> That's simply false. China under-reports by a vast amount, so does India. I can't comment on China but I highly suggest living for a month in an average Indi

> That's simply false. China under-reports by a vast amount, so does India. I can't comment on China but I highly suggest living for a month in an average Indian household if you have such delusions. (Yes, it's a delusion.) An easy way for an economist sitting at home to realize the same is look at PPP & currency valuations. The rupee is fairly weak but has a better PPP value, suggesting labour-based goods/services are cheaper/more common than capital-based ones. Hence why you have say more call centres (human-intensive) than high-tech Silicon Valley startups - an iPhone is "cheap" in the US, an hour of labour is "cheap" in India. Hence consumption of goods by Indians is very limited esp compared to the US.