ECONOMICS

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STANDARD OF LIVING WORLD STATS, the revealing measurement

The U.S. ranks 4th in GDP, yet it is 92nd in distribution of wealth—UN measurement.  In other words the top 5% live the best of all nations, and the bottom 25% live worse than in countries such as Greece.  This disparity explains why the U.S. with the most expensive medical system is counted as 37th as to quality of care by the World Health Organization.  Instead of addressing this disparity, both parties have been handing out tax breaks to the top 5% and corporations.  Without election-founding reform, we can expect this trend to continue.  WAKE UP AMERICAN PEOPLE—the politicians are serving BIG BUSINESS!  We have a corporatist state.  This will not change until a populist party is elected. 

 

 

Physical quality-of-life index

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The physical quality-of-life index (PQLI) is an attempt to measure the quality of life or well-being of a country. The value is a single number derived from basic literacy rate, infant mortality, and life expectancy at age one, all equally weighted on a 0 to 100 scale.

It was developed for the Overseas Development Council in the mid-1970s by Morris David Morris, as one of a number of measures created due to dissatisfaction with the use of GNP as an indicator of development. PQLI might be regarded as an improvement but shares the general problems of measuring quality of life in a quantitative way.

The UN Human Development Index is a more widely used means of measuring well-being.

The physical quality of life is an average of three statistics; literacy rate, infant mortality rate, and life expectancy. However before these statistics can be averaged, infant mortality and life expectancy must be indexed. It is the indexed infant mortality rate, indexed mortality rate and the literacy rate that is averaged out to give the Physical Quality of Life value.

 

Human Development Index

The UN Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, childbirth, and other factors for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. The index was developed in 1990 by the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, and has been used since 1993 by the United Nations Development Programme in its annual Human Development Report.

The HDI measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development:


Each year, UN member states are listed and ranked according to these measures. Those high on the list often advertise it, as a means of attracting talented immigrants (economically, individual capital) or discouraging emigration.

An alternative measure, focusing on the amount of poverty in a country, is the Human Poverty Index.

 

Top thirty countries (HDI range from 0.963 down to 0.878)

  1.  Norway (=)
  2.  Iceland (↑ 5)
  3.  Australia (=)
  4.  Luxembourg (↑ 11)
  5.  Canada (↓ 1)
  6.  Sweden (↓ 4)
  7.  Switzerland (↑ 4)
  8.  Ireland (↑ 2)
  9.  Belgium (↓ 3)
  10.  United States (↓ 2)
  1.  Japan (↓ 2)
  2.  Netherlands (↓ 7)
  3.  Finland (=)
  4.  Denmark (↑ 3)
  5.  United Kingdom (↓ 3)
  6.  France (=)
  7.  Austria (↓ 3)
  8.  Italy (↑ 3)
  9.  New Zealand (↓ 1)
  10.  Germany (↓ 1)
  1.  Spain (↓ 1)
  2.  Hong Kong (↑ 1)
  3.  Israel (↓ 1)
  4.  Greece (=)
  5.  Singapore (=)
  6.  Slovenia (↑ 1)
  7.  Portugal (↓ 1)
  8.  South Korea (=)
  9.  Cyprus (↑ 1)
  10.  Barbados (↓ 1)

 

Note: Number in parentheses indicates change in rank since last report

 

The bottom ten countries are Mozambique, Burundi, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Niger (last)

 

 

World map indicating HDI of UN member states, 2003.

██ 0.950 and higher

██ 0.900-0.949

██ 0.850-0.899

██ 0.800-0.849

██ 0.750-0.799

██ 0.700-0.749

██ 0.650-0.699

██ 0.600-0.649

██ 0.550-0.599

██ 0.500-0.549

██ 0.450-0.499

██ 0.400-0.449

██ 0.350-0.399

██ 0.300-0.349

██ lower than 0.300

██ N/A

 

 

Method used to calculate the Human Development Index

In general to transform a raw variable, say x, into a unit-free index between 0 and 1 (which allows different indices to be added together), the following formula is used:

·      x-index =

where and are the lowest and highest values the variable x can attain, respectively.

The Human Development Index (HDI) then represents the average of the following three general indices:

·      Life Expectancy Index =

·      Education Index =

·      Adult Literacy Index (ALI) =

·      Gross Enrolment Index (GEI) =

·      GDP Index =

LE: Life expectancy
ALR: Adult literacy rate
CGER: Combined gross enrolment ratio
GDPpc: GNP per capita at
PPP in USD

2005 report

The report for 2005 shows that, in general, the HDI for countries around the world is improving, with two major exceptions: Post-Soviet states, and Sub-Saharan Africa, both of which show steady decline. Worsening education, economies, and mortality rates have contributed to HDI declines amongst countries in the first group, while HIV/AIDS and concomitant mortality is the principal cause of decline in the second group.

Most of the data used for the 2005 report, indicating country HDIs for 2003, are derived largely from 2003 or earlier. Not all UN member states choose to or are able to provide the necessary statistics. Notable absences from the list (excluding micro-states) are Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia, North Korea, Serbia and Montenegro, and Somalia. While these countries are either unwilling or unable to provide data, they are generally considered countries of medium to low human development.

An HDI below 0.5 is considered to represent low development and 30 of the 32 countries in that category are located in Africa, with the exceptions of Haiti and Yemen. The bottom ten countries are all in Africa. The highest-scoring Sub-Saharan country, South Africa, is ranked 120th (with an HDI of 0.658), which is well above most other countries in the region.

An HDI 0.8 or more is considered to represent high development. This includes countries of northern and western Europe, Australia, Israel, Canada, the United States, and Japan. Other countries that exhibit high human development amidst countries with lower HDIs include (with their position) South Korea (28th), Costa Rica (47th), Cuba (52nd), and Panama (56th).

The following countries or territories are not ranked in the 2005 Human Development Index, for being unable or unwilling to provide the necessary data.

Africa

Asia

Europe

Oceania

 

 

The United States has among developed countries the highest income disparity, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient for the Gini Coefficient.  It yields a number between 1 & 0, with 0 being perfect distribution.  The U.S. is in the .40-.44 range, whereas Germany is in the .25-29 range as is all of Scandinavia.  France, Spain, Canada, among others is in the 30-34 range.  The U.S. ranks 92nd from the top, yet is 4th on the basis of GDP.--jk.

 

While most developed European nations tend to have Gini coefficients between 0.24 and 0.36, the United States Gini coefficient is above 0.4, indicating that the United States has greater inequality. Using the Gini can help quantify differences in welfare and compensation policies and philosophies. 

quality-of-life-un-2jp.jpg

 

 

Rank

Country

Gini
index

Richest 10%
to poorest 10%

Richest 20%
to poorest 20%

Survey
year

1

Denmark

24.7

8.1

4.3

1997

2

Japan

24.9

4.5

3.4

1993

3

Sweden

25

6.2

4

2000

4

Belgium

25

7.8

4.5

1996

5

Czech Republic

25.4

5.2

3.5

1996

6

Norway

25.8

6.1

3.9

2000

 

 

 

 

 

 

91

Costa Rica

46.5

25.1

12.3

2000

92

United States*

46.6

15.9

8.4

2000

93

Guinea-Bissau

47

19

10.3

1993

94

Dominican Republic

47.4

17.7

10.5

1998

95

Madagascar

47.5

19.2

11

2001

96

The Gambia

47.5

20.2

11.2

1998

97

Burkina Faso

48.2

26.2

13.6

1998

98

Venezuela

49.1

62.9

17.9

1998

99

Malaysia

49.2

22.1

12.4

1997

100

Peru

49.8

49.9

18.4

2000

101

Malawi

50.3

22.7

11.6

1997

102

Mali

50.5

23.1

12.2

1994

103

Niger

50.5

46

20.7

1995

104

Nigeria

50.6

24.9

12.8

1996

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality

 

Rank

Country

GDP
per capita

1

Luxembourg

69,800

2

Norway

42,364

3

United States

41,399

4

Ireland

40,610

5

Iceland

35,586

6

Denmark

34,737

7

Canada

34,273

8

Austria

33,615

9

Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China

33,411

10

Switzerland

32,571

11

Qatar

31,397

12

Belgium

31,244

13

Finland

31,208

14

Australia

30,897

15

Netherlands

30,862

16

Japan

30,615

17

Germany

30,579

18

United Kingdom

30,470

19

Sweden

29,898

20

France

29,316

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

 

 

A site which goes into the changes in the U.S. not just of economic expansion (GDP), but also of life expectancy & height http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/steckel.standard.living.us, but it has bugger all about disparity of wealth and medical treatment, or about standard of living.  The Encyclopedia Britannica has nothing of value.  The American press does not wish to stir up the people, and therefore fails to effectively address this topic of paramount importance to all but the top 10%.  Outside of the UN and the Wikipedia, information is scattered and incomplete.  If you have a good source, contact us.  

 

For the best account of the Federal Reserve  (http://www.freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=214).  One cannot understand U.S. politics, U.S. foreign policy, or the world-wide economic crisis unless one understands the role of the Federal Reserve Bank and its role in the financialization phenomena.  The same sort of national-banking relationships as in our country also exists in Japan and most of Europe.