Imperialism in the XXI century: per capita measures as "cherry picking"

 

Per capita measures are a fiction just like PPP measures. You won’t find PPP or per cápita measures existing anywhere empirically. It’s just a formal measure, a formal redistribution of numerical values according to demography. But that’s not all. Per cápita measures, like real GDP per cápita and income per cápita, are used by Marxists for one and sole reason: they alwasys show the advanced countries better than the emergent or low income countries. This helps to purport the narrative that classical imperialism is alright and well: since there’s no agriculture/industry divide anymore, the only way Marxist economics can pseudo-demonstrate the superiority of the so called “Global North” over the so-called “Global South”, is by using per cápita measures. They don’t even compare internal redistribution of income and wealth, which in Marxist terms should be in terms of classes, not per cápita measures. Even quintilles and deciles are a better measure to adequately analyse redistribution of wealth internally. But that’s not all. Even though this is an internal measure, mixed with demographics, these per capita measures are still used for external comparative analysis of GDP or income figures. Why don’t they use real GDP as it is, or income as it is (GNI or otherwise)? Because it will show a bigger growth for middle income and low income countries compared to high income ones; because it will show that classical imperialism doesn’t exist anymore.