US & China Middle Class

The steering wheel of my vehicle has a “Google Button”. Press it, and ask any question you desire. At first, I was surprised to find that China had 4.4 million, millionaires. I’m thinking, that’s a lot! Next, I learned that China had 234 million poor people. I’m thinking, for the size of the place, 234 M poor is not too bad. Light bulb: their middle class is huge.

I asked similar questions about the United States. The US is a rich country, no doubt but I was surprised to find that the US and China have a nearly identical proportion of middle class.

Now I am wondering about trends, i.e., momentum. What is the delta for each of these figures. Are the number of poor trending up or down, as is the number of millionaires.

All definitions of poor, and rich, are by Google and who knows what twisted logic they use. Nonetheless, “all models are wrong, some models are useful” - George Box.

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