Xiaofan Chen <xiaofanc <at> gmail.com> writes:

> Let's count taxes, assume the tax rate in US is 40% and China/India 0% and
> Singapore 10%. You can still see the huge differences.
> 
> Year 2005 GNI per capita, Atlas method (current US$), minus tax
> China           1740
> India             720
> Singapore     24741
> USA             26244

Ah, so suddenly Singapore is only 6% below the US ? I don't think that China and
India as a whole can be compared like this. If you would compare for a highly
developed region of each it would probably compare on par (say less than 20%
below US). And the US tax rate is much higher than that, you forgot to put in
sales tax and other goodies. Then there is income disparity. The ratio between
the highest and lowest incomes varies a lot. Others have VAT and crazy excises
and local taxes and artificially expensive gasoline and insurances. In
industrialized countries the money left 'to spend' is between 20% and 40% of
earnings at most. Americans seem to take more of it home than most others.
 
> And why is it not worth working with chips?

That was an un-delicate joke about Casino chips. Luxemburg is famous among other
things for its Casino.
 
> For many poor people in the third-world countries, they are still
> struggling with basic necessities. So they will be very happy to
> work with chips if they can earn even US$1000 a year...

You mean a minute ... Never mind, it was a stupid joke.

Peter


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