TomG
Jul 4, 2004, 8:59 PM
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We had a discussion a few months ago about how much money working Mexicans might earn, and a few others on Mexican economics and future. Here is a great article on what is happening in China, and what it could mean for the USA. For Mexico this has got to be threatening. It includes a great description of cell phone economics in China, which helped me imagine more possibility explanations for why some unemployed and underemployed folks in Oaxaca had cell phones.
"A Chinese family can live a life comfortably close to that of the American middle class for a fraction of the cost. Though China claims urban per-capita income is $1,000, ''the government numbers on incomes don't tell nearly the whole story on the consumer class, especially not in the eastern cities,'' says Merrill Weingrod of China Strategies. Weingrod, working with Linsun Cheng of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, surveyed incomes in Shanghai and several other cities in industrial centers. ''People tend to have two and three jobs, with many taking in short-term assignments here and there,'' he says. ''Real income in Shanghai, for instance, is close to $2,500 per capita, $5,000 per household.'' The Chinese can, on average, buy nearly five times in goods and services per dollar what an American can with the same dollar in the U.S. ''If you multiply income against China's purchasing power parity,'' Weingrod says, ''Chinese urban incomes approach the buying power of Americans making $12,500 a year. For working couples, that's the equal of $25,000. Do the math, and you can understand why Shanghai looks as prosperous as it does and why it seems like everyone is out shopping all the time.''
http://www.nytimes.com/...agazine/04CHINA.html
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