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I was pleasantly surprised by this article after being primed by the click-baity "listicle" title. One claim that stuck out to me: > [As several hundred milli

I was pleasantly surprised by this article after being primed by the click-baity "listicle" title. One claim that stuck out to me: > [As several hundred million people moved from the countryside into urban areas] ... Wages and living standards have risen to create the biggest rapid boost in prosperity the world has seen, ever. Can anyone comment on the accuracy of this? What other times in human history would be in the running for this "title"?

jpatokal 9y ago
The Great Divergence (aka the Industrial Revolution's impact on GDP) is the obvious candidate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Divergence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Divergence But the population of Europe at the time or even America is only a fraction of China's, and the speed of China's growth has been even more spectacular. It took Britain ~50 years to double GDP between 1840 and 1890: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biaroch_European_GDP_per_capita_1830-1890.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biaroch_European_GDP_per_... While China tripled their GDP/capita (both US$ and PPP) in a bit over 10: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/interpreter-images/2012/1/120127-thirlwell-1.png https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/interprete...
- dmurray 9y ago
  Doubling GDP in 50 years is not a lot. 1.4 percent annually compounded will do that. The US postwar boom might be a better comparison.
  - arethuza 9y ago
    Looking at those charts it looks like that previous doubling of UK GDP took ~350 years.
    - RugnirViking 9y ago
      Those charts are GDP per capita; the population also increased in this time
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Post-war Europe and Japan. One could argue that post-war china is basically on the same trajectory, just that it got started much later and so shot up much quicker once it did get started.
awkwarddaturtle 9y ago
> Can anyone comment on the accuracy of this? What other times in human history would be in the running for this "title"? The only comparable time is when US industrialized and we went from agrarian to urban/industrial in a matter of few decades and became the largest economy in the world by the late 1800s. But what china has done is US on steroids. In the past 40 years, china has created 100 cities with more than 1 million people. To put that into perspective, we have 10 cities with 1 million or more people in the US. They went mostly rural to half urban in 40 years. In the next 10 years, china is expected to create another 100 cities with more than 1 million people. Think about that. Here is a short world economic forum video about china's urbanization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0V3gxyU55Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0V3gxyU55Q As for the wealth, look at the GDP growth the past few decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_GDP_of_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_GDP_of_China They went from poverty and famine in the 50s/60s to the largest GDP in the world in PPP terms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP) And the 2nd largest economy in nominal terms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...

jpatokal 9y ago

The Great Divergence (aka the Industrial Revolution's impact on GDP) is the obvious candidate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Divergence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Divergence But the population of Europe at the time or even America is only a fraction of China's, and the speed of China's growth has been even more spectacular. It took Britain ~50 years to double GDP between 1840 and 1890: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biaroch_European_GDP_per_capita_1830-1890.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biaroch_European_GDP_per_... While China tripled their GDP/capita (both US$ and PPP) in a bit over 10: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/interpreter-images/2012/1/120127-thirlwell-1.png https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/interprete...

dmurray 9y ago
Doubling GDP in 50 years is not a lot. 1.4 percent annually compounded will do that. The US postwar boom might be a better comparison.
- arethuza 9y ago
  Looking at those charts it looks like that previous doubling of UK GDP took ~350 years.
  - RugnirViking 9y ago
    Those charts are GDP per capita; the population also increased in this time

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

Post-war Europe and Japan. One could argue that post-war china is basically on the same trajectory, just that it got started much later and so shot up much quicker once it did get started.

awkwarddaturtle 9y ago

> Can anyone comment on the accuracy of this? What other times in human history would be in the running for this "title"? The only comparable time is when US industrialized and we went from agrarian to urban/industrial in a matter of few decades and became the largest economy in the world by the late 1800s. But what china has done is US on steroids. In the past 40 years, china has created 100 cities with more than 1 million people. To put that into perspective, we have 10 cities with 1 million or more people in the US. They went mostly rural to half urban in 40 years. In the next 10 years, china is expected to create another 100 cities with more than 1 million people. Think about that. Here is a short world economic forum video about china's urbanization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0V3gxyU55Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0V3gxyU55Q As for the wealth, look at the GDP growth the past few decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_GDP_of_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_GDP_of_China They went from poverty and famine in the 50s/60s to the largest GDP in the world in PPP terms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP) And the 2nd largest economy in nominal terms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...