Credit Suisse Wealth Report: There Are More Poor People In America Than China
forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/10/14/credi...
forbes.comPosted Jan 17, 2020, 6:51 PM UTC
12121
forbes.comAnd more prisoners, also life expectancy is dropping:
Wonder which country did Trump have in mind when he was babbling about shithole countries.
15
Not to mention it's biased to favor western systems to begin with. So many of these Chinese "poor" people become multi-millionaires the moment their land is monetized. Be some rural poor in China and you still own your house fully with zero debt. Be some self-proclaimed rich guy in America yet you are at most a few paychecks away from living on the street losing everything you "have" and being sucked down a downward spiral rejected by society.
8
Holy shit really?
7
The explanation is contained in the article. There are large numbers of individuals in Western countries with more debts than assets. This doesn't really happen in China because no one will lend money to you. The article then tries to justify there are actually no poor people in North America and Europe because of more extensive social safety net. Yet, there is no mention what would happen if should that safety net ever goes away because of government backruptcy. Overall, a lot of assumptions, and the fact there are large numbers of net-negative-value individuals in the West but none in China is really just down to difference in culture.
14
[deleted]
3
There are large numbers of individuals in Western countries with more debts than assets.
This. And because wealth is measured this way in the source data, it can have next to no correlation to people's actual lifestyle. By this metric, my parents and I are among the world's poorest 20%. However, the reality is that they just bought a house and have a mortgage (the payments on which are about half of what it costs to rent in their area) and I have $80k in student loans which I don't even have to make payments on right now because of how my income-driven repayment plan is structured. That debt has 0 impact on my life. Meanwhile, a mentally ill homeless person panhandling on the streets with no indebtedness is wealthier than me and my parents combined. They're sure not living better, though.
Tl;dr in the U.S. it's possible to be among the "world's poorest 10%" while still living a comfortable labor aristocracy life because of how debt works here.
3
the Poverty line is lower in China because cost of living in China is substantially lower than in US.
That's also why Chinese people on average have significantly higher percentage of savings compared to Americans.
9
[deleted]
8
I wish they separated the US from N. America and Japan and SK from Asia PAC. I wanted more detail
6
[deleted]
7
This is not about poverty line, its about absolute amount of wealth
6
Yeah but the poor and lower middle class still enjoy far higher material comforts and surroundings than the poor and lower middle class in China. I don't think it's a fair comparison. I understand people want to be pro-China here but when you start making up fairytales, you discredit yourself.
0
They're talking in strict nominal money terms here.
Unless you are trying to argue that living costs are so much cheaper in America that a 30th percentile or below person will be able to buy far higher material comfort with the same amount of money in America compared to in China, your math doesn't work out.
I think you vastly underestimate how underdeveloped the poor parts of America are. There are parts that don't even have 3G coverage and where hookworms and other 3rd world diseases are rampant. Food insecurity and freezing to death are legit problems for tens if not hundreds of thousands.
It is not much of an achievement to be better at treating the poor than the USA.Things still need to improve.
10
In total yes. But the lifestyle of the urban working classes in NYC and Beijing is just as precarious. I don't think the person living in the projects of Harlem feels like they are substantially better off than people in China. The middle class lifestyle of a person in Beijing is definitely better than working class Americans too.
9
[deleted]
4
No way
5
Mostly likely due to high homeownership rates. while it's income disparity between regions are high, home price and other living expenses also quite a low as well. In poorer areas, it's easy to buy a home and start accumulate wealth even with below average income at national level.
The huge housing give-a-way at end of 1990s help as well. Those things now worth between multi-100k to multi-million RMB depends on where are are located.
3
[removed]
1
[removed]
1
Not too surprising really, America is the least developed in the developed world.
1
[deleted]
ohshit china is killing off poor people /s
I am not going to congratulate PRC for that, we are a socialist country after all.
But Jesus Christ! Sheeple of USA, WTF.