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Originally Posted by jamesqf
This is evading the question, though. The population of the prosperous countries is still growing, isn't it? As is the population of the non-prosperous countries from which the immigration is coming.
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No it isn't - it is central to the question. Those who moved had fewer kids and later, those who remained still continued to have more kids all their lives. The migration is the growth in the richer countries, the continued poverty is the growth in the poorer ones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
So has membership in other religions been declining. It's not due to population decline, but to people giving up the religion.
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These are not the statistics you are looking for...
/joke
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
Can't see as the standard of living in China has increased, unless you use the Mao years as a comparison. You have lots of people being driven off their land, forced into tiny apartments in mega-cities, or even Foxconn's labor dormitories. Not IMHO much of an improvement.
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Thats because of your defintion of "standard of living". By most standards it is measured as deaths in childbirth, deaths per thousand at ages such as 5, 10 or 20 years, average age at death or perhaps in more developed places the number of people who receive state assistance. EDIT - also income per person, income per household etc.
The idea that industrialisation leads to a lower standard of life is a common myth. For example during the UK industrial revolution (the first one in the world) people who moved from the country to work in the "dark satanic mills" typically lived longer and earned more than those who remained behind. Often their earnings could be twice or three times as much. Both were utterly miserable lives by the standards of the western world today but the city dwellers were generally better off - longer lives, fewer childbirth deaths and so on.
Today China is the number 1 target market for any manufacturer in the world - cars, electronics, houses, even food and drink. In some cases they are way ahead of the US from being way behind in 1980. Those consumers didn't all migrate in, they came out of the economic growth there. And not all of them are the "super rich" we keep hearing about - they are normal folks who work in factories or offices just like us.
The FOXCONN episode is one of many where workers are mistreated. But now consumers know about it they can decide if thats what they want to support - sunlight is the best disinfectant.
China has serious issues which may hold it back - the no.1 issue (IMHO like Africa) is corruption. If they solve that with the basic ideas of everyone (including the government) is subject to the law, and the right to own property then they will leap ahead as foreign investors will pour even more money in with less risk of some party official deciding it belongs to them.
For comparison, imagine the US hadn't become industrialised since the mid-19th century and then deciding to do so now. Imagine just how rapid the growth would be there ? True some would move from open plains and farms into small houses and apartments, but they would have a better standard of living by those common parameters.