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Or just: when China's per capita GDP surpasses that of the US (since the 4.2 probably won't remain constant).

From what I've read, with current Chinese growth trends, that won't happen for another 100 years. Unlike other, smaller East Asian countries (Japan, Taiwan, South Korea) that have grown on the back of export-based manufacturing, China is far too large to base its growth on exports alone.

It may take much longer than that. China's birthrate is low, so the nation may experience severe greying related problems.

India, however...

6 or 7 countries already surpasse the GDP per capita of the US [1], so that's not really a a landmark milestone.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP...

Five or six postage stamp countries plus Norway, an extremely oil rich nation (in oil per capita terms).

The US remains the landmark.

If you're suggesting that we take into account how well the wealth is distributed, then again, the US isn't a landmark. However it's hard to evaluate, maybe [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equ...

>If you're suggesting that we take into account how well the wealth is distributed

I'm not. Why on earth would you think I meant that?

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