Preface
The mainland is the world's most populous country and has a huge consumer market, and with the continuous growth of the mainland's overall economic strength, the scale of the mainland consumer market is also expanding, and in 2020, the mainland has become the world's second largest consumer market.
However, although the mainland's consumer market is huge, there is still a certain gap between it and the United States, the world's largest consumer market, and we must know that the total population of the United States is only just over 300 million.
So why do Americans have so much spending power?
Strong economic support
"Money is not everything, but no money is everything!"
To a large extent, the strength of spending power has a lot to do with whether people have money in their hands.
The United States is the most powerful country in the world in terms of overall strength, and the per capita income of the American people is also among the highest in the world.
For many populous countries in the world, although their population is much larger than that of Americans, the economic strength of ordinary people still has a huge gap with the United States.
As a result, ordinary people in these countries do not have the same consumption power as the United States, and in such a situation, the consumption level of these countries is naturally inferior to that of Americans.
However, as far as the mainland is concerned, although there is still a big gap between the per capita income level of the mainland people and that of the Americans, in addition to the income level gap between China and the United States, there is also a big difference between the consumption outlook of the Chinese people and the Americans.
Different views on consumption
There is a big difference between ordinary people in China and the United States in terms of consumption, for example, ordinary people in the mainland, after they have money, will choose to save more money instead of directly using it for consumption.
This is because under the influence of thousands of years of history and culture, the family concept of ordinary people on the mainland is very strong, and many ordinary people have a very strong sense of family responsibility.
Therefore, after making money, mainland people usually save their money in the hope that they can cope with the huge expenses of other family members in the future, such as illness, marriage, education, etc.
The bride price required for marriage
In addition, it is not that the Chinese people do not want to consume, but because the Chinese people generally look farther, and many people prefer to plan for the future in the long run, which makes us not care about temporary consumption.
For the American people, because the history of the founding of the United States is not long, and for most of the time, the living standards of Americans are also in a very high state compared with other countries.
For example, in the golden age of American development, there was a situation where an ordinary American worker could easily support his family by working.
Therefore, in terms of consumption, Americans do not save most of their money like the mainland people to prepare for possible crises in the future, and they prefer to spend their money directly.
Not only that, but for a long time, the material standard of living in the United States has been in a very high state.
For example, during World War II, when other countries in the world were threatened by war, and the people of these countries often did not go to food, the life of the United States was not affected by the war.
Although the Americans also implemented resource control measures for a period of time during this period, providing food for front-line soldiers by restricting people's consumption.
But even during this period, sausages, bread, roast chicken, and other foods were still the norm in the lives of ordinary Americans, and some people were even able to get their hands on alcohol through some means.
It can be said that Americans have not suffered any "hard times", which leads to their general confidence in the future, and in this way, Americans will naturally invest the money they earn in consumption to improve their lives.
However, as far as the people of the mainland are concerned, the level of economic development of the mainland has attracted worldwide attention, and in a very short period of time, the mainland has become the second economic power in the world after the United States.
But this also means that in the memory of the mainland people, there are still memories of those hard days in history, and it is precisely because of understanding the hard days of the past that we will save more money to deal with possible problems in the future.
It is this huge gap in consumption concepts that has led Americans to show greater spending power.
Disparities in the size of the manufacturing industry
China has the largest manufacturing industry in the world, and the huge scale of manufacturing allows us to produce almost any commodity, which makes many of the goods sold in the mainland are made by ourselves.
So, this eliminates costs such as shipping, customs, duties, etc., so that our products can be sold at a relatively low price.
In the United States, due to the continuous industrial transfer, a large number of factories in the country have been relocated to other countries, which has led to a large number of goods that the United States needs are actually from abroad.
When these goods from abroad enter the U.S. market, they will naturally be subject to large additional costs in terms of transportation, tariffs, etc., and these costs will also lead to an increase in the price of goods in the U.S. market.
As a result, when Americans buy the same goods, the amount of money they spend is generally higher than that of ordinary people on the mainland.
Under such circumstances, Americans' spending power has naturally been raised a lot.
epilogue
The high level of consumption of Americans is naturally very enviable, and with its strong comprehensive strength, the living standards of Americans have always been at the forefront of the world.
However, some of us do not need to be presumptuous and gain some inexplicable "pleasure" by comparing the huge gap between China and the United States.
Because the vigorous development of Chinese society is the last 20 years, and in this short period of 20 or 30 years, the consumption level of the mainland people has actually been growing every year, and our quality of life has also been constantly improving.
It is believed that under the pursuit of a better life by the Chinese people, the living standards and quality of the mainland people will be improved step by step.
Resources
Financial website: "Zhang Ping: Why is the world's largest consumer market with a population of only 330 million?", July 27, 2020
Xinhua News Agency, "41.2 trillion yuan: China becomes the world's second largest consumer market", October 19, 2020
China News Network: "Household deposits increased by more than 10 trillion yuan in the first half of the year, why do Chinese people love to save money more?", July 13, 2022