huge success to get it down to the 'fair to middling' levels of today.

If I'm reasoning that China could learn from the Swedish national health service, then it's only fair to say Sweden could learn from what ever China is doing to stem suicide levels.

the reason for 2011 increased rates shown here (increase in 65 year olds and over in rural areas) and down to socioeconomic conditions):link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00127-013-0789-5
You're right Napoleon yet finding that balance isn't easy. Hence YingYang philosophy to study ongoing

to quote michael: the Cantons or city-states are responsible for the welfare of its citizens. Switzerland is also somewhat agrarian, but has a very expansive service industry." yeah like free clean hard drugs and death on a stick

Switzerland is a very cash and gold rich country stored away making interest. A non EU state with cash and gold from....?