A World Perspective 细心看世界

Always have facts with you. Visionaries and pundits dazzle you with grand predictions or scare you with warnings of dire consequences. You need facts for perspectives.

Find the most populous and prosperous countries in the world, and remove those only on one list. Most countries dropped off. For about 30 countries on both lists, they represent about 70% of world population and 85% of the economic production. Yes, like other markets, the world observes the 20/80 rule too: a small number of countries dominate the majority of the economic activities.

The USA is weaker, but only compared to itself several years ago. This mighty country is far and beyond the wealthiest one. Its GDP at about 32 trillions (all GDP numbers are in US dollars) is about 3 times bigger than Japan, the 2nd one on the list. The USA is 4.5 bigger than Germany, almost 5 times bigger than China, 13.4 Russian, and 14.6 India. Have no doubt. The USA will still be the #1 for several decades to come.

We all know that China and India have lots of people. Their combined 2.4 billion people (1.3 and 1.1 respectively) is about 37% of the world population. The USA, the 3rd most populous country, has about 300 millions people: less than a quarter of China.

In terms of individual productivity, the picture changes drastically. Americans, on average, produce, over 44k of value every year. For all practical purposes, it is a good substitute for their average income. UK, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Italy, and Spain are roughly in the same league with Spainairds doing about 63% of their US counter-parts. Russians produce about $7,000 every year, Chinese $2,000, and Indians $800. Average Indians make 2% of Americans and Chinese 5%. China and India literally make up with volume. Each of their citizens make very little, but the countries produce a lot.

细心看世界

事实一定要抓牢。空想家和博学者总是乐于作出令人眼花缭乱的恢宏预言或引人战栗的灾难设想。而你，则需要有事实才不会迷失。

找出世界上人口最多或最发达的那些国家，并把只占一项的国家去掉，结果就会所剩无几。同时在这两项名列前茅的国家共30个左右，他们占世界70%的人口，创造着全球85%的经济财富。是的，正如同其他市场一样，我们的世界也遵循着二八法则：少数国家支配着大部分的经济活动。

近来美国的力量有所削弱，但这也只是相对其自身几年前的情况而言。这个国家的强大绝不仅仅体现为富有。其国民生产总值达32万亿美元，这一数字是全球第二富有的国家——日本的3倍、德国的4.5倍、中国的5倍、俄罗斯的13.4倍、印度的14.6倍。毫无疑问，未来的数十年内，美国仍将继续称雄。

我们都知道中国和印度人口众多。这两个国家共有24亿人口（中国13亿，印度11亿），约占全世界人口总数的37%。而作为世界上人口数居第三位的美国，只有3亿人口，比中国的四分之一还要少。

在人均生产总值方面，国家间的差距更为悬殊。美国的年人均生产总值超过4.4万美元。人均生产总值与其人均收入大致相通。英国、加拿大、澳大利亚、法国、日本、意大利、西班牙，可以笼统地算作同美国一级别的。西班牙人均生产总值约为美国的63%，俄罗斯约为7000美元，中国为2000美元，印度则是800美元。印度和中国分别是美国的2%和5%。中印两国之所以榜上有名，究其原因是以量取胜，所以才能以如此低的人均生产总值，创造出可观的国民生产总值。