3 ms·

1970's America wasn't anywhere near as poverty struck as China. It's really difficult to care about the world around you when you can't even take care at home.

HPsquared 4y ago
The country has enough wealth. In 1975 the US GDP was about $7500/yr per capita (in 2021 dollars). Today the Chinese GDP per capita is around $10k/yr (more like 19k accounting for purchasing power parity).
- pipeline_peak 4y ago
  How's the quality of life for the average citizen, accessible modern medical treatment across the country? You can pull all the numbers you want, but you can't steer from the fact that it's an impoverished shithole.
- alephnerd 4y ago
  The 1975 US Household median income was ~$13,000 (approx $65,000-70,0000 in 2019 dollars) [0][1] Chinese household median income is around $4,700-4,800 in 2021, with massive disparities between First world comparable regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin, and rust belt regions like Wuhan [2]. Even the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has noted that 600 million Chinese earn less that $140/month [3]. This of course leads to the larger discussion about GDP per capita being a weak metric to use when analyzing regional development, but in general China is by most standards still a developing middle income country with a (relatively) small and overperforming hinterland. [0] https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1977/demo/p60-105.html https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1977/demo/p60-10... [1] https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1975?amount=1 https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1975?amount=1 [2] http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202201/t20220118_1826649.html http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202201/t2022011... [3] https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1189968.shtml https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1189968.shtml

HPsquared 4y ago

The country has enough wealth. In 1975 the US GDP was about $7500/yr per capita (in 2021 dollars). Today the Chinese GDP per capita is around $10k/yr (more like 19k accounting for purchasing power parity).

pipeline_peak 4y ago
How's the quality of life for the average citizen, accessible modern medical treatment across the country? You can pull all the numbers you want, but you can't steer from the fact that it's an impoverished shithole.
alephnerd 4y ago
The 1975 US Household median income was ~$13,000 (approx $65,000-70,0000 in 2019 dollars) [0][1] Chinese household median income is around $4,700-4,800 in 2021, with massive disparities between First world comparable regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin, and rust belt regions like Wuhan [2]. Even the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has noted that 600 million Chinese earn less that $140/month [3]. This of course leads to the larger discussion about GDP per capita being a weak metric to use when analyzing regional development, but in general China is by most standards still a developing middle income country with a (relatively) small and overperforming hinterland. [0] https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1977/demo/p60-105.html https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1977/demo/p60-10... [1] https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1975?amount=1 https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1975?amount=1 [2] http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202201/t20220118_1826649.html http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202201/t2022011... [3] https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1189968.shtml https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1189968.shtml