They blocked the road here because it does contain carbondioxide. Not because of a political reason.. of course. Maybe they now determined that democracy is also part of the worldwide communistic system.
The truth is, as is frequently the case, somewhat different. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html versus the PRC https://biz30.timedoctor.com/average-salary-in-china/
i did google and it says 55k average but i dont see how that is people working at restuarnats and warehouse jobs arent making 55k a year. maybe there counting people like bill gates in the average /shrug! Andarriel
when ya got guys like bezos makin billions makin ,i, rockets and around 100k others just like him.. it affects the other 349 millon.. also google, like the fbi.. is assho. cant trust 'em. 'dont be evil', was forgotten long ago. but you are correct, most of the country is under 30k. poverty line is 13k i believe, which is about $1100/month-ish. Tons of folk around here. But tons of folk playin stocks too. best solution for everyone: use a different search engine permanently.
Rather obvious, but when calculating the average income of any nation it have to include those at both ends of the curve. Those making nothing and those making billions factor into the average. There is huge income disparity in the U.S. Nothing new there actually, but the degree of the disparity has certainly widened a lot in the past 10 years plus.
The median wage in the United States is closer to $35,000 per *individual*. This of course doesn't take into account inflation, the (often unwillingly) unemployed, the disabled, and so on - it would be much lower otherwise relative to historical figures (especially right around the time the minimum wage was created as law.) US numbers are quite doctored depending on who you get the information from. You might say they're about as doctored as the state-reported employment numbers, or a private business's balance sheet, or the memo that Iraq had WMDs. You might even say they're as doctored as a *gasp* communist country's! As for China, I think it's better to take the stance that you don't know anything except what you were fed by corporate interests (the media) and the US government and western 'democracy' in general. The guy who actually has a house in Guangdong probably has a much better idea of what's going on, but there again, China is a very big country, and just because you live somewhere, doesn't mean you know much of anything about it (see most Americans.) Everyone has biases.
Do not trust those numbers they are part of the mass propaganda and manipulation. I have researched the statistics for germany and they are nearly the same like for the USA. The true numbers should be way lower and only about half as high. Especially china seems to be way overrated. Here the numbers in US-dollar for 2020/2021 using the actual currency exchange rates. Monthly private gross median household income (before taxes and insurances): USA 2020: 5,627 USD - Source Germany 2021: 5,348 USD (4734 EUR) - Source China 2021: 4,879 USD (31,100 Yuan) - Source
Anyway, the main point of that remark was not about what the –absolute– wage level in the US or China currently is, but rather that the –relative– difference between the two in 2021 is much smaller than it was during EQ's Asian push in 2005 (because China has developed), and therefore hiring an army of Chinese Migrant workers to farm your plat is no longer as profitable as it used it be.
EQ1 already did Dragons of Norrath (2005) at roughly the same time EQ2 did "EverQuest East". They were clearly trying to "get in on" the Asian market that year. Although the aesthetic of Don is more based on Japan than on China.
And the experiment failed badly. The japanese style of DoN is not very appealing to western players and SOE was not able to attract alot asian players. One of the worst expansions ever. I remember when EQ had alot japanese players in the early years but they all were gone when Final Fantasy XI got released in november 2002 right after the Planes of Power launch. Aaaand.... its gone !
DoN felt like a mix of East Asian cultures. It was a nice expansion, other than cleric dragons, complete healing :-D Blending real world culture in game for this expansion was good.. TBM was a little less subtle :-D I suppose the real barrier is EQ chat having support for hanzi / kanji / hangul - not sure it does.
