And hence coming to the point that household income percentage spending on food correlates with the denominator (income) and thus development to a high degree.
You can only increase total food consumption so much with higher income (even accounting for pricier quality etc)...given most people migrate more spending on other things (housing, transport etc).
BD having 50% of its household consumption on food, a much larger percentage than India and Pakistan, shows a fundamental figure about its base household consumption (the denominator).....while the quality of the food consumption details the numerator quality.
Both need to be improved to large degrees before people from BD can laugh about road, steel and electricity consumption in the rest of the region as being "bourgeoisie" or whatever....especially when they themselves are using the internet and all the support structures it requires in posting those very emojis and one liners.
After all tell me one country with more than 10 million people that has effectively industrialised without increasing its steel, cement and electricity consumption? BD being a very one-trick pony that has put all its chips in the RMG sector is actually going to be a pretty nasty structural problem if its not remedied ASAP. Boasting about "industrial" growth (because of low base phenomenon) and equally wailing about PPP being "grossly under-reported" in other threads while ignoring or dismissing the fundamental reason behind this (low household % spending on non-food on an already low household income) tells all one needs to really know about the majority of discussions on this forum (quite unfortunately).
Sure they will be eating rice whatever their income (cultural connection, heritage, developed preference etc)....but getting 80% of their energy from rice intake?
@Doyalbaba and others say they are elites (like the top 1% or whatever)....why don't you ask them if they get
this much of their daily energy from eating rice?
All I am saying is that diet diversity will generally migrate to the better as incomes improve. I know plenty of ukrainian and polish people out here who tell me the basic diet of their previous generations back home (esp during lean seasons) were potatoes and whatever else they could scrap together. Obviously these areas have developed since and people still eat lots of potatoes, but it doesnt make 80% of their daily energy.
@Mohammed Khaled can verify.
Cultural affinity to whatever your native homeland starch is, is not enough to maintain 80% energy intake of it with higher incomes and more choices at easier reach.
Im not comparing just "economic growth" here, its something deeper than that. Its development. To improve its overall PPP consumption drastically, whatever factors are holding BD diet quality/supply at the poor level it is at especially given it uses up 50%+ of average BD household income needs to change and change fast....so that the 50% ratio can come down...so that those % increments can go to consuming non-food and spur demand (and thus supply) for those goods which have further quality of life improvements and multiplier effects. Its a cascading effect.
Or you can dismiss it all as a "cultural" thing and scratch your head why BD per person consumes a lot less overall than Indians and Pakistanis....and basically everyone else in the region except maybe the Nepalese.