China's Rising Middle Class

An electric clothes dryer is seen as an outlandish almost outrageous luxury in China. But what happens to China's power consumption and carbon output when 200 million middle-class Chinese decide a dryer is a necessity?

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Driving through the forward-thrusting city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province, past a landscape of newish apartment towers. Almost every unit in the 15 or so stories is using its small balcony to suspend a line of drying clothes. I gather from speaking to university students that an electric clothes dryer is an outlandish almost outrageous luxury. Question: What happens to China's power consumption and carbon output when 200 million middle-class Chinese follow the gilded elite and decide that the dryer has become a convenience, even a necessity?