Comment by mistermann | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mistermann | Hacker News Reader

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Reality is what it is regardless of your or my opinion, and it seems to be human nature for individuals to have a tendency to want to paint it in one way or another (for example: "cuz apparently you think the $2 Chinese meals will kill westerners" - purely a figment of that person's imagination, regardless of it's accuracy).

If you're serious about trying to discern the reality of this situation as accurately as possible, the most useful metric I know of to look at is the affordability ratio, assuming you can find a source with genuinely honest, unmassaged data.

To me, the fundamentally important question seems to be: has the ability for the average person to own/rent the average shelter increased, decreased, or stayed constant over time? My opinion on the matter would be the whatever the answer to that question is. I don't happen to know the correct answer but I think a related question, how broadly is wealth distributed throughout the population (completely ignoring the "righteousness" of it), would be helpful in making a good guess at it.

Let me guess. Did you just been triggered by the $2 a week diet thing? Then don't be, I'm actually not very proud of it.

I did it from time to time for about few weeks so I can quickly lose my belly fat. And I don't like it at all let alone recommending it.

> the most useful metric I know of to look at is the affordability ratio

Of course. I just searched a bit, the DPI seems to be ￥7,815 or $1,137 for the first quarter.

However, I don't have any information other than that, and dig the information needed is too hard for me :(

> Let me guess. Did you just been triggered by the $2 a week diet thing?

Not at all, my point was more referring to the human tendency to take one example and use it as a representation of the norm, according to the internal desires of how one thinks the world is, or "should be".

> Then don't be, I'm actually not very proud of it.

I can't think of too many countries that could feel more righteously "proud" of themselves than China, considering what they've accomplished in the last 20 years, I don't think anyone comes close to touching this progress in the history of the world.

> Of course. I just searched a bit, the DPI seems to be ￥7,815 or $1,137 for the first quarter.

I'm not familiar with this term (Dynamic Price Index?), but I can't think of a single number that would be an accurate representation for "China", considering how large of a country it is, with incredibly high variances of wealth and living expenses.

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