Chef Jim Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 For starters, it's not an "article" it's a UN report. And for the record, I have lived outside the US, grandpappy. It was just in a ****ty country (Spain). And we all know UN reports are the final word. The Human Development Index has been criticized on a number of grounds, including failure to include any ecological considerations, focusing exclusively on national performance and ranking, and not paying much attention to development from a global perspective. Two authors claimed that the human development reports "have lost touch with their original vision and the index fails to capture the essence of the world it seeks to portray".[4] The index has also been criticized as "redundant" and a "reinvention of the wheel", measuring aspects of development that have already been exhaustively studied.[5][6] The index has further been criticized for having an inappropriate treatment of income, lacking year-to-year comparability, and assessing development differently in different groups of countries.[7] Some authors have proposed alternative indices to address some of the index's shortcomings.[8] Economist Bryan Caplan has criticized the way scores in each of the three components are bounded between zero and one, so rich countries effectively cannot improve their ranking in certain categories, even though there is a lot of scope for economic growth and longevity left, "This effectively means that a country of immortals with infinite per-capita GDP would get a score of .666 (lower than South Africa and Tajikistan) if its population were illiterate and never went to school."[9] Scandinavian countries consistently come out top on the list," he argues, "because the HDI is basically a measure of how Scandinavian your country is."[9] The HDI has been criticized as a redundant measure that adds little to the value of the individual measures composing it; as a means to provide legitimacy to arbitrary weightings of a few aspects of social development; as a number producing a relative ranking which is useless for inter-temporal comparisons, and difficult to compare a country's progress or regression because the HDI for a country in a given year depends on the levels of, say, life expectancy or GDP per capita of other countries in that year.[10][11][12][13] However, each year, UN member states are listed and ranked according to the computed HDI. If high, the rank in the list can be easily used as a means of national aggrandizement; alternatively, if low, it can be used to highlight national insufficiencies. Using the HDI as an absolute index of social welfare, some authors have used panel HDI data to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life.[14] Ratan Lal Basu criticizes the HDI concept from a completely different angle. According to him the Amartya Sen-Mahbub ul Haq concept of HDI considers that provision of material amenities alone would bring about Human Development, but Basu opines that Human Development in the true sense should embrace both material and moral development. To quote: ‘So human development effort should not end up in amelioration of material deprivations alone: it must undertake to bring about spiritual and moral development to assist the biped to become truly human Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magox Posted November 24, 2009 Author Share Posted November 24, 2009 Hey man, when I've had enough, I've enough. Also, bang up job refuting the claim of "better place to live" with competing evidence. Very non-childish of you, as usual. It's because whenever we do provide proof to you, you disregard it, just like the Ft hood thread. When you knew you were wrong, you called us "sand-!@#$-haters" or when I provided proof that ACORN is corrupt, you called me "racist" or when LA Billz was calling you out for being a liberal you insinuated he was a homophobe. There has been plenty of proof that the US is great country, Who has funded the most money for poverty outside the U.S? Who has contributed the most funds to fight Aids? Who has funded the World Bank which provides loans to third world countries that many times don't have access to loans? Who has funded the IMF the most? Who has provided the most resources to NATO? The list goes on and on. I've lived in Germany for 4 years and in South America for 10, and I can tell you that most people don't realize how good they have it here until they have lived abroad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Here's one that relevant these days: Link Where does that say that Norway set any trends? Pretty easy for a tiny country sittings on huge oil reserves to pump their way to prosperity and rely on others for messy work like food production and manufacturing. By the way, check back with Norway and see how they're doing if someone actually figures out alternative fuels. Then why do you live here? Cause he's too much of a gutless turd to move to Norway or some other 'green' paradise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Who has contributed the most funds to fight Aids? AIDS isn't cured, so that doesn't count. [/The Little kitty Big Cat] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckincincy Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Amateur Hour... Geithner gives award speech to a bank hours before they get closed down..of course, not covered by the captive press.. http://www.thestreet.com/story/10624514/1/...cm_ven=GOOGLEFI I am faithfullly reporting this from the 0th Ohio Congressional District. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Big Cat Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 And we all know UN reports are the final word. Ah ha! Finally a worthy counter point! HALLE-!@#$ING-LUJAH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 For starters, it's not an "article" it's a UN report. And for the record, I have lived outside the US, grandpappy. It was just in a ****ty country (Spain). Ok so you lived outside of the US. I would actually take your words over some mumbo-jumbo study. So in your words what makes Spain a better place to live? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Ah ha! Finally a worthy counter point! HALLE-!@#$ING-LUJAH! You REALLY don't get it do you? This whole thing is a specious attempt at defending the lazy-ass, "lets get to mediocre" culture that is so prevalent in the countries you listed and is a direct result of their socialism-oriented policies. Wise up: these guys are extremely insecure when it comes to comparing themselves to us...for good reason, we beat the hell out of them all the time. This insecurity means that they will say anything to prove that they "are just as good, or even better!" than us. So....they make up these phony "measures" and wrap themselves in a "yeah but, we get to take 8 weeks of vacation a year" security blanket. They can't win using the standard economic measures, so they make up new ones. I will never forget walking into my first Canadian client, and, having said nothing other than "Hi, I'm here to see Bob" was treated to a lecture from the receptionist on why Canada is better than America because they get to go to Cuba. The points others have made above are exactly on target. If you had ever lived and worked in any of these countries, like I have, you would know, and rapidly grow bored with, their incessant need to make everything about why they are just as good as Americans. The insecurity becomes blatantly obvious at the pub. If they find out you are an American, you literally can't go out for a quiet beer, without somebody trying to draw you into a political/economic debate, that will only end on a friendly note if you validate them in some form or another. My favorite is: I like Rugby...or Hockey if in Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 What exceptional global trends have the Norwegians set in recent years? Well, they gave the Nobel Prize to an empty suit this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanker Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 The Big Cat doesn't get that it's not "what have we done for the world lately," it's "what we stand for". The principles that this nation was founded on are the basis of American exceptionalism. They're powered by the American spirit that says we can do anything we set about to do and we will help the world to know the truths of natural law - that we have God-given rights that are not distributed top-down from any government and that "we the people" consent to be governed. Have we always gotten it right? No, not always, but for the most part I think we have. America remains a beacon of freedom to the rest of the world. Don't believe that - take a stroll down any street in Manhattan. Don't like our economic model, then try starting a business in England or Europe or Russia or China or Norway. Want to own your own home? - try to do that in one of those countries. Buy a car? Own a gun? Go to university? You'd better be well heeled and born into the right family to pull that off. But it's so much more comfortable to swallow the convenient lies of socialists that heap scorn on America because the wealth is stratified, "health care" - whatever that is - isn't "universal" and free for all and that we are loathe to curtail our energy consumption so that India and China can run amok. Tisk-tisk! Yeah, we bad. Here's a short list of things we really suck at: Governance through a democratic republic Electronics Telecommunications Computers Software Space exploration Medicine Pharmaceuticals Aeronautics Agriculture Music and Entertainment Sometimes I feel so ashamed to be an American - not! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts