Despite the US’s economic success, income inequality remains breathtaking. But this is no glitch – it’s the system
The Chinese did rather well in the age of globalization. In 1990, 943 million people there lived on less than $3 a day measured in 2021 dollars – 83% of the population, according to the World Bank. By 2019, the number was brought down to zero. Unfortunately, the United States was not as successful. More than 4 million Americans – 1.25% of the population – must make ends meet with less than $3 a day, more than three times as many as 35 years ago.
The data is not super consistent with the narrative of the US’s inexorable success. Sure, American productivity has zoomed ahead of that of its European peers. Only a handful of countries manage to produce more stuff per hour of work. And artificial intelligence now promises to put the United States that much further ahead.
This is not to congratulate China for its authoritarian government, for its repression of minorities or for the iron fist it deploys against any form of dissent. But it merits pondering how this undemocratic government could successfully slash its poverty rate when the richest and oldest democracy in the world wouldn’t.
Citation?
China has pushed huge numbers of people into poverty in different ways over the decades — the Great Leap Forward basically wrecked agriculture and caused a massive famine, the Cultural Revolution tore apart schools and workplaces and left tons of families with nothing, and long-term policies like the hukou system kept rural migrants stuck in low-income situations even as cities got richer. On top of that, big relocation projects for dams or new city districts have displaced whole communities with compensation that often didn’t match what they lost, and pollution from rapid industrialization has hit farmers and fishers hard. Outside China, some Belt and Road projects have piled unsustainable debt onto poorer countries, aggressive fishing in disputed waters has squeezed local fishers in Southeast Asia, sudden trade restrictions have hurt industries in neighboring economies, and resource extraction deals abroad have pushed aside local communities.
References (searchable titles):
Your sources do be like:
-Freedom Eagle Burger Institute report on China Badness 1990
-Austrian Painter Legacy Institution report 1984
-Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America, Propaganda Department report 2024
-Victims of Communism Memorial Association compilation of Top 10 China Bad arguments
This is basically everything that’s happened in the US the past 100 years. They just did it much faster and rose more people out of poverty by the end.
Still plenty of bad, but it does have me wondering how many nations have industrialized without harming the poorest of society
This is largely Cold War propaganda which neglects the atrocities of the Second World War and subsequent ecological impacts on the population and infrastructure.
You’re displacing the deaths of millions of victims of Japanese genocide onto the next generation, via misinformation published through the John Birch Society and other well known reactionary media institutions.
OK, provide some citations that argue against those, or… Don’t respond
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril
So you fail to make any other argument than calling me a racist? Well, I’ll accept the win and remember this for the future.
China recently lowered the earning amount for poverty to just below what most Chinese people make, thereby “reducing” poverty.
You want to cite what you’re talking about here?
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202509/1343992.shtml
According to the latest announcement from the State Council Information Office, as of 2024, the average life expectancy in China has risen to 79 years. That’s not an abstract figure - it represents the standard of living and the health of ordinary people across the country.
Now, let’s rewind 20 years. In 2005, the average life expectancy in China was about 72.1 years, while it was 77.6 in the US. That’s a difference of more than five years.
At that time, China was rapidly moving from being an agrarian society to an industrial powerhouse, but the healthcare system was still playing catch-up. Many older adults in rural areas had to walk several miles to see a doctor, and even hospitals in big cities could be cramped and under-equipped.
Fast forward two decades, and China’s life expectancy has surged by almost seven years, from 72.3 to 79.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56194622
I guess that was 4 years ago, but I remember it as more recently.
I don’t live in the USA. I consider the USA a 3rd world country cosplaying as a 1st world one. Healthcare in the USA is one of the most broken and predatory in the world. So it’s not a meaningful comparison IMO.
Ah yes, the time China invested enormous sums in it’s infrastructure to improve the economy and quality of life of it’s poorest residents.
I guess if your devalue that investment, you can claim China cheated
I never said China didn’t invest into their national programs. I said their definitions of “poverty” are in question.
Just to clarify something. People tend to confuse the terms of “absolute poverty” and “poverty”.
The claim of “completely eliminating absolute poverty” (which is a claim the CCP makes) is almost true. Supposedly the number of people in absolute poverty in China is now 0.7%.
However, this is often reported as China “eliminating all poverty”, which isn’t true. The World Bank puts people still living in poverty in China at 13% (exact numbers are hard because of the CCPs information control), which is higher than what China self claims. Because China doesn’t use the World Bank’s definition for poverty.
I’ve been to China and have family from there. Don’t try to make this about some nationalistic nonsense. It would be amazing if people in China had as much access to the things in life everyone deserves, but the CCP isn’t exactly known for being honest.
I’ve also been to China and I also have family from there.
Taking the train from Nanjing to Wuhan is a fundamentally different experience than driving from Houston to Denver. If you simply refuse to acknowledge the scope of public works and economic development, then dismiss these radical changes by citing the exchange rate between the USD and the Yuan as proof extreme poverty still exists, you’re lying to yourself and to everyone around you.