Indicators of development

INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT

Task 1

What does GDP measure?

GDP measures the money value of all goods in a country during a period of time and is measured on an annual basis.  It includes all of private and public consumption, government outlays, investments and exports less than it imports within a defined territory or border.

Why is GDP used as a measurement?

GDP is used to measure what the total value of all goods in a country so you can see the health of economy in that country. It is also good because you can see how much the country has earned in a year per capita and how much the country has spent per capita. If you have a look at the map you can see the first world countries have high GDP and the third world countries have low GDP. Also all of the countries that have bad conditions to grow goods have high GDP because they would import a lot but they would have low exports.

Task 2:

What can I see? What patterns?

On this map the countries that are shaded dark are the countries that have a high GDP and the countries that are shaded in lightly are countries that have a low GDP and therefore do not have a very large income. The countries that are LDEC’s have a low GDP per capita meaning that each individual does not make a large income and therefore cannot develop and break the poverty line. All the countries that have a high GDP are also MDEC’s, which adds to the theory, which says countries in the poverty cycle also have a low GDP.

Connections

I already know that people are in poverty mainly for two reasons; they have been kicked out of their home or area in which they live or they do not have the money to pay their rent or loans and have had their house returned to the bank or have had to sell it. A low GDP per capita means that a lot of people are in the poverty cycle and are not making enough money to pay for their own and their family’s food and residence.

Task 3:

GDP measures income but not equality, measures growth but not destruction and it ignores values like social cohesion and the environment. What I’m saying is that the GDP measures statistics, but nothing else. What it is missing out on is equality, values (personal, national etc.), the environments and nature. So, the GDP does have problems, and like everything else, nothing is perfect.

So the Question we should be asking ourselves is, ‘is GDP a good way to measure growth?

Task 4:

The Most Developed Country

Norway, or the Kingdom of Norway has is the most developed country currently in the world. This country that has almost 5 million people populating it is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with extremely high education standards and a very low poverty rate and unemployment rate, with a life expectancy of 80.2 years.

HDI Definition

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development.

Which Is A Better Way To Measure Development?

I think that HDI is a better measurement toll because it is actually looking at the quality of life because if people are living in the streets with no food and water there life expectancy will be lowered by a large margin. It is better than GDP because the government could just buy a lot of goods and still have all these homeless people on the streets and get a good rating but I think that this is a false sense of rating.

Task 5:

The HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country and not just economic growth by itself.

It has two main features:

A scale from 0 (no development) to 1 (complete development).

An index, which is based on three equally, weighted components:

1. Longevity, measured by life expectancy at birth
2. Knowledge,  measured by adult literacy and number of yearschildren are enrolled at school
3. Standard of living,  measured by real GDP per capita at purchasing power parity

The Shortcomings of HDI:

1.    The HDI index is for a single country, and as such does not distinguish between different rates of development within a country, such as between urban and traditional rural communities.

2.    Critics argue that the equal weighting between the three main components is rather arbitrary.

3.    Development is largely about freedom, but the index does not directly measures this. For example, access to the internet might be regarded by many as a freedom which improves the quality of people's lives.

4.    As with the narrow measure of living standards, GDP per capita, there is no indication of the distribution of income.

5.    In addition, the HDI excludes many aspects of economic and social life that could be regarded as contributing to or constraining development, such as crime, corruption, poverty, deprivation, and negative externalities.

6.    GDP is calculated in terms of purchasing power parity, and the value can change.

No Super powers and economically rich countries are in the top five most GDP countries. The next one is the United States of America at number 6.

All of the countries in the bottom five are LEDCs and are filled with people who are unable to break the poverty cycle.

Qatar is located close to many LEDCs meaning many men, women and children will work for cheap prices and they are most likely working in bad conditions.

Page 6-7:

Australia has the highest life expectancy, the biggest GNI and has the biggest education out of the 4 Countries. Cambodia has the lowest life expectancy and the smallest GNI out of the 4, and Laos has the lowest education. I think Australia has the best conditions in all 3 of these graphs because Australia is the only first world Country out of the 4. Although Cambodia is second world, and Sri Lanka and laos are third world, Cambodia has the worst conditions out of all the Countries, based on these 3 graphs. This is a surprise, and I do not know why Cambodia has the worst conditions.

In the life expectancy graph Australia has the highest average of 80, Cambodia is 62, Laos is 66 and Sri Lanka is 69. This mean that the conditions for living in Australia is better than the other 3 countries.

In the education graph Australia has 12 years of school, Sri Lanka has 8, Cambodia has 5 and Laos has 4. This means that the GDP in the countries with less education might be lower because they will have less working people in their countries.

In the GNI graph the average income for Australians is $38,500 US dollars, East Timor, $5,200, Sri Lanka, $5,000, Laos $2,400 and Cambodia $2,300 so the countries with the lower income like Cambodia would have a higher chance of having  lower GDP then other higher income countries.

Australia is considered a developed country because it has the second highest life expectancy in the world, it is the 3rd easiest country in the world to get employed and it has the world’s most livable city, Melbourne. Australia has a stable economy and is up to date with most of the modern technologies of today.

What are the reasons for poor results in these measures?

The main reason in my opinion is that the government is not spending it’s money wisely enough or just doesn’t have enough money and this then leads to unemployment and people living on the streets which can as I said before lower the life expectancy by a large margin.

1. PQLI index / Physical Quality of Life Index

2. GNH /  Gross National Happiness

3. Happy Planet Index    

4. GNI Per Capita

5. Sustainability 

—When a person is deprived of food, shelter, money and clothing and cannot satisfy their basic needs.

—Poverty line is living on less than $2 per day.

—Extreme poverty is less than$1.25 per day