[extropy-chat] Futurist priorities was ex-tropical

[Alan Eliasen]

The Avantguardian wrote:
>    GDP: US = $10.45 trillion, China = $5.99 trillion,
> Winner = US
>    GDP per capita: US = $36,300, China = $4,700,
> Winner = China
>    % below poverty: US = 12.7%, China = 10.0%, Winner
> = China

   Huh?  So the U.S.'s GDP per capita is almost 8 times that of China, and
their entire massed nation's GDP per capita is less than half of the U.S.'s
definition of poverty ($9,573/person for a single person in the U.S. in 2003),
and somehow they're "winning" the poverty battle?

   I know statistics can be made to lie, but this is ridiculous.  One could
argue that the cost of living is ridiculously lower in China, and that all of
the GDP goes directly to the working man, leaving everyone earning at least
half of the U.S. poverty line, but somehow I'm skeptical.  I'm leaving for
China in a few hours.  I'll let you know when I get back.

-- 
  Alan Eliasen                 | "You cannot reason a person out of a
  eliasen at mindspring.com       |  position he did not reason himself
  http://futureboy.homeip.net/ |  into in the first place."
                               |     --Jonathan Swift