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10 Responses to “India vs the US: A Visual Comparison”

1. Emerging India and a pictoral comparison to the US « JanHillmortgage Blog Says:
   September 11th, 2009 at 3:43 pm

   [...] http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/09/india-vs-the-us-a-visual-comparison/ [...]

2. manaconda Says:
   September 11th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

   I wonder if ‘poverty’ on the ‘population in poverty(%)’ is defined equally in the two nations.

3. worth Says:
   September 11th, 2009 at 6:09 pm

   Which economy “looks healthier” based on these visuals (especially Public Indebtedness)?

   And isn’t it striking that with their enormously larger labor force, India still has a lower unemployment rate than us? Even though they’re a lot more of them are living in poverty, they still work. What does that say about Americans? Surely we are unemployed by choice and not due to lack of opportunities – the choice to not do work that’s “beneath us” or “not worth our time and effort for the wage offered” to do.

4. stevenstevo Says:
   September 11th, 2009 at 10:42 pm

   This is so misleading it’s ridiculous. Apparently, now that it’s becoming more and more clear that the China bubble will eventually burst (unless of course, the US keeps interests rates at zero forever), India is the new China. I guess the media is finally realizing that China is likely the new Japan. The rationale then was that Japan was gonna take us over because of their fabulous just-in-time inventory system and their astute ability to make cars. I guess the rationale with China and India is that all it takes is lots of people and a liking for capitalism and poof–you can take over the US economy.

   Which economy looks healthier? You have got to be kidding me. Sure, India has an unemployment rate a couple percentage points higher. Never mind their per capita GDP of $1,000 and the fact that over 1/3rd of the population lives below the poverty line. Oh yeah, and women there cannot vote and are still forced into arranged marriages.

   Who cares if they are growing? Let them keep selling us cheap rice–we’ll turn around and sell it to the rest of the world at a Walmart. There is a reason that US has fostered companies like Apple, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and so on. And the US will continue to house companies like that, and we will gladly buy cheap goods from the poorer countries, who will continue to manufacture and farm away, at labor rates of less than a dollar a day.

   Don’t buy into the media bullcrap. There will always be a USSR, Japan, China, India, etc. Always. The media feeds off of spreading fear. What most people do not realize is that there is no more of a chance that India will ever come close to the US economy than there is the chance that I will get the swine flu tomorrow.

   The US is and always will be the best because we are way too far ahead. We are loaded with natural resources (like the stuff that provides a little thing called energy), and the US is the closest thing to pure capitalism. For companies that have toiled with communism, you messed up. The US bought all your horses–closing the barn door now is pointless.

5. How the Common Man Sees It Says:
   September 12th, 2009 at 2:09 am

   And yet they both manage to be ‘world class’ in the category of inequality of family income distribution. Isn’t that always the way?

6. quantrix Says:
   September 12th, 2009 at 12:20 pm

   @stevenstevo

   Your comments would be laughable if they weren’t so retarded and racist.
   Women can’t vote? I need to channel Barney Frank and ask “Which planet do you spend most of your time on?” India has had a woman prime minister (equivalent of a US prez) for nearly 20 years. So pull your head out of your ass and wake up to the new reality. It is because of douchebag illiterates like you that the world is eating USofA ’s lunch….

   So keep dreaming punk….it s good for the world.

7. alfred e Says:
   September 12th, 2009 at 1:11 pm

   People want to characterize India as one homogeneous country, and then demonstrate demographic information.

   India, much like the U. S. and other countries has become a country with a few “hot spots” of world class out-sourcing sink growth. The rest is buried in centuries old agri-economy and culture which the population finds totally acceptable. What are their choices.

   What was the book? The Lexus and the Olive Tree?

   The more they become like us, the more we become like them. Hot-spots, poverty and all. I mean, if you’re a wage slave in an amalgam corporate hot-spot, you’re pretty much the equivalent of a plantation slave from years gone-by.

   Would be interesting to know how much of the relatively massive investment is by virtue of U. S. companies off-shoring. If India becomes the new China that will be the reason.

8. carlos501b Says:
   September 13th, 2009 at 10:49 am

   India will never ever become the “new” China. India is a vibrant democracy albeit with many defects.
   China is a brutal dictatorship. We are happy and free though we haven’t and probably never will achieve the economic success of China. At least, I know I won’t be sent to a concentration camp, if I write and talk about our corrupt politicians. We look up to Americans, not Chinese.

   om, shanti, om.
   Carlos
   Bombay, India.

9. impermanence Says:
   September 13th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

   If the CIA said it, it must be true.

10. Tulis Says:
    September 15th, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    There is a large number of Indians and Indian scholars hopping the internet on comparing India with other countries – especially China. Now they started to compare with the U.S.
    Is there a valid comparison? Can you really find any common ground by putting a 3rd world country along a developed nation? The answer is no. The gap between an ordinary Indian and an American is probably a century.
    But Why do Indians tirelessly paste these graphs? There is a reason behind – They want foreign investment. As long as they can lure foreigners to this dirt poor land, all means serves that objective.

    It is a little bit ironic for them to do so, by confusing white with black. Sorry to say so because my Indian friends certainly don’t like to be categorized under black. My point is what have India really achieved beside a bunch of call centers? There is this hugh population problem looming large. The environment is polluted; Infrustructure collapsing; Internal fighting never ceased.

    Lets return to reality. India is far from us, but we start to smell somethinmg fishy..