>>>Check out their GDP, their literacy rate, the amount of basic infrastructure like plumbing outside the big cities.
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>Trouble is that the "big cities" by themselves are as big as Europe or the USA. They're humming.
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>If you want to compare, check out Shanghai- specifically the new roads.
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>Seems to me the problems for China are downstream, when pollution and a downtrodden underclass exert the effects they always do.

You have been around here long enough that you probably remember Norm Weil. He owned a textile business and the last time I talked to him he had been spending a lot of time in Shanghai, since the business has moved to China. He said Shanghai makes New York look like a cow town. That was a really extraordinary statement coming from Norm, NYC's roving goodwill ambassador and a Harvard graduate.