Feature
The Importance of GDP: A Snapshot of China hina surpassed Japan as the world’s second largest economy by GDP (gross domestic product) in August 2010 and is expected to surpass the USA by the early 2020s. Around one in fivepeople in the world are Chinese. With such a high population China should be first, yet according to the IMF (International Monetary Fund), China’s GDP per capita is actually as low as 94th, down with economic powerhouses Turkmenistan and Ecuador. So how important is GDP exactly? To help me answer this question, I turn to a quote from Bobby Kennedy.
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"Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.” Let’s look at each of these in turn, and see where China ranks.
“The health of our children...” The CIA states that infant mortality rates in China are about 16 in 1,000 children. To compare, South Korea has about four deaths out of 1,000 births. Health care in China is rapidly improving, though it’s nowhere near the standard its GDP would indicate. China has been instrumental in improving health care in Africa, due primarily to the need for healthy workers to mine precious minerals. A hospital for copper, malaria drugs for iron ore; whatever deals happen, they seem to be a fair trade.
Chinese school children
asianews.it
its GDP on education. This is clearly unacceptable, especially with recent increases in military spending.
“The joy of their play...” There have not been many studies into the joy of play. China is not part of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) which gathers most of the data on these subjects. So I turned to suicide rates. Suicide is the main cause of death among young adults in China. However the same can be said for many countries. South Korea has one of the highest in the developed world. In 2004, China’s suicide toll was estimated at 250,000 people a year. Although this is incredibly sad, the suicide rate seems relatively low considering China’s enormous population. However, there doesn’t seem to be much data on this subject in China, a considerable problem. Transparency, if we are to believe the media, is not China’s strong point.
“The beauty of our poetry...” “The quality of their education...” China’s education budget has never hit the government’s goal of four percent of GDP. In 2004 the global average for education spending was 4.7 percent of GDP. That same year, China spent 2.79 percent of 16
Gwangju News June 2011
I have never read Chinese poetry so I cannot judge the beauty for myself. Statistics don’t prove beauty; you have to judge it for yourself. What is irrefutable is that poetry has to be read, music has to be heard and art has to be seen to be fairly judged.