said by damox :

Why do you say that (not necessarily well off - of course their population is about 5 time that of the US, but . . . ), and what do you mean by selling themselves short? In any case, they seem to make at least fifty percent of the products sold in the US! I don't know what the actual numbers are, but to see so much made in China, and so little made in the US is appalling. It's really hard to find products not made in China, especially in certain lines of products, and if it's not "Made in China", there's a sure bet that some of the parts are made in China. Moreover (even though this was not part of the discussion), it's hard to find products made in the US, PERIOD! So I don't know how poorly China's doing, but at the rate they are going, it won't be long before they rule the world, at least economically, even if their people are poor! Apparently even some of our missile parts are made in China. I think that while China may not be so well off, we are definately not well off either!