DaFranker comments on Minor, perspective changing facts - Less Wrong

38 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 22 April 2013 07:01PM

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Comment author: DaFranker 24 April 2013 08:54:52PM *  1 point [-]

Japan has a population of 130 million. It is the largest (by population) non-western developed nation. Edit: It is also the second-largest developed nation in the world.

China is not considered a developed nation? Dang. The things you learn.

(sure, if you look at average well-being including all the people not living in urban areas and average per-capita economic statistics and other similar things, it doesn't look like a major developed power at all... but China has launched manned space missions, has massive high-tech cities, has some pretty darn good scientific projects, and the parts that aren't backwater farms look pretty damn first-world apart from all that oppression-from-the-state business)

At any rate, going by all that's happening over there and all they're doing, I would've expected them to be one by now.

Comment author: Stabilizer 24 April 2013 09:05:02PM *  4 points [-]

I was thinking more in terms of human development. Nations with large populations and high HDI are important because they support a very large number of people with a very high standard of life.

China has a HDI-rank of 101. Japan has a HDI-rank of 10.

Comment author: DaFranker 25 April 2013 01:45:23PM 2 points [-]

Yeah, that and China's low per-capita everything. I also doubt China has a bigger service sector than its industry and farming.

I was correcting my erroneous assumption based on other correlates of developed nations (space missions, nuclear power, high-tech, lots of science, etc.).

Comment author: [deleted] 25 April 2013 05:06:39PM 1 point [-]

Yes, China included developed and not-yet-developed areas. An interesting question would be how many people live in the developed parts of China -- I'd guess that's in the same ballpark as Japan.

Comment author: Stabilizer 26 April 2013 01:08:04AM 5 points [-]

China seems to have an urban population of about 690 million. So much more than Japan. But this doesn't tell us much, as you can live in a city but not necessarily enjoy high standard of living.

The real interesting question is: how many people in China have the same standard of living as the average person in Japan. So Japan has a HDI of 0.912. Based on this list the only regions of China with a comparable HDI are Hong Kong (0.944), Macau (0.944), Shanghai (0.908) and Beijing (0.891). The populations of these cities combined is about 51 million. So, about 40% the population of Japan. Excluding Hong Kong and Macau doesn't change it much: get's it down to about 43 million, about 30% of Japan. But easily comparable to the population European nations. So yes, China definitely has a developed nation 'embedded' in it.

Comment author: shminux 24 April 2013 09:43:12PM 0 points [-]

China is not considered a developed nation? Dang. The things you learn.

Must be the archaic designation of it as a "second world" country, whereas the developed and developing countries roughly match "first world" and "third world".

Comment author: DaFranker 25 April 2013 01:42:08PM 0 points [-]

Well, the wikipedia articles on human development and developed nations seem to indicate that to be considered a "developed nation" you have to have good per-capita rates, widespread infrastructure (admittedly, while China has first-rate infrastructure, it is only present in urban centers, to hell with rural areas!), and probably the most critical point re China is that you are into a Post-Industrial economy, with a larger service sector than industrial sector.

As far as my readings and knowledge can tell, the above are indeed points where China fails.