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you most certainly want to watch this one about india since you brought it into the conversation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LveXy5VBGUc https://www.youtube

you most certainly want to watch this one about india since you brought it into the conversation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LveXy5VBGUc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LveXy5VBGUc india is not a poor country anymore

rayiner 9mo ago
India is a desperately poor country. It has a GDP per capita of under $2,700 annually. That’s poorer than the U.S. was in 1880! Singapore has a GDP per capita thirty times higher. If India had grown as quickly as Singapore since 1965, it would have a GDP per capita of $21,000, higher than Russia or Turkey. As recently as 1990, India was richer per capita than China. Today, China is more than four times richer than India per capita. Of course if India can maintain the current growth trajectory for another couple of decades, and doesn’t fall into the middle income trap, that will change. But Nehru really fucked us all over. If he hadn’t become infatuated with socialism, India would already be on the precipice of being a developed country.
- maxglute 9mo ago
  >doesn’t fall into the middle income trap There's 2 middle income traps. 1) the actual middle income trap, failing to move up value chain 2) the byproduct, traps population to middle income India has the sheer population to pass through 1) eventually. Ironically the byproduct of sheer population means they will unlikely pass 2). Middle income trap logic breaks part for large countries. There's a reason why bottom 40 quantile of PRC, i.e. 600m are still low income. Even the most favourable geopolitical developing conditions couldn't uplift 1.4B because there simply aren't enough middle/high income opportunities for that many bodies. With labour saving tech hollowing out manufacturing and ai hollowing out services, India trending towards 1.6B people is going to be extra fucked in the per capita game. Again that doesn't mean India couldn't eventually replicate PRC in sheer economic chains and potential, it just means they'll be governing a country with 60/70/80% poor with vast gini inequality between modern india and subsistent india where extra pop = more farm land dilution = potentially worse calorie security because inefficient farming = jobs programs > food security. AKA PRC demographers nightmare scenario that triggered family planning / one child policy that just barely dodged 2)... PRC more or less high income now, and certainly will be as old-poor dies and denominator converge towards young-rich. India will simply be saddled with too much old-poor, and young-poor that the young-rich will not meaningfully skew the per capita math. But on the other hand, per capita matters less than ability to generate abundance and I think/hope if India may meander their way to it.
- vivzkestrel 9mo ago
  did you adjust for purchasing power parity? because 5$ in the USA would buy you a street side hot dog maybe but 5$ here will buy your family lunch at a restaurant, I kid you not
  - EGreg 9mo ago
    That doesn't really solve things across countries, does it? It just says that low-income people can eat. Doesn't help you to buy a Macbook, say, if you'll need to save up for 5 years. It holds lots of intelligent people back. And it's not just about intelligence. It's about global economic opportunities. But it's good to know that food can be produced to feed an entire family for $5 in 2026, somewhere in the world. I might go stay in Bangalore or Goa for a while lol.
    - vivzkestrel 9mo ago
      - It changes a lot of things dramatically. The whole "India is poor" thing is in the best case scenario looking at things with a Western lens and in a worse case scenario propaganda. - If you dig into it, you ll find out that most people are getting by just fine. - This year during Diwali they splurged the highest amount of money like ever https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/record-breaking-diwali-sales-touch-rs-6-05-lakh-crore-cait-report-13626377.html https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/record-breaking-d... If everyone was really as poor as you guys describe, they wouldnt be blowing up money during diuwali for a festival - Same for gold sales, same for car sales, same for housing, I am a bit lazy to link to these but I am sure you ll find the relevant links when you search for them
      - rayiner 9mo ago
        “India is poor” by any metric you care to use. E.g. Less than 10% of Indians own a car. They aren’t as poor as they were in my dad’s village in Bangladesh in the 1950s, but they’re closer to that than they are to South Korea today.

rayiner 9mo ago

India is a desperately poor country. It has a GDP per capita of under $2,700 annually. That’s poorer than the U.S. was in 1880! Singapore has a GDP per capita thirty times higher. If India had grown as quickly as Singapore since 1965, it would have a GDP per capita of $21,000, higher than Russia or Turkey. As recently as 1990, India was richer per capita than China. Today, China is more than four times richer than India per capita. Of course if India can maintain the current growth trajectory for another couple of decades, and doesn’t fall into the middle income trap, that will change. But Nehru really fucked us all over. If he hadn’t become infatuated with socialism, India would already be on the precipice of being a developed country.

maxglute 9mo ago
>doesn’t fall into the middle income trap There's 2 middle income traps. 1) the actual middle income trap, failing to move up value chain 2) the byproduct, traps population to middle income India has the sheer population to pass through 1) eventually. Ironically the byproduct of sheer population means they will unlikely pass 2). Middle income trap logic breaks part for large countries. There's a reason why bottom 40 quantile of PRC, i.e. 600m are still low income. Even the most favourable geopolitical developing conditions couldn't uplift 1.4B because there simply aren't enough middle/high income opportunities for that many bodies. With labour saving tech hollowing out manufacturing and ai hollowing out services, India trending towards 1.6B people is going to be extra fucked in the per capita game. Again that doesn't mean India couldn't eventually replicate PRC in sheer economic chains and potential, it just means they'll be governing a country with 60/70/80% poor with vast gini inequality between modern india and subsistent india where extra pop = more farm land dilution = potentially worse calorie security because inefficient farming = jobs programs > food security. AKA PRC demographers nightmare scenario that triggered family planning / one child policy that just barely dodged 2)... PRC more or less high income now, and certainly will be as old-poor dies and denominator converge towards young-rich. India will simply be saddled with too much old-poor, and young-poor that the young-rich will not meaningfully skew the per capita math. But on the other hand, per capita matters less than ability to generate abundance and I think/hope if India may meander their way to it.
vivzkestrel 9mo ago
did you adjust for purchasing power parity? because 5$ in the USA would buy you a street side hot dog maybe but 5$ here will buy your family lunch at a restaurant, I kid you not
- EGreg 9mo ago
  That doesn't really solve things across countries, does it? It just says that low-income people can eat. Doesn't help you to buy a Macbook, say, if you'll need to save up for 5 years. It holds lots of intelligent people back. And it's not just about intelligence. It's about global economic opportunities. But it's good to know that food can be produced to feed an entire family for $5 in 2026, somewhere in the world. I might go stay in Bangalore or Goa for a while lol.
  - vivzkestrel 9mo ago
    - It changes a lot of things dramatically. The whole "India is poor" thing is in the best case scenario looking at things with a Western lens and in a worse case scenario propaganda. - If you dig into it, you ll find out that most people are getting by just fine. - This year during Diwali they splurged the highest amount of money like ever https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/record-breaking-diwali-sales-touch-rs-6-05-lakh-crore-cait-report-13626377.html https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/record-breaking-d... If everyone was really as poor as you guys describe, they wouldnt be blowing up money during diuwali for a festival - Same for gold sales, same for car sales, same for housing, I am a bit lazy to link to these but I am sure you ll find the relevant links when you search for them
    - rayiner 9mo ago
      “India is poor” by any metric you care to use. E.g. Less than 10% of Indians own a car. They aren’t as poor as they were in my dad’s village in Bangladesh in the 1950s, but they’re closer to that than they are to South Korea today.