One thing to note about the HDI: as far as I know HDI values are not
comparable from year to year. Each year's index is standardized within
the range of countries. In other words it is not based solely on a
country's performance but rather relativized.
Moreover, many of the international organizations do not do their own data
collection but rather rely on the data that a government gives them.
Marty Hart-Landsberg
On Tue, 1 May 2001, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Louis Proyect wrote:
>
> >Actually, if you look at the report itself, you will discover that the main
> >sources for the statistics are the World Bank and IMF:
>
> If you look at the report itself you will discover that the sources are:
>
> life expectancy: UN Population Division
>
> literacy: UNESCO
>
> school enrolment: UNESCO
>
> GDP per capita: World Bank
>
> One out of four ain't bad, I guess.
>
> >Those of us on the left who have been studying current events over the past
> >20 years or so have taken note of the tendency of underdeveloped nations to
> >buckle under to pressure from the World Bank and the IMF. In order to
> >qualify for loans, they have to gut social services, especially in health
> >and education. The consequences of this, logically speaking, would be a
> >decline in health and education indicators. My own reading of the radical
> >books and magazines from underdeveloped countries tends to reinforce that
> >view.
>
> Wow, I didn't know about these terrible things the WB & IMF were up
> to. Thanks for the update!
>
> Doug
>
