It’s all relative: why it’s not so bad to be European after all
Most emerging economies lag decades behind us: Russian, Brazilian and Chinese average incomes are still below half those in Greece, according to the World Bank. Nonetheless, the relative rise of new countries engenders paranoia. The American pundit Thomas Friedman often says China and India are “eating our lunch”. But since the global economy isn’t a zero-sum game, it’s more accurate to say that the Chinese and Indians are making our lunch. The richer they get, the better they can afford our high-end engineering products, hotel rooms, luxury goods, universities, etc.
