I think it can almost be safe to say that you live in a modern, industrialized economy when consumers become conspicuous.
Yes, there is a thin grey line there and I believe the definitive measurement is chrome hub cabs: aka rims.
I just saw three different cars driving around outside with some flashy rims (no spinners though). It could be that the drivers are all in college (I live near Kyung Hee University), as it is still impossible to guess how old azn people are. Ageless between 20 and 40.
Other things the local men typically blow their cash on: “massage” parlors, horse gambling, liters of soju.
Last week I discussed the global trends of Firefox 3.0 downloads. Some people questioned my methodology (1 2) that I was grasping at straws regarding Iraq. But I believe the following graph, created after 7 days of downloads (20+ million so far), helps put things into perspective.
Where I got the numbers:
- populations (wikipedia)
- internet users (wikipedia and IWS)
- FF downloads (Spread Firefox)
The first five countries are listed because they have aggregated the most FF downloads thus far. No surprises.
The next grouping is Asia, specifically the eastern part (minus Japan). The two notable surprises are that Taiwan and Singapore.
Taiwan has half the population of South Korea but has downloaded FF 60% more than their Korean counterparts. I attribute this to the fact that FF 3 has not be made available in Korean Hangul yet whereas it has been made available in Chinese. And while I have lived in both Korea and Taiwan (I currently live in Seoul), I still can’t generalize about their surfing habits (they all use Naver though… hate!).
Singapore is another interesting case because its residents have downloaded FF nearly as much as its significantly larger neighbors. Again, I attribute this to the language barrier (Chinese and English are the predominantly used dialects in Singapore). When FF is translated into more languages it will probably be increasingly adopted in those regions.
North Korea is an absolute shit hole, don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. Several of my coworkers and friends have had the chance to take tours up there. Things to keep in mind. You are only allowed to take a guided tour in special Potemkin villages (fake tourist villages). You cannot stray away. The infrastructure has completely collapsed since they no longer receive the subsidies and free handouts from their old soviet pals. There is one internet cafe in the entire country, it is in Pyongyang and only politically connected individuals can use it. The sole ISP connects via a filtered satellite connection. That’s it. Hence the big fat zero internet users and FF downloads. And yea, I would personally like to visit it, but the money you spend on the tourist package directly funds Kim’s regime (you know he still operates gulag’s right?).
Anyways, one thing I would have liked to see in the China downloads is a separation of Hong Kong, Macao and the SERs. I would wager that the vast majority of traffic comes from these regions.
The next grouping is the Middle East. The internet user numbers come from IWS.
As I pointed out a week ago, the thing that sticks out the most is that number from Iraq. All of its neighbors have a substantially larger net presence and FF downloads. In fact, the refugee camp known as Palestine has a larger FF user base. Again, I attribute this solely to the fact that war has been terrible to the Iraqi infrastructure and economy as a whole. More on that here and here.
The next group is basically the “Axis of Evil.” Despite the political rhetoric of Bush and Bolton, these places really are run by tin pot dictators or are in a constant state of war. Thus, it is not surprising that their FF numbers are very low relative to the next group: the Commonwealth.
Yes, I think these two groups are a good illustration of dichotomy. Similar sized populations, totally different levels of economic freedom. While I’m not a huge fan of trying to wedge empirical data into philosophical matters, I think this shows the correlation between freer markets versus socialized/nationalized markets.
Actually, lets give the residents of Afghanistan a free pass. They endured a 10 year invasion from the Soviets. During this time the CIA funded the counter-insurgency (the Mujahideen in Operation Cyclone) which gave rise to the Taliban. After the Soviets left, the Taliban ran around blowing up the place. Now the US military, after pursuing bin Laden, have been occupying the war zone for the past 7 or so years. Yea, so not too many questions as to why their FF numbers are really low unless of course you really think carpet bombing sprouts router connections.
Coda: and while I’ll try to do one more update in a few weeks, I doubt the trends will change. Even if some kind of magical worldwide military deoccupation took place, it would take years to build an infrastructure in the various battle-hardened regions, let alone change the socialist policies that stymie innovation and foreign investment. Oh, and if you haven’t gotten it yet, download FF today: 
