Human Development Index

Over the years living conditions around the world have improved, even in the poorest of countries. Despite this there is still a clear difference between high-income countries and low-income countries. High-income countries are defined as countries with very productive economic systems where the majority of people have fairly high incomes, while low-income countries are defineed as having low economic systems where most people are poor and many do not meet living standards (Macionis et al., 2005, pg 439). Even though poverty can be found all over the world citizens in low-income countries are living in absolute poverty rather than relative poverty

Intimacy versus isolation is stage six in Erik Ericksons eight stages of human development. This stage takes place from approximately 19-40 years of age (Orlofsky, Marcia, & Lesser, 1973). The big question that people face in this stage is will I be loved or will I be alone. During this stage people start to develop more long term relationships. Friendship, dating, marriage and family play a big role in the happiness of this stage. This is when we leave the people that we grew up with and start our own lives. By establishing

Developing countries face many issues that developed countries don’t have to worry about. From structural problems within the government, to issues with feeding their citizens these countries struggle with what appears to be basic survival issues. In comparison to developed countries, citizens of developing countries life expectancy is shorter, This doesn’t mean that they lack the resources needed to succeed, a majority of these countries just lack the ability to manage their resources efficiently. Corruption, exploitation and lack of a stable economy prevent these developing countries from transitioning from developing to a developed nation .

A: The three basic dimensions of human development according to the United Nations are knowledge, a decent standard of living, and a long and healthy life. One example of a statistic that offers insight into each of these three dimensions is per capita GDP. Other statistics that offer insight into each of these three dimensions are school enrollment rates, literacy rates, and life expectancy at birth.

Over 20 percent of the global population live in unsustainable impoverished conditions, surviving on less than a dollar a day, with approximately 50 percent living on less than two dollars. Over 2 ½ billion people have a 10% infant mortality rate versus the 0.006% of infant deaths in developed countries. As conditions worsen the poor-rich gap widens through progressive decades, reaching an average per capita income of 74:1 in 1997.1 A debate has emerged as the whether developed countries possess a duty to ameliorate the living condition of the global poor and on what grounds said duty is justified.

The variations in the living standards among the people from place to place, and from time to time have always been existent. Greed, injustice and inequality are the three sides of the triangle of poverty and wherever we see them, poverty is always there. Humans cannot overcome a serious problem such as poverty without addressing those three main causes. Even this problem is worldwide; it varies from one area to another. It is higher in areas which were colonized for a long time before such as Africa, Asia and Latin America than other areas which were not colonized for a long time such as Europe and America. We cannot imagine the swift change that happens in the last century in poverty. Surprisingly, it is only one percent of the population that controls most of the international financial assets, creating a massive change in the international landscape of poverty. It was mentioned in the introduction to the text that was taken from Jacob Riis’ book “How the Other Half Lives” this quotation: “Curiously, today, that economic divide has changed and we now speak of a much wider division: the one percent versus nighty nine percent”. It is interesting, but not surprising to see today with all modern thinking and technological progress, poverty is still growing to threaten our existence and it doesn’t seem to go away anytime soon. Most definitely, without addressing the three sides of the triangle of poverty which are greed, injustice and inequality, nothing really will work

The two authors argue the main issue that India is continuing to face are due to the lack of concern for citizens especially for the poor citizens and women. Dreze and Sen proceed into their work as they continue to portray the way in which the citizens of India were being oppressed by the new economic and political policies. One of the issues Dreze and Sen use as an example of how India rapid economic growth is problematic is the countries lack to foster participation for economic growth. The lack of inclusion in economic growth leads to a wealth disparity between the citizens. The authors continue on depicting several other issues another one being the lack of enhancement to the standard of living despite generating economic growth from the use of public goods. The standards of living are a huge issue with India as it signals there is a large disparity within wealth. Dreze and Sen continue to document the lack of social and living standards especially in the case of education, medical care, and physical services like clean water, electricity, drainage, and sanitation. The authors proceed to make note how without a development of a social structure within India high economic growth can harm the citizens and ultimately neglect civil, political, and social rights. Dreze and Sen then

Development indicators measure different aspects of a countries development. For example, life expectancy gives an idea of how long a person is expected to live in a particular country. The higher the life expectancy, the longer a person is expected to live and therefore you can make conclusions about the countries level of development can such as the country is likely to have good medical provision and public health. However, a high value does not necessarily indicate a high level of development. For example, a low number of people per doctor actually indicates a more developed country as does a low value for birth rate and death rate.

Measures of economic well-being such as GDP are subject to some limitations hence it is appropriate to use other alternative measures of economic growth. The limitations of GDP in measuring the economic well-being of a country include failure to capture the underground economy and failure to capture changes inequality. Others include the development of new products and failure to take in account human or leisure costs (Maddison 48).

The development gap refers to the financial and social disparity between the poorest and wealthiest in society. Where economic indicators are low, social indicators are often also low, whereas the wealthiest countries also enjoy better healthcare and education. This gap has been widening for decades and is at its widest today. The poor are not necessarily getting poorer; in fact nearly everybody has seen an improvement in quality of life over the last 20 years. The reason the gap is widening is because the richest are getting richer and having their quality of life improve at a far quicker rate.

The concept of ‘sustainable development’ is one that has faced heated debates for decades now. A seemingly harmless concept, it raises a lot of questions as to what it really entails and how exactly it can be achieved. But with more than 1.3 billion people living in abject poverty (less than $1.25 a day), and with a reported 22,000 children dying every day as a result of poverty (UNICEF), the debate for Sustainable Development becomes interesting as it questions the extremity of economic growth policies, in the war against poverty. Many note economic growth and development as the only tool for poverty alleviation. Roemer and Gugerty, for example, report that GDP growth of 10% per year is associated with income growth of 10% for the poorest 40% of the population. However, others question the extent to which economic growth should be put above other socio-economic factors. Lele points out that the focus on economic growth has led to important ecological and social sustainability, taking the backseat. He argues that due to strong emphasis on economic growth, not enough attention is paid to social equity, and economic stability within the development discourse.

Unfortunately, it was estimated that roughly 1.2 billion people in 1993 lived in extreme or absolute poverty, that which Robert McNamara regards “‘a condition of life so characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable standard of human dignity’” (Singer 219, 220). These estimates can be projected at nearly 2 billion today. A large majority of the people living in absolute poverty resides in underdeveloped countries. Among the nearly 4.4 billion people in these countries, “3/5 lives in societies lacking basic sanitation; 1/3 go without safe drinking water; 1/4 lack adequate housing; 1/5 are undernourished, and 1.3 billion live on less than $1 a day” (Speth 1).

The Third World was a term coined to distinguish nations that neither aligned with the First World developed countries nor the Second World Communist Countries during the Cold War. However, modern day usage denotes countries with low Human Development Index (HDI) that suffer from political, social and economic underdevelopment. The United Nations finds "Third World" term slightly pejorative and prefers the label "less developed countries" (LDCs). Terminology notwithstanding, LDCs suffer from underdevelopment and poverty. "At the grassroots level, economic underdevelopment connotes

The questions are raised as what and how the wealth is distributed or allocated among societies. Countries with similar average incomes can differ substantially when it comes to people’s quality of life such as social justice, access to education and health care, job opportunities, availability of clean air and safe drinking water, the threat of crime, freedom of speech, life expectancy, birth-death control, identity, culture, conservation, equal opportunities, environmental change. Development is important as it covers a wide range process involving cultural, economic, environmental, political, social and technological change of a country. Regarding goals and means of development, recent United Nations documents emphasize on human development measured by life expectancy, adult literacy, access to all three levels of education as well as people‘s average income which is a necessary condition of their freedom of choice. In other words, human development incorporates all aspects of individuals’ well -being from their health status to their economic and political freedom. The Human Development Report 1996 of UNDP focuses on development as the end and economic growth a

There are three foundations of human development. The foundations are the biological development, psychological development, and social development. The concept of human diversity and cultural competences demonstrates how different people can be. General systems theory and social order are connected in some way.