Human Development Index Essay

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Register to read the introduction… There are several phrases trying to explain what well-being really means to a society. Among these we have: “Societal Progress”, Standard living of Life”, “Human Development”, etc. (Gagrey &Catrice 2006)

Some people think that societal well-being and standard of living is directly linked to the economic growth of the nation as a whole and the traditional measure of the welfare or well-being is ‘gross domestic product’ (GDP). By definitions, GDP refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period (Gagrey &Catrice 2006).The GDP considers the market value of goods and services to arrive at a number which is used to judge the growth rate of the economy and the overall ecnomic health of the nation concerned (Gagrey &Catrice 2006). As an economic measure, the GDP could be a useful yardstick. However, according to Gagrey and Catrice (2006) states that GDP is not an accurate yardstick for the well-being of citizens in the different countries.Well-being and happiness depend on many other
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An important step towards sustainable development is a holistic approach to its measurement. The HDI are able to secure basic human needs. It is a measure of a country’s average achievements in the areas of health, knowledge and standard of living (Barmettler & Beglinger 2008). It is a more comprehensive indicator of well-being, taking into account, not only average consumption but also distribution and environmental degradation. To date, it has been calculated for the United States. There are several environmental measures, after adjusting the consumption component for the index for distrubutional inequality. Such as depletion of non renewable resources, loss of farmland from soil erosion and urbanisation, loss of wetlands, and the cost of air and water pollution. It also incorporates what they call "long-term environmental damage", and attempts to take into account large-scale changes as the effects of global warming and damages to the ozone layer (Barmettler &Beglinger

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