Introduction:
instead of soon becoming the largest economy in the world, China’s economy is only about a third of the size of the mighty U.S. economy.
having much lower GDP also means that China’s debt levels are actually much higher, relative to the size of its economy, meaning that its debt-fueled property bubble is much more dangerous than we thought.
Method:
Martinez looked at 184 countries between 1992 to 2008 and compared the growth of lights at night in each country to the growth of GDP that each country reported.
Autocratic countries typically reported a whopping 35% higher GDP growth numbers compared to night-time lights growth.
China’s GDP growth between 1992 and 2008 was likely 4.9% per year, rather than its average reported growth of 6.3%.
This is literally the dumbest measurement I’ve ever heard of.
If you don't have sprawling suburbs you aren't developed
:brainworms:
The legitimate way to do this is to normalize over population density, but to liberals and capitalists, land is more important than people.
Or ruining nature reserves with light pollution, or commodifing everyone's brains with flashy all night advertising billboards, or...
I mean, Chinese cities love to do flashy adverts and neon lightshows and crazy fountains. Most large Chinese cities look like Las Vegas strip downtown. But they are smart enough to hyperconcentrate this in downtown heavy urban areas