The news seems to be everywhere. China's economy--measured at $1.33 trillion has surpassed Japan's at $1.28 trillion to become the second largest in the world. So naturally everyone and his cousin starts spouting, thanks to China's rapid growth, that it's only a matter of time until China's economy passes that of the United States.
Let's put this in perspective. China's GNP is $1.33 trillion. The US's is more than 10 times that at $14 trillion.
And China has roughly five times as many people as the US. Which means that per capita, the US is 50 times as productive as China.
Of course, our national mood is today very negative. So no one investigates the data. They instead jump to conclusions.
No one thinks. We prefer to blurt.
It's so much easier.