> The Times of India
>
> India ranks 4th among global economies
> CHIRDEEP BAGGA & SHANKAR RAGHURAMAN
>
> Instead, we have what is called the
> purchasing power parity (PPP) rate that is used by institutions like
> the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to compare
> GDPs of different countries.
And the IMF and World Bank are, as we all know, famous friends of the poor!
> Now if India's GDP were converted into dollars using the normal
> exchange rate, our barber's contribution to GDP would be just over a
> dollar for each hair cut he provides while the New York barber would
> be weighing into the US economy at $20 per cut.
Not quite. If you step into a US barbershop, you'll find tracking lighting, air conditioning or central heating, ambiant music, expensive chairs, electric clippers, 13,967 varieties of outrageously overpriced hair gel, etc.
Not that monetary values have a damn thing to do with civilization. I'm reading Ashapurna Debi's classic novel about a free-spirited young woman in colonial Bengal, "First Promise", in a fine English translation - tremendous stuff.
-- DRR