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China ranks low just because it has a huge rural population. China does have more population than the entire Europe. Do you think it is fair to compare China and some small country like Spain?
China has nearly as many millionaires as Europe, or America.
The arguments that you have raised just show how ignorant you are about China
You are comparing China with a small country like Spain; what do you think you are doing by this thread? Your statement "China will become the number one PPP economy" is doing nothing but making a comparison of a large aggregate number, China, to a small aggregate number, Spain.
My entire point is removing this aggregate and comparing to the individual, a much better and accurate comparison for an individual's quality of life. You keep want to analyze base on aggregate numbers because those numbers are the only way China looks good economically.
The obtuse nature of your comments jsut show how you do not want to acknowledge any facts regarding China that puts in in a negative light, but your history on this forum shows this constantly. Now you want to separate China between urban and rural, are they not all residents of China? China ranks low because it has a large rural population, you do not think these people are part of China? This is like taking the billionaies in Moscow and now trying to make a claim all of Russia is like this, and we should exclude the "little people".
Sorry. But it is already happening THIS YEAR. It was difficult for some people to believe CHina overtook Japan a few years ago. Now, the size of CHina's economy is almost twice that of Japan, even in nominal GDP
It will never become a super power because it doesn't speak English and has a COMMUNIST government.
PPP is not a perfect measurement. But how about these facts: China is the largest auto market, China is the largest energy user, China is the largest exporter, China is the largest foreign reserve holder...
Nominal GDP is worse than PPP. In US, you spend 15 bucks for a haircut. In Europe, you spend 20 Euros. In China, it is only 4 bucks. The quality of the service is the same. and maybe even better in China. I pay 4 bucks not only getting a nice haircut but also a free neck massage.
i am not claiming China is at the same development level as US or EU. I just want to point out that the size of China's economy is overtaking US. What is bias about that? Even so, US is still 4 times rich than China due to the difference in population.
It really won't ever be any better or richer than America.
Yet many Chinese risk it all to leave China and get to the US and EU... If it was such a paradise, you want not have so much legal and illegal immigration out of China, peple setting up baby birthing places in the US so Chinese babies can be born here with US citizenship, Chinese investing in other countries to obtian residential rights, etc.
The building of the high speed rail is no different than the Soviets being the first to put a man into space, great and all, but hardly a reflection of the reality on the ground.
And again, you aggregate everything, for some reason not addressing the individual. The individual gdp ranks down near 100, not much purchasing power the average Chinese has, this is like Russia bragging about how many billionaires moscow has, hardly a reflection of realty for most people in Russia.
What about education? The US has the best education in the world. Chinese flock to US universities. The innovaiton coming out of the US is not matched anywhere. As for the PISA test, why just Shanghai? Why not all of China?
As for medicine, please, Chinese hosptals are for the most part, horrible and way behind the times. Sure, there are a few modern ones and bright spots, but for the most part, venture away form modern zones and you run into poorly trained doctors, holistic practices, old tech, poor maintained facilities, and an overall attitude of "why the f$%k are you here", along with having to bring your own supplies in many cases, as well as families having to bring supplies for you if you are hospitalized.
In which country will you most likely have a high standard of living if you live there - China or the U.S.?
I thought so.
Yeah, and also reflected by how many people from China move to the U.S. and other more developed countries for that better standard of living. China's economy will not only need to match the US in total size, but then quadruple to get that per capita number up in order to really even be close to having the standard of living we have.
They are the largest market for things like cars because of sheer volume of people- well over a billion people. However they have only about 10 cars per 100 people-- whereas in the US it's closer to 90 cars per 100 people. That speaks volumes for what the average person can afford, and the standard of living for those average people.
I need to remind you that China is the bigger buyer of luxury goods in the world. Paris and London depend on the Chinese shoppers for their stores. The most expensive real estate markets are filled with Chinese investors.
Infrastructure? Shanghai and Beijing have each built the largest metro system in the world within 20 years.
China has the longest high speed train network in the world. US is even turning to China for the high speed train technology.
Talk about education? Please check the world renowned PISA test. Shanghai ranks the top spot, while US is lagging behind. Do you even want to talk about the health care system in the US?
You are comparing one city or one part of a city to an entire country. If we take a place such as Boston or some other individual cities I am sure it will blow away Shanghai on testing. Again you have to factor in the entire country- including that 3/4ths of China's population in extreme poverty- I'll bet those test scores aren't so hot.
And again, the luxury goods thing is brought up all the time, and it is sheer volume- it doesn't mean everyone in China is doing great. It means they have a HUGE population, and so the small slice of that population who can actually afford luxury goods ends up being a big number since their total population is over a BILLION.
And it keeps getting mentioned that the rural population drags China down in wealth or living standards. Even the big cities are really not very nice compared to those in developed nations. My wife is from there, most of her family still lives there in one of the more modern cities- Guangzhou. Sure it is more modern than the countryside and has some parts that look nice, but overall you know right away you are in a developing nation when you go there- seeing how so much of the city looks, how many, many of the apartment buildings look- and the basic, low standard of living you see in many of those apartments- even those of the people with decent money. It is a nation that has a LONG ways to go before really having much of a developed nation standard of living.
China ranks low just because it has a huge rural population. China does have more population than the entire Europe. Do you think it is fair to compare China and some small country like Spain?
China has nearly as many millionaires as Europe, or America.
The arguments that you have raised just show how ignorant you are about China
Here's the issue: that huge rural population is still composed of people. Every country has some stratification in wealth. When you try to change the comparison by simply removing the bottom rungs of a country to compare it to the entire economic spectrum of another country, then you're setting up a pretty useless comparison.
China is making massive improvements and it has a pretty good chance of having the largest GDP by nominal value within a decade provided that the US continues with its sluggish growth and China with its faster growth rate. Though, of course, predictions of those assumptions holding for a decade can be off. The article you first posted actually warns of how misleading these stats could be.
Anyhow, it's sort of inevitable isn't it? I can see India having a larger economy by purchasing power parity compared to the US within two decades. If you have a population that large (such as with China) even having a relatively modest GDP per capita can make a huge difference in aggregate. It'd likely follow the trail of China which right now and over its two decades has been gaining from that demographic dividend--meanwhile, India's probably not going to hit the real start of that until a decade from now.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 04-30-2014 at 12:43 PM..
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