Over 90% of Chinese households would be below the US poverty line. Their GDP per capita is only $13k.
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2025
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The truth is somewhere in the middle. GDP per capita is not really a good measure of quality of life on its own.
Historically the USA has brought a lot of people (most?) out of poverty by the world standard. Recent policy seems to be heading in the opposite direction. Quality of life has been declining for a long time, IMO mostly with our sense of community, the completely broken healthcare system, media consolidation, absurd levels of car dependency, high cost of having children, and a whole bunch of other location-specific factors (like cost of living in metro areas)
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(6 replies)
US cost of life has got nothing to do with Chinese cost of life though.
You need to understand that most basic stuff is cheap, in China. I can feed myself heartily for like a dollar a meal. And that's if I don't want to cook!
I appreciate you talk about GDP, but those $13k are more like $130k when you live there. I was earning $20k and that was a comfortable life with no worries, on par with what I have now in Europe around 40k€.
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(3 replies)
Nobody should use GDP to measure the health of a region…all it really measures is how many rich people are present.
Also…how can you compare apples to oranges like that? Income is half of the equation. Are you aware of the corresponding cost of living/spending power over there? You have to know it’s significantly more affordable.
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(4 replies)
GDP is good measurement only for rich people yacht money though
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(17 replies)
Different starting points, it used to be 8/10 Chinese living in extreme poverty.
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(1 replies)