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A comment on Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest.

Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by pmontra on Friday December 05, 2014 @04:55AM (#8703667)
This is a ranking about PPP. There are about five Chinese persons for every American. The sum of their income will keep getting larger and so will their economy. GDP and economic output don't automatically relate to how well people live but they do relate to the influence a country has over the world.

If we care about how happy people are in their country then maybe we should look at http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/ There is no clear number 1.

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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by sneak on Friday December 05, 2014 @05:46AM (#8703798)
Or maybe we should stop moving the goalposts because this article isn't about anything per-capita and isn't titled "Chinese quality of life tops the US". It's about total economic might.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by aunty_helen on Friday December 05, 2014 @06:11AM (#8703886)
No lets keep modifying the model so we come out on top until it's no longer ignorable... after that we'll just lie.

This just in, according to songs written by Jim Morrison the west is better 100% of the time.

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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by danmaz74 on Friday December 05, 2014 @10:35AM (#8704998)
Yes but if you talk about economic might, then PPP doens't make much sense either.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by Zigurd on Friday December 05, 2014 @09:32AM (#8704649)
PPP is supposed to be about "how well people live" by material measures. But, as you point out, material measures don't always accurately reflect quality of life.

Other people who posted here claim nominal GDP is how you compare nations, but that's got problems, too: Is US overspending on health care really adding to GDP? Is military spending, Homeland Security, cops, prisons, adding to GDP, or those costs and drags on our wealth? Is financialization adding slushy numbers to GDP?

Look at the US productivity numbers. Impressive! But is our spending on health care really productive? Military? Etc. There is a ton of fudge in US economic numbers.

I'm sure China's numbers, with the state enterprises, have a lot of squish to them, too. But the US is overtly fooling itself in many ways.

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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by Tyrannosaurs on Friday December 05, 2014 @05:43AM (#8703785)
Interestingly if you put in the cliche American free market priorities (jobs, income high, safety, work life balance, environment low, everything else in the middle) the US does come out top (as opposed to high but not top on a more even measure).

The same things seems to happen if you put in the sort of priorities other countries are generally believed to hold (so put in the environment, satisfaction, work life balance and so on and the Scandinavian countries leap to the top).

So if there is any truth in the cliches, countries do seem to optimise for what is important to them. Which I guess is what you'd hope happened.

As an aside there doesn't seem to be too much you can do to stop Australia being a great place to live - they don't have a slider for "Deadly animals".

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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by vince_refiti on Friday December 05, 2014 @06:32AM (#8703966)
The deadly animals in Australia are the same everywhere - people. The wildlife does far, far less damage.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by sneak on Friday December 05, 2014 @05:47AM (#8703803)
Government surveillance would be a good slider. Commonwealth countries are notoriously short on protections for things like that.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by danieltillett on Friday December 05, 2014 @06:12AM (#8703892)
As an Australian the thing that makes Australia a great place to live is the same that makes it suck - distance. It does have California's weather without the risk of earthquakes which is hard to beat :)
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by pm90 on Friday December 05, 2014 @09:21AM (#8704578)
But does it have California's Jobs? :)
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by Dewie on Friday December 05, 2014 @11:55AM (#8705449)
I don't know of anyone called Steve Jobs in Australia, no.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by berelig on Friday December 05, 2014 @09:48AM (#8704747)
What about drop bears?
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by vorg on Friday December 05, 2014 @05:57AM (#8703834)
> Australia being a great place to live - they don't have a slider for "Deadly animals"

Australia has poisonous snakes and America has grizzly bears -- only New Zealand can claim no deadly animals.

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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by Tyrannosaurs on Friday December 05, 2014 @09:04AM (#8704493)
Australia also has crocodiles, box jelly fish, sharks, lethal spiders...

I don't think that I'm imagining that Australia has more species of lethal animals than any other country.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm not saying Australia isn't a great place to live. I've only been to Melbourne and then only for three weeks but it seemed great. There are just lots of things which can kill you there (though the Australian's have naturally got very good at stopping that happening).

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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by danieltillett on Friday December 05, 2014 @06:14AM (#8703897)
Obviously you have never met a drunk kiwi.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by seanmcdirmid on Friday December 05, 2014 @08:00AM (#8704259)
Kiwi fruit are actually from northern China and weren't introduced to New Zealand until the 20th century.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by tokenizerrr on Friday December 05, 2014 @08:22AM (#8704341)
Kiwi is slang for New Zealanders[1]. It is also a bird native to New Zealand[2].

[1]: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kiwi&defid=20...

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi

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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by lostcolony on Friday December 05, 2014 @08:27AM (#8704359)
Not sure if that's just compounding the joke, but if not - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by seanmcdirmid on Friday December 05, 2014 @08:33PM (#8707998)
The submission was about China, not New Zealand, so forgive me for being a bit bemused.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by will_work4tears on Friday December 05, 2014 @08:59AM (#8704475)
Grizzly bears don't hide in relatively short grass and are very rare and limited to certain areas, and nor does America have spiders that bite your ass when you are trying to poo. Well, we might, but they aren't deadly.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by halflings on Friday December 05, 2014 @05:50AM (#8703819)
Their health index seems... unreliable.

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/health/

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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by BrianEatWorld on Friday December 05, 2014 @10:30AM (#8704968)
Any deficiency in the "Deadly Animal" slider is easily balanced by the massive surplus on their "Ute Availability" slider.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by muyuu on Friday December 05, 2014 @05:23AM (#8703732)
If housing in the UK is a 6/10 I don't want to know how are 4/10s or worse.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by disputin on Friday December 05, 2014 @11:46AM (#8705395)
Agreed. UK housing is a third world problem in a supposedly first world country.
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by gardarh on Friday December 05, 2014 @05:10AM (#8703703)
That's a really clever site, seems like an elaborate way to say "It depends" when the question is "What is the best country in the world".
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Re:Chinese economy overtakes the U.S.’s to become the largest by LaneRendell on Friday December 05, 2014 @08:22AM (#8704339)
Why keep moving the goal posts as others have said? They have more people and more land. Why is this surprising?
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