without anyone yelling at me about why China is and isn’t communist.
i would like what they are having
Deng Xiaoping: ‘It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.’
Just so we are all clear, USA is calling this a problem and demanding China fix this. USA is upset that the Chinese have a better life than Americans and are demanding China create a debt trap society like USA. That’s what all the national security and tariffs are about. The Chinese are saving too much and living too well.
Next time you read an article where Bessent is saying China needs to be a more consumer economy, this is what he’s talking about.
Also, more importantly, when USA runs around talking about the BRI as a debt trap, they’re just jealous that China is able to improve communities in other nations without saddling them with debt like the IMF. Since this makes those countries borrow less from the IMF this is unacceptable. Thus China is both saving too much and borrowing too much.
They should be taking in predatory imf loans in exchange for handing over control of their industries to MBA finance bros from the West! China is just too good of an example of the sort of quality of life and prosperity the third world can expect when not being colonized by imperialists. I’m keeping my eyes on Burkina Faso. I won’t be surprised when we see similar charts with them compared to the US in a decade or two. Maybe less!
Good news then. That’s exactly what China is doing. And doing it completely in the yuan as well.
Here’s an article about China and Pakistan doing literally that.
This is kinda useless study, the American way of life is dependent on debt (especially student loans and mortgages) while it’s the opposite of China
While there are issues of healthcare and social security nets obviously, a lot of the people in the bottom 50% in America are living a perfectly fine modern life and a lot of people in the bottom 50% of China are living in rural villages
I disagree because American dependency on debt is precisely what makes Americans so vulnerable during economic crises.
Makes it even worse if people living in rural villages in China have a higher net worth than the Americans “living a perfectly fine modern life”
My point is that net worth doesn’t actually mean much as a data point. The average homeless person has a higher net worth than the average Ivy League, medical school, and law school graduate
It’s an average net worth, my guy
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You don’t understand how awesome Chinese rural villages are now. City slickers are running for rural villages and the low cost of living with the advent of work from home jobs.
Rural villages in China aren’t the ghettos and redneck worlds of USA where poverty is devastating. China makes sure those people live well inspite of their poverty.
Edit here’s a YouTube video of someone living the rural life and still able to buy 4k cameras because of how cheap tech is in China.
Edit 2. I would also like to ask people why China making sure that rural areas are livable is evidence of being worse off than USA? Do you not realize your brain washing?
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I grew up in a rural village in America. What is your point? People in China have electricity, plumbing, internet, and transportation just like I did, rural or urban.
perfectly fine modern life
How would you define this?
So can you explain how this data is useless or supposedly meant to be disregarded when the point that the bottom 50 percent is better off than the bottom 50 percent of Americans?
Most Americans in comparison have to pay exorbitant prices for basic amenities that are offered for nearly free in even other parts of the West. Beyond just healthcare (which is pretty huge to dismiss) you seemingly are also dismissing the fact that there are massive homelessness issues in every major American city and that is a near non-existant issue in China despite double the poopulation.
Also, they’re not. Rural Florida isn’t okay. Rural Alabama isn’t okay. Kentucky. Louisiana especially. Like they are not okay when you look at the truly bottom 50 percent of people in America compared to the efforts carried out in rural parts of China to modernize and progress the nation. The efforts in America to do so are laughable for a nation with a much larger GDP and “wealth”.
Those rural villages have the same amenities as rural places in America. At least rural villages aren’t having frontyard black-water floods in trailer-park sprawls with literacy rates on the level of exploited nations in Africa. China doesn’t have that and they objectively don’t have the same issues with literacy or education or healthcare. You seemingly are dismissing so much.
Most Americans in comparison have to pay exorbitant prices for basic amenities that are offered for nearly free in even other parts of the West. Beyond just healthcare (which is pretty huge to dismiss) you seemingly are also dismissing the fact that there are massive homelessness issues in every major American city and that is a near non-existant issue in China despite double the poopulation.
I know and these are much better represented by other data points. The data set that OP posted is pretty meaningless by itself
Comparing net worth by itself is like comparing income and then claiming America is better to live in than Western Europe because Americans make more money, or that somebody making 60k USD in USA is living a better life than somebody making 40k USD in ChinA
I see your point, agreed.
I think the point was less so to prove that the terms mean anything but to reverse it on neoliberals who constantly cite GDP and spending power as hallmarks of Western superiority. This forces them to acknowledge that it isn’t a “gotcha” anymore (never was ofc) and that they can’t just dismiss any argument about China for that reason. This mostly applies to the whole “new world order” types of neolibs that gripe about how China trades.
a lot of the people in the bottom 50% in America are living a perfectly fine modern life and a lot of people in the bottom 50% of China are living in rural villages
“a lot”
i honestly probably agree with your point about debt, but the term “a lot” doesn’t really state anything in this sentence
