r/dataisbeautiful 3d ago

OC [OC] Comparing the combined GDPs of China and India to the US GDP at that time

Post image
668 Upvotes

263 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

8

u/SilverCurve 3d ago

If we use PPP then China + India is about 2.5 times US. Nominal GDP mostly represents the fact that people like trading and investing in US dollar, and China keeping their currency low to gain export advantage.

Those could change very quickly. If China one day decides to become the center of investment and consumption, like they used to be before the 17th century, US would clearly be marked as #2, maybe even #3 if India does the same. That could even be good for US due to the dollar no longer be pushed so high and it’d be more profitable to manufacture in America.

17

u/Grehjin 3d ago edited 3d ago

Yes everyone knows about PPP, the point is that the image is showing one thing and everyone else is clamoring for it to show another thing and saying it’s misleading because it’s not showing that thing they want. It’s not misleading, it’s showing one measurement of a complex topic.

To your other point China has been trying to desperately become a consumption economy for like a decade and it has mostly failed, so I don’t really know what you mean by “one day” when it already has. And in regards to investment, it will only be the “center for investment” when they don’t have a government that can seize your assets at will, i.e the end of the CCP as we know it. Until then it’s unlikely to happen

I’m not even disputing the entirety of what you’re saying, I’m just wishing people could stay on topic and actually engage with what’s being displayed or at the very least acknowledge they’re talking about a different thing

1

u/randynumbergenerator 1d ago

Complex, reasoned discussions of macroeconomics and capital markets architecture, in this sub? Dream on, my man.

5

u/V12TT 3d ago

Gdp ppp only works as a comparison for how well people live in their own country. When it comes to global power raw gdp and gdp per capita show a better picture.

Resources cost almost the same globally, raw talents costs the same, most high quality technology and devices cost the same.

Thats why a country of 300+ million can own multiple carrier groups, control most of the worlds internet traffic, have huge influence while something like India can barely project power outside their borders.

0

u/polysemanticity 1d ago

This is hilariously dumb comment. How come nobody has brought this up to China yet? They’re gonna be pissed when they find out there was just this one simple trick to become the center of investment and consumption all along…

1

u/SilverCurve 1d ago

China faces a lot of structural issues to raise consumption, they also partly don’t want to do make the sacrifices required to start the transition, at least not yet. In a short comment I couldn’t write down all the analyses from economists like Michael Pettis, about both China’s huge potential and unwillingness to make the change. My comment was also not meant to belittle the US. Nevertheless, the fact that the usd has huge advantage and the cny is artificially repressed has to be pointed out.

-5

u/aerodynamique 3d ago

You can really see the Bell-Curve here with people thinking that GDP is the end-all-be-all economic metric lmao

r/dataisbeautiful is, shockingly, not full of investors.