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Comment by jvm | Hacker News Reader

To all the doubters, real manufacturing wages in China have actually been soaring over the past decades, this is corroborated across non-correlated sources:

PRC Government numbers: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/china/wages-in-manufacturing http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-wages-jump-in-2012-de...

WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405274870384920...

Journal of Economic Perspectives: http://leedsonfinance.com/2013/02/24/the-end-of-cheap-chines...

No one source is believable but there appears to be wide consensus here. Also note these are real, inflation-corrected wages. You can tell especially by the WSJ's concern over prices, if inflation explained the changes it wouldn't impact export costs which are priced in USD not Yuan.

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well china has a huge growth, but after the 2008 crisis I can still raise my eyebrows.

why would americans really care inequality in china ? if american politics want to reduce inequality, they want to do it in their country, not in developing countries.

Some people care about people in general, even if they are far away.

If you live in America and are struggling to make enough to feed and house your family, it's a moot point that the numerical income level puts them in the 1% around the world.(or whatever the percentage is) Local inequality matters.

Local purchasing power is quite different from local inequality

Everybody should care, it has a direct impact on you. If workers in China and India are earning more money and there is less of a gap between what an American gets paid, it makes less sense to outsource.

I could hire workers locally for similar wages and not have a 12 week lead time on manufactured goods.

and how do you want american politics to do something about china ?

Did they also compare/correct not only with "inflation rates" but with raw material (e.g. foods) prices?

To my knowledge, food prices have risen in many countries more than official inflation rates.

Inflation is measured by the cost a a standard basket of goods that includes food items. Well informed people disagree over whether or not that basket is representative or not, but inflation is a least supposed to be a measure of exactly what you are talking about.

The key is "supposed". Inflation rates are always political.

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