[potatolicious]

The average/mean only represents something if it's distributed about the mean.

One of the major issues in China right now is that that's not the case - the creation of a minted upper class is skewing the data and hiding the distribution - which is that there is a sea of poor, below the poverty line, with little to no hope for improvement, and an increasingly wealthy upper and middle class.

Keep in mind that the gap between the lower and middle class in China is much wider than the equivalent gap in the US. In reality people in the "middle class", in relative terms, would be far into the upper classes in the US.

[Volpe]

From my other comment: > China's millionaires account for 0.015% of the population

0.015% is hardly skewing the other 99.985%... How about people start actually referring to fact rather than just rhetoric...

Some stats:

36% of the population of china are below poverty line ($2/day) (2005) (down from 98% (1980)) (Little hope for improvement?)

16% of population below extreme poverty line ($1.25/day) (2005) (down from 84% (1981)) (Again little hope for improvement?)

China ranks 42 on the inequality index, the US ranks 41 (That doesn't equate to 'much wider gap')

See how some simple data just rendered most of your statements wrong.

[wisty]

I thought most Chinese are above the poverty line. 500 RMB a month (which is a terrible wage in most parts of China) is over $2 a day, which is over the poverty line.

I'm sure you can find people below $2 a day, not a sea.

There's two big issues - regional differences, and people from poor areas who try to survive in the big cities. Because wages (and the cost of living) are so different, someone from a poor area (i.e. a rural area, or a poor province) will not have any meaningful financial support from their family. But kids with parents in the rich areas get a lot more financial support.