BEIJING – Are these modern China's best days?

ANDY WONG/The Associated Press

China is probably experiencing the greatest economic freedoms in its 5,000-year history, but they come with the stress of inflation and job insecurity.

The country's been at peace for 30 years. Throughout that period, economic growth has lifted 681 million Chinese out of absolute poverty. The average income is almost $2,000 a year. And when measured against other nations, the purchasing power of the average income is more like $4,500, by World Bank estimates.

Political freedoms, while much better than they were, are still far short of where the Chinese government itself sets the ideal. But economic freedoms – to work where you want, go to college, get a loan, buy a car or a house or anything else – are probably the greatest in China's 5,000-year history.

So are these the best days?

"I don't think so," said Lu Min, 26, a foreign affairs specialist with the provincial government in Nanjing. "There's too much stress now."

Mr. Lu got married last week. His wife, also 26, is a registered nurse.

Before they could get married, Mr. Lu felt it was his obligation to buy the couple a home. The experience of finding a condominium and a mortgage left him drained and anxious.

"When my parents got married, they got company housing," he said. "I had to borrow from the bank to afford the place we wanted. It's not fancy, but it cost more than a million yuan," or about $147,000.

Hu Yue, a 21-year-old English major at Beijing International Studies University, doesn't think of these as the best of times, either. Some of her girlfriends who are already working stay at the office until 9 p.m. And in Beijing, having a bachelor's degree may not be enough to get a good job.

"We have many choices, but the pressure is much higher than before," Ms. Hu said. "We have to compete with each other much harder than before. Our parents didn't think about that."

When China's economic miracle started, it brought with it some of capitalism's worst excesses: sweatshops, low wages, child labor and acute job insecurity.

The Chinese media regularly reports about these abuses in different parts of the country, but they are no longer the norm. And in many of China's busiest work areas, such as the Pearl River Delta around Hong Kong, workers no longer put up with it.

Employers careless of their workforce get rewarded with extraordinary turnover, and it is no longer easy to find replacements.

Wages and benefits are rising.

In a country where workers save on average 14 percent of their earnings, a consumption boom is about to take off. You can see it in city streets crowded with new automobiles. China will soon be the world's biggest car market.

Nearly all of the buyers use cash rather than car loans, which typically last only one year.

There's a reluctance to buy on credit. While Visa is making hay as the only credit card accepted at the Olympics, credit cards are so unusual that many Beijing waitresses think you are handing them a debit card and ask for your PIN number.

There are more boutiques than buyers in Shanghai, but that won't last. China's young adults have tastes in fashion and tech toys that look pretty familiar to Americans.

This comes at a price. China is no longer a communist, cradle-to-grave welfare state.

But given a choice, Mr. Lu and Ms. Hu said they would not trade places with their parents.