[ExI] the formerly rich and their larvae...

[Lee Corbin]

Stuart wrote

Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: [ExI] the formerly rich and their larvae...


> [Damien B. quoted]
> 
>> By W. MICHAEL COX and RICHARD ALM
>> To understand why consumption is a better 
>> guideline of economic prosperity than income, it 
>> helps to consider how our lives have changed. 
>> Nearly all American families now have 
>> refrigerators, stoves, color TVs, telephones and 
>> radios. Air-conditioners, cars, VCRs or DVD 
>> players, microwave ovens, washing machines, 
>> clothes dryers and cellphones have reached more
>> than 80 percent of households.

and Stuart responded

> Cox and Alm seem to ignore the fact that many people tend to finance
> their consumption with debt. That a poor person can easily borrow money
> to buy "stuff" doesn't change the fact that person is poor. Here is a
> troubling set of statistics:
> 
> https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html
> 
> I know too many people who are in debt. I too am in debt although for
> what it is worth, my debt consists of educational loans and medical
> bills. Doesn't change the fact that my net worth is less than zero.

It's not clear in that CIA Factbook page exactly what the list is, 
but okay, I assume it's a sum of all *personal* debt. China heading
the list at 363 billion dollars therefore represents, I suppose, for the
most part the sums that foreigners owe successful Chinese business people.

But to compare China at the #1 spot with Japan at #2 the way that
this page does, does not illustrate the per-capita debt.

And the two "most indebted" countries, the U.S. and Spain, likewise
would appear quite differently in a per-capita listing, or in a listing
that calculated this debt as a percent of GNP.

Lee