China’s Economy Is Still Light Years Behind the US

This is one of my pet peeves, so I beg your indulgence. This is from the Wall Street Journal today:

As the rest of the world struggles to contain the coronavirus, China’s recovery is gaining momentum, positioning it to further close its gap with the U.S. economy….That bounceback, while far from China’s heady expansions of past years, should nonetheless help the world’s No. 2 economy move faster in catching up with the U.S., which could shrink by as much as 8.0% in 2020.

It is also buttressing Beijing’s belief that China’s state-led model, which helped the country navigate the 2008-09 financial crisis with minimal pain, is better than the U.S.’s market system, emboldening Chinese leaders at a time of rising geopolitical competition with the U.S.

It’s common practice to say that China’s economy is #2 in the world, or perhaps even #1 depending on how you do your currency conversions. And it’s true that China’s GDP is about $15 trillion compared to America’s $20 trillion. That’s pretty close, and China is growing faster. Eventually they’ll catch up.

But who cares? It’s like bragging that California has more hospitals than Oregon. Of course it does. California has ten times as many people. In the case of China, what matters is GDP per person, and on that score China is light years behind the US. Here’s the chart you knew was coming:

China’s GDP per person is about $10,000, compared to $65,000 in the United States. They aren’t even in the same ballpark, and it will be decades before they catch up to us—if they ever do.

There are obviously some legitimate reasons to look at overall GDP since it affects things like trade volume and military capacity, but most of the time it seems to be little more than an attempt at drama. For some reason we’re supposed to be afraid that China is going to take over the world, but that looks pretty ridiculous if you look at living standards and GDP per capita. So instead we’re spoon-fed total GDP, even though we almost never do that for any other country. Do you have any idea how Germany’s GDP compares to ours? Or Spain’s? Or Denmark’s? Here’s a hint: they’re a lot lower because they have a fraction of our population.¹ Everyone knows it would be a ridiculous comparison, which is why you never see it.

But when it comes to China, we hear about it all the time. We should knock it off.

¹For the record, roughly $4 trillion, $1 trillion, and $0.3 trillion. Does this tell you anything interesting at all?

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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