Re: social-democratic illusions/ was UK Decay

[Rosser Jr, John Barkley]

Doug,
     Would you say the same critical things about the UN's 
Quality of Life Index (QLI)?  BTW, those have generally 
shown pretty good conditions for officially socialist 
countries.  Cuba does pretty well compared with other Latin 
American nations.  They even had North Korea about even 
with South Korea a few years ago, although that would 
appear to have altered since the outbreak of famine in 
North Korea.
     Again, there is a serious foundation for looking at 
PPP rather than GDP.  GDP in the US has gone up, but 
leisure time has gone down and more things are paid for in 
the market that used to be provided outside the market.  
Much more is provided for outside the market in LDCs.  
Maybe using PPPs makes the differences between the 
metropole and the periphery not look as great as GDP would 
make them look, but they are still very large.
Barkley Rosser
On Tue, 17 Mar 1998 12:22:54 -0500 Doug Henwood 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Mark Jones wrote:
> 
> >The fact is that GDP does not correlate in any definite way to welfare.
> >Even the World Bank recognises this, since it doesn't rely on GDP figures any
> >more as an idnex of client welfare. The trend to replace GDP with GPI (Genuine
> >Progress Indicator) ...
> 
> 
> You've got to be careful with this. Two people with good UN connections
> (who must remain anonymous) confirmed my suspicions that the sudden
> interest in PPP and social indicators demonstrated by the first UNDP Human
> Development Report was an attempt to divert attention from the
> hyperpolarized state of global income distribution, and to put the nail in
> the coffin of Third World calls for a global redistributionist strategy. I
> have similar suspicions about the World Bank's embrace of these things.
> Bank pres James Wolfensohn, a very clever fellow, actually said in his
> debut speech at the WB/IMF annual meetings some years ago that the true
> measure of development was not GDP, but "the smile on a child's face." This
> from a former investment banker and an alum of the Schroders Bank,
> long-time banker to the CIA. What happened was that Wolfensohn read all his
> green/NGO critics and appropriated their language - while not doing
> anything substantive to change the Bank's focus as a bank.
> 
> Yes, GDP is a weak indicator of living standards, and yes social indicators
> tell a more accurate story, but they have propagandistic uses as well.
> 
> Doug
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]