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Size Matters
Beijing has more modern architecture than perhaps any other city and more of it is going up every day. Judging by the buildings you would think China is a rich country and it is but China is a rich country composed of poor people. What China loses in per-capita terms it makes up for in volume. We are used to thinking of total and per-capita wealth as highly correlated - the EU and the United States being key examples. We need to rethink some issues such as inequality, power and foreign policy when they are not so correlated.
By the way, the architecture is great but hard to see! Visibility is limited to 3 or 4 blocks after which everything is a grey haze. I haven't seen the sun for days.
Also, I found a way to access Marginal Revolution using an anonymizer. This is good since the thought that one billion could not access the wisdom at MR was deeply disturbing.
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on June 19, 2008 at 07:27 AM | Permalink
Comments
Alex,
It's like the concept of "free energy" in physics. What's relevant here is the amount of extra money floating around that can be used to fund such stuff. I think that expectations are relevant here too: when a country is growing fast, there's more uncommitted money lying around and more of a sense that such projects can be afforded.
Also, the difference between total and per-capita wealth is not new. This is the kind of issue that European statesmen had to consider with respect to Russia in the 1800s and early 1900s, that it was a large but not rich country.
Posted by: Andrew Gelman at Jun 19, 2008 9:19:26 AM
You might want to wait on that statement until you get to Shanghai, where Pudong has gone from rice paddy to Blade Runner.
Posted by: cure at Jun 19, 2008 9:36:53 AM
This is one of the most vapid posts ever submitted to MR.
Posted by: Arnie at Jun 19, 2008 10:59:00 AM
More architecture is indeed going up every day. Check out this mind-boggling chart on cement usage in China compared to other countries.
Posted by: at Jun 19, 2008 10:59:26 AM
"You might want to wait on that statement until you get to Shanghai, where Pudong has gone from rice paddy to Blade Runner."
Completely true.
Posted by: Arr-squared at Jun 19, 2008 11:12:39 AM
You might want to consider the connotation of this post title given the one immediately after it. I did a double take and questioned whether I mistyped the URL.
Posted by: Epsilon at Jun 19, 2008 11:49:52 AM
Alex,
That's funny. I said the same thing in China a year ago today, and Tyler even linked to it:
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/06/china_journal_e.html
Hope you're having fun,
jb
Posted by: Jared at Jun 19, 2008 10:08:41 PM
I told you about the architecture.
A segment of Chinese population is actually quite rich. And if you
look at the material consumptions, the middle class in Shanghai and
Beijing's living standard is no lower, if not higher, than that in the
West. Don't just look at salary figures. A lot of people in China enjoy
things that they don't have to pay out of their pockets. Not just
corruption. Salary is just the visible part of the income.
Posted by: wz at Jun 20, 2008 5:23:32 PM
Doesn't China block access to anonymizers too?
Posted by: Paul N at Jun 21, 2008 5:45:01 AM
