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Comment by st0p | Hacker News Reader

China hasn't got free speech either. What is your point?

Well I didn't think China did, and they are certainly a 'developed nation' so saying the US is the "only" developed nation without it was false on its face. So that made me wonder what subtext the headline was trying send.

As at last check China was on track to be the #2 economy in the world and perhaps the #1 economy (replacing the US). If you wrote the article title "All the top economies of the world don't have mandatory vacation" its a much different message is it not?

One headline seems to advocate that the US is barbaric for not allowing vacation, and the other headline seems to advocate that you can't become a top economy by giving away GDP.

China is not a developed nation by modern standards. It still has very high levels of poverty and a low average income compared to what is typically called 'The West' (Western Europe, North America, Japan, etc.).

Can you say more about why you base the definition of 'developed' on per capita income rather than economic capability? I ask because my definition is 'capable of providing all needs of the citizens caveat raw materials' so by that definition China can build pretty much anything it needs if it has the raw materials to do so, it doesn't depend on any other economy for transforming or upleveling those materials into economic inputs.

I agree with you that its people do not benefit equally from its economy but I don't tie that into 'developed' or 'not developed'.

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