Different Ways Of Looking At The World

[Chinahand]

I found these two charts really interesting and so thought I'd pass them on.

 

 

The first one distorts the world to show where people living in poverty actually live in the world and where the data is available tries to classify the poverty.

 

Africa does have the largest concentration of desperately poor people, but I was surprised how widespread poverty was in the Indian Subcontinent and China. There are a huge number of what the chart calls "very poor" people living in India, Bangladesh Nepal and Pakistan; more than in all of Africa. Its a shame they weren't able to get the data to classify the level of poverty in China; my research shows that the countryside in China is still very undeveloped and that there is a huge contrast between rich cities and a poor countryside; and so even though overall China is richer than India I wouldn't be surprised if the people living in poverty in China were classified as "very poor". Definitely Brazil and the rest of Latin America are much more developed than China and so I do not think China could be classified as "relatively non poor".

 

Any opinions? Based on facts, biases or otherwise! Is it right that most of the emphasis on poverty goes to Africa when more people live in poverty elsewhere?

 

The second chart shows how the countries of the world stack up against each other economically.

 

 

For me it really puts the so called China threat in context. Yep China has lots and lots of people, shown by the x-axis on the chart, but they are still very poor compared to the developed world, income per capita is the y-axis. So even though China's economy is huge, what I'd call its intensity is low.

 

Even though the chart doesn't say it, work I've done with IMF data makes it clear to me that the figures are based on what is called Purchase Power Parity which makes China look larger than it really is. If a plate made in China costs 10 cents to make and a comparable plate in America costs $1 then the statistics used in the graph value the GDP of China costing its plates at $1 each. The statistics try to remove exchange rate distortions and account for the fact that alot of China's economy is based on barter etc, but like all statistics its a compromise.

 

There is no doubt China's growth, and India's, will radically change the world, but that change will affect the whole world. Less than 1 billion people live in the rich world, the other 5 billion are also struggling to better themselves. There are 1 billion people living in China, but living in Brazil, Russia, Poland etc are another billion people who have better resources available to them than the Chinese and are also competing with us to make a living.

 

The worlds complex and blaming China's factories, or India's call centres for "stealling our jobs" is just too simplistic.

 

I reckon both these charts help in some way to explain the complexities of the world!

 

Anyone agree?

 

Or am I being simplistic!

[TheTool]

Very intresting chinky man, i guess most of the problem is these people are ripped off by the fat cats from the west.

 

You only have to look at New Orleans and how Mr Bush was so slow on helping out the people there, most of New Orleans is in poverty 65% i think, and this is in america the richest contry in the world.

 

This has to be the most complex subject to date.

[LoneWolf]

Anyone agree?

 

Totally

 

Im very fond of India and have had some fantastic holidays there. But the poverty is striking and on an enormous scale.

 

(btw: see if you can add something to enrgy efficiency thread!!)