
Maps that illustrate the global economy - ejr
http://www.vox.com/2014/8/26/6063749/38-maps-that-explain-the-global-economy
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contingencies
Observations. I think many people would benefit from meditating over the
tremendous significance of map #26: _Asia is ridiculously important_.

About the money stuff: this is all extremely misleading chiefly because a lot
of people grow and/or catch their own food and build their own houses on
community owned land with _no debt_ , thus have minimal expenses and no
interest in having or raising this number. The global capitalist system seeks
to change this, often by stealing their land at gunpoint or children with the
lure of materialism, but while increasing material 'wealth' (ie. shiny
trinkets and nominally convenient tech) ultimately results in bad things
happening to health (sometimes; this can go both ways), community, security,
and the environment.

In map #35, _Open defecation in India_ , look at the difference between the
hard-line Hindu state of Tamil Nadu (southeast) versus the long-time communist
state of Kerala (southwest coast). Incidentally, you see open defecation in
southeast Asia and China as well.

In map #37, in 13 years I've never seen anyone appearing to be obviously
malnourished and/or starving in China (and my time tends towards
mountainous/poor areas), so I'm not sure where they get their statistics from.
The throwaway remark about them 'getting better at feeding their people' is
frankly bullshit: China is a leader in agricultural science, they are very
good at extracting vast productivity from small areas of land and producing
protein-rich foods such as tofu in harsh climates.

Similarly, map #38 is complete bullshit. China is _absolutely covered_ in
extremely high quality infrastructure such as highways.

~~~
netcan
I don't know if its the world or me that changed in the last year or so, but
I've reached some kind of point with this evangelical sounding language,
especially (but not exclusively) when it was a hard left bent. It hits me like
listening to a 5 year old talk about surrendering themselves to Jesus. "
_global capitalist system seeks to change this, often by stealing their land
at gunpoint or children with the lure of materialism_ "

You couldn't talk this way among people I know, especially the more
intelligent and opinionated among them. They would either roll their eyes and
look for an exit like they would when confronted by a door knocking cult
member or get sucked in inevitably resulting in cross "don't encourage them"
looks from their girlfriend.

Where do people find enough other people to talk to where they can even
develop this way of speaking. With cults you need to be around only other
members of the cult to sound like this.

I think I'm starting to buy into this internet feedback bubble. I think it
might be where new cults get made.

~~~
contingencies
I agree that the statement is general and grating and may come across as
questionable. In fact, I travel extensively and live in the developing world
and my perspective is based on my own observations across many continents and
two decades, plus media consumption, meetings with extensive NGO workers,
diplomats, journalists and so on. You are of course more than entitled to an
alternative perspective, I'd simply wager it's not as well founded.

~~~
netcan
Thank you. I will consider forming one.

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JackFr
Most interesting to me is unremarked by the article. #5 showing North and
South Korea, also shows a virtual city of light in the middle of the Sea of
Japan.

A little Googling shows its fisherman attracting the squid to the surface with
massive lights. Who knew?

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chvid
I enjoyed this collection.

Every visualization have some kind of bias in what data is used. How it is
categorized. Mapped to colors. Projected on screen. Mapped on to a world map
which itself is biased. Etc. etc. But compared to raw numbers or text the
quantity of information that can be chucked into a picture is magnitudes
greater. And it is immediately understandable and invites to further
exploration in way no other media does.

I really wish we had more of this.

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dj-wonk
The very notion of a center of X makes a lot of sense when such a
simplification is useful. For mass, the center of mass is a lossless (or
nearly so) simplification. In physics, the movement of complex object can be
understood with only its center of mass.

Not so with economics; I'm very skeptical of a "center of economic activity"
constructed as shown in figure 2. What questions does it answer well that a
proper geographic distribution does not? (It certainly doesn't imply that all
economic transactions go through that "center".) I think it misleads more than
it helps. (And I'm not even going into the 3D -> 2D problems.)

~~~
lifeisstillgood
Perhaps centre of a graph is more useful - economic activity is almost always
an edge between two nodes, so the usefulness of graph theory seems apt (and
afaik common) with economics - so a map showing the volume / value of
transactions between actors would perhaps be useful - I have not seen all the
maps here but it would presumably see NYC glowing with shipping and financial
nodes ...

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dj-wonk
I see a big theoretical and practical problem with Figure 2's projection of a
3D center of gravity to our planet's surface. For now, lets ignore all the
other problems (e.g. does calculating a "center" really help answer useful
questions).

The 2D projection only shows "non-radial" movements (e.g. shifts not pointed
towards the earth's core). For example, if the center of gravity moves
directly to the other side of the planet, the 2D projection won't change until
the 3D point passes through the core, at which point the projection would jump
wildly to the other side of the planet.

This is probably quite similar to what has really happened. I'd expect that
the westward shift from AD 1 to 1950 had much to do with the growth in the
Americas. Afterwards, I'd expect growth in India, China, and Japan moved the
center eastward.

~~~
dataewan
That is exactly the method they use. Calculate the centre of economic gravity,
then project it onto the closest point on the surface of the globe.

Here is a nice analysis that does the same process in a more intuitive way. It
calculates the centre of economic gravity in 2D map coordinates. This gives
results that are easier to understand, because everyone's used to looking at
2D maps.

[http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/djv/world_economic_center...](http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/djv/world_economic_center/blob/master/map.ipynb)

Previous discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8034394](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8034394)

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Shivetya
I particularly found map #4, the Federal Reserve map, to be very interesting.
An artifact of politics from days gone by the still has influence today. Does
the Fed always move as whole or is there any real infighting going on there?

However with such a wealth of information I am sure as I go through the rest I
will find something else to take up my day

okay, #35 creeps me out. Having read a story on how difficult it is to get
people to use toilets even after the government went on a building spree I can
understand how the map can look so extreme

~~~
Symmetry
Regarding #4, traditionally there's a great effort to project unanimity by the
Fed board, but that broke down a bit in the recent crisis, and there's always
a bit of behind the scenes politicking.

As to #35, for most of the last couple of thousand years having religious
prohibitions about not crapping in your house was actually a good thing. It's
only with the invention of indoor plumbing that it's suddenly a disadvantage.

[http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/06/open-defecation-
solve...](http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/06/open-defecation-solves-the-
child-mortality-puzzle-among-indian-muslims/)

~~~
PeterisP
Okay, if your traditions prohibit crapping in your house - no problem, build a
network of decent outhouses. I mean, if most dirt-poor 15th century
subsistence farmers could build an outhouse for themselves, then that should
be no problem for a 21th century farming villages with government support.

The child growth stunting effects aren't caused by lack of nice plumbing as
such - even moving from open defecation to covered pit toilets would solve
most of the problem.

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yeppers8
[http://www.vox.com/a/how-the-us-is-changing](http://www.vox.com/a/how-the-us-
is-changing) is another good read if you enjoyed this

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TeMPOraL
Doesn't the second map (Economic centrer of gravity map) [0] depend on the
projection you use? I.e. if you'd shift the map so that the Americas are in
the middle of the picture, then wouldn't the "center of gravity" end up in the
US?

[0] - [http://cdn3.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/666632/mck...](http://cdn3.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/666632/mckinsey-global-center-map.0.png)

~~~
chvid
Yes. I think that there are some problems there.

And besides does the point make any sense at all? The world's economic center
of gravity is currently somewhere in northern Russia.

The movement on the hand tells a clear story of forming circle where the
world's economic activity returns to Asia from a short trip to Europe and USA.

The movement is maybe less dependent on the projection.

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jiri
Map 3 World Light Map shows many light points in Western Australia. I thought
that there is negligible population in this area. Is the map incorect or ..
why?

~~~
twelvechairs
Mining. See this link for example

[http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/16/169511949/a-mys...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/16/169511949/a-mysterious-
patch-of-light-shows-up-in-the-north-dakota-dark)

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mseebach
The original title promises maps that _explain_ the global economy and of
course it does nothing of the sort.

Most of the maps are fun, quirky and/or entertaining. A few of them illustrate
a single, isolated point well. But explain more than the most trivial points
(China is kind of a big deal!) they most certainly don't.

Vox increasingly looks like intellectually pretentious Buzzfeed.

~~~
acheron
"increasingly" implies it didn't start there to begin with. I'm pretty sure
"intellectually pretentious Buzzfeed" was the entire point.

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malka
Little remark about the map 'Unemployment in Europe'

I can't speak for other countries, but in France the official metric is
heavily manipulated and does not make sense anymore. Basically, if you are
unemployed long enough (~2 year), you do not get money from the unemployment
insurance, and thereby are no longer unemployed.

Beside that, extremely cool collection of maps.

~~~
Kurtz79
I cannot speak for the rest of the world, but Spain and Italy have similar
systems, so even if in absolute the measure is not exact, the comparison it's
still meaningful.

~~~
davidw
What's interesting to me, looking at that map, is how much northern Italy is
closer to the rest of Europe than the south.

~~~
Kurtz79
There has always been a contrast in Italy between the north and the south
regions, due to their varied history, in terms of economy, and not only.

It's not uncommon for a country (I would say it´s perfectly normal) to have
areas with an higher concentration of wealth compared to others, but in Italy
the contrast it´s particularly stark, possibly due to its very shape.

~~~
davidw
It probably has more to do with history than the shape. The Veneto, where I
live, was an independent republic for longer than the United States has been a
going concern. The south tended to be bandied about between various foreign
powers, feudal states, and so on.

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lifeisstillgood
First map - first question. Is UAE/Saudi (in black like USA) actually got >
50k per head, or is that per head of _citizens_ instead of per head of acini
if participants (large immigrant worker population)

And would counting Americas _cardless_ Mexicans affect the per capita count
too?

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afterburner
Map 9 is so badly coloured; the black lines indicate the largest volume of
trade, but blend into the background. The red lines pop out, but represent the
least trade.

I love Map 10 though, principal exports, very interesting.

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dj-wonk
It might be interesting to see a measure of spread visualized alongside the
center of gravity (figure 2), perhaps using a translucent circle of varying
radius.

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Hermel
Map 13 somehow misses Germany as the top exporter after China with roughly 1
trillion € in exports. Maybe they are netting intra-EU trade?

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zvyenx
Nice collection and analysis, these maps are mostly right out of wikipedia but
includes a good analysis and research

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iillmaticc
This was wonderful. Thanks for posting OP.

