[PoisedWoman]

. With each passing decade, another 100 mil. or so will attain this standard of living.

Maybe. Presently, China has about 900 million peasants who are not allowed to move off their poor plots of land. Taxes are rising and the peasants can barely afford to live in a good year. They were promised government help that never materialized and they're angry. Large numbers of them sneak into Beijing and other cities as "illegals" and work for almost slave wages. Huge unrest fermenting.

I agree that the future is going to belong to Asia. The 20th century was ours, and perhaps half of the 21st, but Asia has been on the ascendant for decades and China will get it right....at this time, it combines the worst elements of capitalism and communism, but if they are smart enough to grow a solid middle class, they'll succeed in being the dominant political and economic power in the world. To which I can only add, they're better than the Arabs by a long shot.

[AIG]

Those 900 mil. peasants have it bad, but 20 years ago over 90% of China's population were peasants but today that figure is just about 67% of China's population (800-900 mil.). In another 20 years, that figure might drop to below 50% of China's population, as economic reforms and the process of urbanization continue. As China's peasant population has decreased over the past 20 years, the number of city-dwellers has increased and some of the city-dwellers have become very rich. Urbanization is associated with increasing wealth and standard of living. 100 years ago, America's own population was 67% rural but now is 67% urban. As industrialization in agriculture grows, fewer people are needed to work on farms so they move to cities and find city jobs.