In the long term, GDP per capita matters but in the short term, you can run ahead of the piper and raw GDP growth is a much better proxy. In developing countrie

In the long term, GDP per capita matters but in the short term, you can run ahead of the piper and raw GDP growth is a much better proxy. In developing countries, children become productive fairly quickly and then it takes them quite a long time before you need to worry about the burden of supporting them again. It's a Ponzi scheme but one that multiple countries have pulled off successfully.