Why is there so much hype about the
Chinese economy? I’ll mention just one factor among many: people don’t
want to believe they’re living in a world where the rich get richer,
while the poor are trapped in poverty. The idea that China is suddenly
becoming more affluent than Japan appeals to a (false) sense of upward
mobility, on a massive scale.
The chart above (that I made myself) shows the I.M.F. projections for 2013–2017, GDP per capita at PPP. China isn’t catching up with Japan. In fact, China isn’t even catching up with poverty-stricken Chile.
Below is a map that I did not make myself: it comes from an interactive map within the website of The Economist,
In a sense, both graphics are inviting you to visualize the strange fact that China remains (despite all the hype) poorer than many of the places that we think of as poverty-stricken. Incongruously, China dominates the headlines as if it were wealthier than Japan, and nearly equal in power to Europe or the United States. It isn’t. Neither is Gabon.
[Note: I first made this chart in Sept. of 2013, but it has not appeared previously on this blog.]
The chart above (that I made myself) shows the I.M.F. projections for 2013–2017, GDP per capita at PPP. China isn’t catching up with Japan. In fact, China isn’t even catching up with poverty-stricken Chile.
Below is a map that I did not make myself: it comes from an interactive map within the website of The Economist,
In a sense, both graphics are inviting you to visualize the strange fact that China remains (despite all the hype) poorer than many of the places that we think of as poverty-stricken. Incongruously, China dominates the headlines as if it were wealthier than Japan, and nearly equal in power to Europe or the United States. It isn’t. Neither is Gabon.
