I wrote:
>>China may have one of the biggest economies, but it also has the most
>>mouths to feed.
Chris Buford writes:
>This man Burki argues
>
>>Conventional wisdom used to hold that developing countries with ever
>>expanding populations were doomed to poverty because rising population
>>would eat up whatever economic gains they made. But as countries like
>>China, India, Brazil and Mexico learn to manage their economies better,
>>their size becomes an advantage.
>
>Now you *could* argue that this position is consistent with the law of
>value being based on labour power.
>
>BTW I would appreciate an explanation of PPP and what aspect of an economy
>that is likely to favour in calculating comparisons.
I'm no Malthusian. I think it was Engels who said that "every mouth to feed
has two hands to work with" (or something like that).[*] People produce,
they don't just consume. But still _per capita_ measures are important to
get an idea of how well countries "manage their economies."
PPP is an effort to wash out short-term fluctuations of exchange rates to
get more stable measures of the relative incomes of nations.
[*] one time, while teaching, I used this line. Much to my embarrassment, I
realized (too late) that one of my students had only one hand. I guess he
didn't care, though.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine
