>Western Europe also had lot and lots of very poor people. From
>Engels' Condition of the Working Class in England to other works
>(e.g. Gareth Steadman-Jones' Outcaste London), it is obvious that
>the mass of Europeans lived in apalling conditions over long
>periods. Nobody believes that Europe is in a deep whole today.
No, of course not. But relative income positions in the world haven't changed all that much over the last 100 years - and in a lot of cases they've diverged. According to Maddison, average incomes in India were 113% of Western Europe's in 1000 (whatever that means). They were 114% of US incomes in 1700. That eroded steadily to 13% in 1913, and 5% in 1973. They've picked up to 6% of the US average in 1998. The World Bank has India's per cap income at 6% of the US in 1975, and 7% in 2002.
India's bucking the tide to some degree. Latin American incomes were 27% of the US in 1975, and were 20% in 2002. Africa went from 10% to 5%.
> >According to the World Bank, which is often criticized
>for >lowballing these numbers, 35% of the pop lives on less than $1
>a day,>>
>
>You could consider per capita income on PPP basis.
The stats above are on that basis.
> > and 81% on less than $2. For China, it's 17% and 47% respectively
>- roughly half India's levels.>
>
>How much of that China owes to Imperialism? Visitors returning from
>US say that American shopping malls are full of goods from China,
>unlike other developing nations.
Sure. So? Imperialism, like capitalism, is a complex and contradictory thing.
> > And Cuba is quite poor. They've done a good job with what they've
>gotten, but they haven't gotten much.>
>
>Why Cuba is led by the same person for 45 years? How long the
>current regimes in China and Cuba will survive?
Who knows? How's that relevant? All I claimed was that it's very difficult for poor countries to become less poor. I'm not some fundamentalist of underdevelopment, you know; members of that school criticize me for being too sunny about capitalism's capabilities of making some people/countries/regions better off.
Doug