[dcldcl]

While I don't have solid economic numbers (good luck with that in China), if I had a to guess it would make that ratio still one American to two Chinese.

Here's a model that I'll use to back up that idea:

Top 5 US CSAs: NY, LA, Chicago, DC, SF Bay Area: 70.8 million people.

Top 5 Chinese Metro Areas: Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing, Beijing, Hangzhou: 149 million.

[seanmcdirmid]

Are you including the rural populations of each city? Chongqing, for example, is actually fairly rural, it’s basically what we would call a state.

Chinese municipalities are complicated. Even Beijing is about half rural.

[dcldcl]

Oh yeah I'm not saying the model is great, but if someone wants to discount the 1 to 4.3 ratio, that's the estimate I'd throw out there.

And if we take in the half rural estimate, that'd already put it at 1 to 1 today (with lots of room for growth).

Agreed that Chongqing is fairly different (since it's forced "urbanization" due to the Three Gorges Dam). But I've heard a lot of people say Beijing and Shanghai make NYC look "small" in comparison.

Even LA and NY have lots of parts that many Americans may not consider as living "meaningfully in the present" from the point of view being able to work on advanced projects like "Fifth Generation" computing.

[mieseratte]

> Even LA and NY have lots of parts that many Americans may not consider as living "meaningfully in the present" from the point of view being able to work on advanced projects like "Fifth Generation" computing.

I could have put it clearer, but my understanding was that China still has a non-trivial population that is not involved in the "advanced economy," in a way that would surprise most Americans. That is, subsistence farming, less-than high school education, etc.